Albany, N.Y. — (WRGB) — New York lawmakers are pressing for tougher oversight of large-scale data centers as communities raise concerns about proposed projects, including the Kenwood data center proposal in Albany.

With a yearlong moratorium on large-scale data centers now in effect through a first-of-its-kind executive order, state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign her Responsible Data Center Development Act.

“We need what is in our bill and is also being done in the executive order, which is deep environmental impact studies and reviews, because we don’t know what the widespread impact will be if we build these massive data centers that take up our water that also affect our nearby wildlife and that emit things like noise pollution,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the focus of the bill, and her statewide tour, is to get answers to questions residents have about data centers before they’re built.

Assemblymember Gabriella Romero described concerns she said Albany residents have about the Kenwood data center proposal. CBS6’s Quinn Alexander asked whether residents are calling for regulation or an outright ban. Romero said,

“I think that people are very weary of data centers. People don’t want a data center in their neighborhoods, in their backyards. Folks that are building data centers need to have that robust or public, intense and transparent conversation with the neighborhood.”

At the rally, one attendee voiced support for an outright ban of data centers across New York State.

Gonzalez said it is too early for that conversation because not enough is known about the potential impacts, both negative and positive.

“I think in a year we’ll have a better understanding of the full scope of the problem and I think what is most important to me is just having individual communities decide. There may be some local communities decide to ban the build out of hyperscale’s in their neighborhood and they should have the right to say whether or not they want to,” she said.

The bipartisan Responsible Data Center Development Act passed in the state Senate with almost 70 percent of the votes and now awaits Hochul’s signature.