New York became the first US state to enact a moratorium on new datacenters on Tuesday.
Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order mandating a one-year statewide pause on the large facilities used to power artificial intelligence products, which she signed at a mid-morning press conference..
“As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The order will pause the state permitting process for proposed “hyperscale” 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’s office said.
“This pause will remain in place for up to one year while New York establishes the strongest possible framework to protect our community’s guardrails to reduce the risk to our energy grid, minimize land disruption, noise pollution and protect our national resources, especially our water supply,” Hochul said at the press conference.
The appetite for datacenter moratoriums is growing nationally as anger grows over the facilities’ effects on energy prices and local environments. Almost three-quarters of Americans oppose a datacenter project being built near their homes, according to a new Heatmap poll.
More than a dozen states have considered moratoria in response to residents’ fears about the potential costs of living next to datacenters, especially higher utility bills and negative environmental impacts. Maine is the only other state which approved a moratorium through its legislature, but its governor vetoed the measure in April. A small city in southern California became the first municipality to enact a moratorium on construction via a ballot measure last month. Seattle approved a one-year ban on datacenter development in June, becoming the largest city to do so.
A June poll 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.
Hochul said during the press conference that the state is also exploring requirements for hyperscale datacenters to either pay more for their energy or supply their own, which would help keep utility bills low for New Yorkers. She expects this process to be completed within the year. “Once this policy is in place, the moratorium will be reviewed and lifted,” she said.
Hochul stressed that datacenters “can only be built, should only be built in places that want them and so they will never be exempt from local zoning”, while also touting the state’s ability to lead in innovation and “harnessing AI as the technology of the future”.
During her speech, Hochul outlined the state’s broader vision for AI regulation. She has directed her administration to create a framework for communities that want to host datacenters with the aim of ensuring residents will reap significant benefits, too.
“The bigger the datacenter, the bigger the investments that communities can and should expect,” Hochul said. She has also proposed an end to tax exemptions for large datacenters.
New York’s 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. The new order would apply to hyperscale datacenters over 50 megawatts, a higher threshold than the 20 megawatts the legislature approved.
Hochul has so far not greenlit that legislation, but the state senator who authored that bill, Kristen Gonzalez, welcomed her executive order.
“With 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.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
