New York Becomes First State to Impose Data Center Moratorium

New York has become the first state to halt the construction of large new data centers, imposing a one-year moratorium. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the suspension on Tuesday. Gov. Kathy Hochul: “This pause will remain in place for up to one year while New York establishes the strongest possible framework to protect our communities, guardrails to reduce the risk to our energy grid, minimize land disruption, noise pollution, and protect our natural resources, especially our water supply.” New York currently has 130 data centers, compared with more than 600 ​in Virginia and about 500 in Texas. Meanwhile, a Reuters analysis finds that trillionaire Elon Musk’s company xAI has installed far more gas turbines without federal permits at its data center project in Tennessee than publicly acknowledged, and the pollution is mostly impacting Black neighborhoods. Patrick Anderson, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said, “The scale of it is astonishing. This is an absolutely huge Clean Air Act violation that threatens public health.” www.democracynow.org