Yesterday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order enacting a one-year, statewide moratorium on data centers that require more than 50 megawatts of power. While the pause is in effect, the state government must assess the environmental and energy impacts these facilities will have on communities and power grids, develop regulations, and create processes for issuing permits.
The moratorium is certainly historic. But it can’t be the end goal.
A data center in my backyard
For more than a month, Gov. Hochul has stalled on signing the Responsible Data Center Development Act, a bill passed by the state legislature in June. The bill would place a stricter moratorium on data centers in New York — halting facilities using more than 20 megawatts as opposed to 50, require public hearings before facilities are built, and mandate that facilities use more renewable energy.
It’s a reminder that there is still plenty of disagreement — in New York and nationally — on how strict regulations should be to keep communities and the environment protected. This very struggle is playing out in my local town of Brookhaven, where a developer, WF Industrial, is trying to repurpose three large warehouses into a 549,000 square foot hyperscale AI data center.
Brookhaven residents already deal with toxic industry from a nearby landfill and the Caithness Power Plant, both of which have faced lawsuits over air pollution. Community opposition to the data center is so strong that the Brookhaven Town Board is expected to pass a local 18-month moratorium sometime this summer.
But Long Islanders are holding firm to a full ban not a temporary one
There is no sign yet that WF Industrial will give up. So long as it continues to own the warehouses, a data center buildout is still possible. That’s why we need a permanent ban, like the measure residents of Monterey Park, California overwhelmingly voted for in their city — which could only be overturned by another public vote.
And that brings me back to what artivist Kumi Naidoo said so compellingly in Counterstream’s AI issue of Peace & Riot:
“The fact that it’s a handful of people who control [AI], the fact that our governments don’t seem to have a backbone to put in place proper regulations, and the reality that the proliferation of data centers is driving environmental devastation and polluting communities — these are the challenges that need to be addressed urgently right now, and people will need to mobilize.”
Movement News
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Worth Revisiting
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