NY Legislators Introduce Strongest Data Center Moratorium Bill in the Country
- waterfallunityalli
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
PUBLISHED: 02/06/26
NY Legislators Introduce Strongest Data Center Moratorium Bill in the Country
Bill Would Pause Data Center Development Pending Statewide Environmental Review
Albany, NY – Today State Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Anna Kelles introduced legislation (S.9144) to establish a temporary moratorium on the siting and permitting of new data centers in New York State.
Across the United States and increasingly in New York, data-center development has accelerated at a pace that has outstripped existing planning, regulatory, and environmental review frameworks. Large-scale facilities place substantial new demand on the electric grid, driving up electricity costs for residential and commercial ratepayers, increasing reliance on fossil-fuel “peaker” plants during periods of peak demand, and complicating compliance with state greenhouse gas reduction requirements. Many data centers also rely on significant water withdrawals and discharge large volumes of heated or chemically treated wastewater, raising concerns for local water quality and aquatic ecosystems. The rapid turnover of data center equipment is also increasing electronic waste, and with New York already running out of landfill space, this could accelerate capacity loss and drive up trash disposal costs for households and businesses statewide.
The legislation responds to these documented and emerging impacts by creating a temporary, three-year pause on new data-center development while the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) completes a comprehensive environmental impact statement evaluating the industry’s current and projected effects on energy use, electricity rates, water resources, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and electronic waste. DEC will also be required to establish regulations to mitigate these negative impacts. At the same time, the bill requires the Public Service Commission (PSC) to report on the cost impacts of data centers on all other ratepayers, and issue any orders necessary to ensure those costs are fully borne by data center developers, not regular New Yorkers and other businesses.
Comments