{"id":307255,"date":"2026-07-28T01:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307255\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:24:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:24:23","slug":"new-york-data-center-pause-inspires-strong-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307255\/","title":{"rendered":"New York data center pause inspires strong reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium<\/a> on building large data centers in the state, criticism is building, including from senior figures in the federal government.<\/p>\n

Hochul signed an executive order<\/a> pausing the development of hyperscale data centers earlier this month to allow for the state to establish standards for their construction and make sure local communities benefit. But almost immediately, the first-in-the-nation moratorium came in for criticism, including from President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York State has made a terrible decision,\u201d Trump wrote in a post<\/a> to his Truth Social platform. \u201cAll of this Income, and other Benefits, will be going to Red States, and some Blue, where Data Centers are sought as Cash Cows, with Lower Taxes and Record Setting Jobs. They must pay for their own Water and Power, and any leftover goes back to the State and local Community. Data Centers are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them. New York should change its Policy, IMMEDIATELY.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also criticized Hochul\u2019s moratorium. In a speech<\/a> at the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry\u2019s Infrastructure Summit, Zeldin described the one-year pause as a \u201ccop out,\u201d but noted that the EPA announced last month<\/a> that it would not set national standards for data centers and would instead encourage states and local communities to do it for themselves.<\/p>\n

He said communities should not end all data center development, but instead ask themselves various questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a local community that is thinking through bringing a data center to their area, I would encourage them to ask three questions: Is the project going to make my bills go up or down? Is the project going to be a net provider onto the grid, or a net taker? And what are they going to do with water? Is it a closed-loop data center? Is it 100% recyclable?\u201d Zeldin said.<\/p>\n

Supporters of reining in data centers in New York backed Hochul\u2019s effort to temporarily pause the issuance of state environmental permits for hyperscale data centers, which are large centers that use 50 megawatts or more in power. During that pause, Hochul pledged to build a \u201cnation-leading regulatory framework\u201d to ensure communities receive the most benefits from new developments and make sure residents aren\u2019t paying for transmission and infrastructure build outs in their utility bills. She also promised to pursue legislation that would repeal sales tax exemptions for large data centers.<\/p>\n

The executive action has some parallels with the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which the New York legislature passed last month<\/a> and included a one-year moratorium on hyperscale data centers, as well as requirements around environmental impact assessments, new rate classes for water and electricity usage, and labor protections.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, who sponsored that legislation, called Hochul\u2019s executive moratorium a \u201chuge win for New York and the broader movement to fight data centers.\u201d But she said more work is ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to require transparency and proper public engagement on every project,\u201d Gonzalez said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cCommunities must receive real benefits if they do want a data center, and ensure these projects are constructed with prevailing wages and union labor. Importantly, we have to require renewable energy standards for all data center projects. We cannot allow demand from data centers to add pollution to our air and move us further from achieving our climate goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, State Assemblymember Didi Barrett, who sponsored the New York Assembly\u2019s version of the legislation, said the initiative is \u201ca timely and important first step\u201d in addressing residents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers across the state have spoken up in support of a data center moratorium,\u201d Barrett said in a statement released by Hochul\u2019s office. \u201cThey want a pause in the building of large-scale data centers \u2014 to better understand their impacts on our natural resources, our communities and our energy costs. They want protections and they want us to learn from the experiences of other states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others have said that any pause in data center development could result in lost economic activity for New York. In an interview<\/a> with WSYR in Syracuse, New York, Ross Connolly, Americans for Prosperity\u2019s Northeast regional director, reportedly said it shows that \u201cNew York is closed for business for the future economy and is saying no to hundreds of millions of dollars in central tax revenue and tens of thousands of jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech groups pointed to the White House\u2019s Ratepayer Protection Pledge<\/a> as a better way forward, as data center developers pledged to cover the full costs of their energy, infrastructure and water requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cStates should adopt a similar approach rather than imposing New York\u2019s effectively indefinite permit freeze, which blocks such significant investment from occurring,\u201d Amy Bos, vice president of government affairs at industry group NetChoice, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on building large data centers in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75739,3220,112667,112666,9,11,10,49,51,50,116256,5066],"class_list":["post-307255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-artifical-intelligence","tag-data-center","tag-data-center-development","tag-moratoriums","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-state-and-federal-relations","tag-state-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307255","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=307255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}