New York became the first state in the U.S. to impose a statewide moratorium on new data centers today after Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order pausing state environmental permits for large facilities for up to a year.<\/p>\n
Executive Order No. 62<\/a> took effect on signing and covers hyperscale data centers that draw 50 megawatts of power or more. While it\u2019s in force, the state Department of Environmental Conservation will not issue discretionary permits that have not already been deemed complete.<\/p>\n Hochul cast the pause as a response to the computing demand unleashed by artificial intelligence, which she said threatens to push up electricity bills and drain the state\u2019s energy and water supplies. Proposals for large facilities have piled up across New York, each one capable of consuming enormous amounts of power and water to run and cool thousands of servers.<\/p>\n \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 said in announcing the order<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cNew York will lead the way in creating the strongest standards in the nation for data center development, ensuring that when companies succeed because of New York, New Yorkers succeed too.\u201d<\/p>\n The year gives regulators time to write rules for an industry that has outrun them. Hochul directed the Department of Public Service to produce a Generic Environmental Impact Statement, a review expected to run up to a year, that will set consistent standards for judging a data center\u2019s effect on energy demand, water use and quality and air quality. Once those standards are final, the moratorium lifts and projects can move ahead as long as they clear state zoning codes and local approvals.<\/p>\n The order does more than stop the clock. Hochul told Empire State Development to publish a Community Investment Framework<\/a> within 60 days, giving towns and counties a template for negotiating benefits from developers, from local infrastructure and child care funding to direct payments. The framework also pushes prevailing wage, project labor agreements, local hiring and apprenticeships on data center construction.<\/p>\n Hochul is separately weighing a New York Grid Acceleration Fund that would make data centers pay into the state\u2019s aging power infrastructure and she said she will pursue legislation to repeal the sales tax exemptions that large facilities across the state now enjoy.<\/p>\n Projects already on the drawing board could get caught. A $19.4 billion data center proposed in Genesee County has drawn heavy local opposition and the kind of project the order can reach, an aide told Axios<\/a>. \u201cTo the extent there are projects that still need discretionary permits, we do expect this to impact them,\u201d the aide said.<\/p>\n The order also lets Hochul avoid a decision on legislation. State lawmakers passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act in June, but the governor has not signed it. An aide called the bill complicated and said an executive order was the fastest way to act now. The legislation reaches further in places, covering projects above 20 megawatts, setting up separate electricity and water rate classes and requiring a public hearing before any permit.<\/p>\n New York is the first state to go this far, though it is not alone in moving against the industry. Dozens of cities and counties have passed their own data center bans and last month Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed a three-year moratorium on new sales tax breaks for the facilities.<\/p>\n Image: SiliconANGLE\/Ideogram<\/p>\n Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE\u2019s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.<\/p>\n 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more About SiliconANGLE Media<\/p>\n SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE<\/a>, theCUBE Network<\/a>, theCUBE Research<\/a>, CUBE365<\/a>, theCUBE AI<\/a> and theCUBE SuperStudios \u2014 with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange \u2014 SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.<\/p>\n Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York became the first state in the U.S. to impose a statewide moratorium on new data centers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[112809,9,112810,11,10,49,51,50,59010],"class_list":["post-296056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-duncan-riley","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-becomes-first-us-state-to-impose-a-data-center-moratorium","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-siliconangle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296056","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=296056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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