{"id":295387,"date":"2026-07-14T12:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T12:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295387\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T12:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T12:54:06","slug":"new-york-bans-data-centres-for-a-year-becoming-first-u-s-state-to-impose-moratorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295387\/","title":{"rendered":"New York bans data centres for a year, becoming first U.S. state to impose moratorium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York state Capitol in Albany. The state has passed a moratorium on data centres that 50 megawatts or more of power.Hans Pennink\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

New York became the first U.S. state on Tuesday to halt construction of large new data centres, imposing a one-year moratorium as concerns grow that the facilities driving the artificial-intelligence boom are raising power costs, straining water supplies and burdening local communities.<\/p>\n

The moratorium positions New York at the forefront of a growing national debate over how to manage the infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence<\/a>. While technology companies are racing to build new data centres, lawmakers and regulators in dozens of states are weighing measures to limit their effect on electricity grids, utility bills and local communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs data centre development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it\u2019s my responsibility to take action and lead,\u201d said Hochul, who said she will also pursue legislation to repeal sales tax exemptions for large data centres.<\/p>\n

The construction ban will apply to data centres that use 50 megawatts or more of power, officials in the Governor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Across Canada, the fight against artificial intelligence goes offline<\/a><\/p>\n

During the moratorium, the state\u2019s Department of Environmental Conservation will not issue any discretionary permits not already deemed complete, the governor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Instead, Hochul directed state officials to develop a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) to ensure that new data centres coming online are being held to \u201cconsistent standards,\u201d as well as examine the potential environmental impacts of the construction and operation of data centres in the state. The ban will be lifted once the state finalizes those standards, according to Hochul\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Data centres spark backlash<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s legislature last month passed a bill meant to impose guardrails on data centres, but it has not yet been sent to Hochul\u2019s desk for signing. Officials in her office described the bill as complicated, adding that \u201cit\u2019s going to take some time to work through\u201d with the state legislature.<\/p>\n

The expansion of data centres in the U.S. is driving up power demand \u2013 and electricity bills \u2013 in large swaths of the country, drawing local and political backlash. Only one-in-three Americans approve of the fast pace of data-center construction and most would oppose building one in their own community, according to a recent Reuters\/Ipsos poll. <\/p>\n

Dozens of state legislatures have introduced bills to rein in the effects of data centres on power bills and the environment. New York is the first to enact a full moratorium. In April, Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have imposed a similar freeze on those facilities. <\/p>\n

As of May, there were more than 12 gigawatts of very large energy-using loads, including data centres, in line to connect to the state\u2019s grid, according to a recent report by the New York independent grid operator. The state has the eighth-most expensive retail price for residential electricity in the country, according to U.S. Energy Department data. While the state\u2019s expensive land and tight power supplies have largely limited data centre interest compared to states like Texas and Ohio, New York has attracted some interest from the server warehouses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The New York state Capitol in Albany. The state has passed a moratorium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39834,42280,42287,4022,17361,42288,10585,42275,42284,42285,42282,42276,42274,3365,67,3242,6712,42279,42296,42277,42278,609,42281,232,267,42289,607,42291,9,11,10,49,51,50,42292,42294,31498,42293,29199,42290,7300,3206,42286,87,11705,12081,19598,282,956,42283,58,1076,42295],"class_list":["post-295387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}