{"id":295494,"date":"2026-07-14T14:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295494\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:57:10","slug":"new-york-becomes-first-state-to-impose-one-year-pause-on-new-ai-datacenters-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295494\/","title":{"rendered":"New York becomes first state to impose one-year pause on new AI datacenters | New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/new-york\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York<\/a> became the first US state to enact a moratorium on new datacenters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/kathy-hochul\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kathy Hochul<\/a> issued an executive order mandating a one-year statewide pause on the large facilities used to power artificial intelligence products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cAs data center 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 Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The order will pause the state permitting process for proposed \u201chyperscale\u201d datacenters, defined as having electrical capacity of more than 50 megawatts, and direct state regulators to create standards focused on environmental impacts, energy demand, water usage and other factors, the governor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The appetite for datacenter moratoriums is growing nationally as anger grows over the facilities\u2019 effects on energy prices and local environments. Almost three-quarters of Americans oppose a datacenter project being built near their homes, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/heatmap.news\/politics\/americans-oppose-data-centers-poll\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new Heatmap poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">More than a dozen states have considered moratoria in response to residents\u2019 fears about the potential costs of living next to datacenters, especially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/data-centers\/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">higher utility bills<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/13\/utah-approves-datacenter-backlash\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">negative environmental impacts<\/a>. Maine is the only other state which approved a moratorium through its legislature, but its governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/24\/maine-governor-blocks-datacenter-moratorium\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">vetoed <\/a>the measure in April. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jun\/03\/california-monterey-park-datacenters-ban\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">small city in southern California<\/a> became the first municipality to enact a moratorium on construction last month, followed soon after by Seattle, the largest city to do so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/sri.siena.edu\/2026\/06\/25\/hochul-favorability-approval-ratings-edge-up-as-does-her-general-election-lead-over-blakeman-now-52-32-from-49-33\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">June poll<\/a> from the Siena Research Institute found that 46% of New Yorkers felt a one-year moratorium on new permits for large datacenters in the state would be good for New York, and 21% felt it would be bad for New York.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">New York\u2019s state legislature had already approved a one-year statewide moratorium bill that also included provisions for an environmental impact report, and new labor, energy efficiency and transparency standards. Hochul has so far not greenlit that legislation, but the state senator who authored that bill, Kristen Gonzalez, welcomed her executive order.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-9\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to TechScape<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/500.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-9\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWith this executive order, Governor Hochul is protecting everyday New Yorkers with a first in the nation moratorium on new large data centers. By giving our state time to plan, we can ensure that development and innovation do not come at the expense of all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York became the first US state to enact a moratorium on new datacenters on Tuesday. Governor Kathy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-295494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295494","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=295494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}