This morning, I stood with Governor Hochul as she signed an Executive Order establishing the first in the nation statewide data center moratorium, based on my Responsible Data Center Development Act. I was proud to work with her office on this. This is a HUGE win for New York, and the broader movement to fight data centers. Technology should improve our lives— not pollute our environment, strain our energy grid, or drive up our utility bills.

I have heard from New Yorkers across our state who are concerned about what large data centers might mean for their communities. The challenges hyperscale data centers pose to our energy grid and to our environmental resources are unprecedented. In other states we have seen the impacts of unregulated data center development, such as in Virginia which saw as much as a 267% increase in electricity bills near data centers, and where schools had to dim their lights because power costs are too high.

Potential data centers in New York are seeking more than 9,000 megawatts (MW) of new electricity — about one third of the total energy NY State uses yearly. This gold rush for electricity comes after New York experienced a 44% increase in residential rates between 2020 and 2025, above the national rate increase of 32%. It is a fact that our energy grid is already too strained.

Over the July 4th weekend, New Yorkers were asked to keep their thermostats at 78º in the middle of a heat wave. We simply cannot afford the energy or the bills that would come with bringing 9,000 more MW onto the grid.

While this moratorium is in place, we have more work to do to evaluate the impacts of data centers and empower communities.

We need to require transparency and proper public engagement on every project. Communities 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.

I look forward to continuing to work with environmental justice advocates, Senators Liz Krueger, Rachel May, and Leroy Comrie, Assemblymembers Didi Barrett, Anna Kelles, and Yudelka Tapia, and Governor Hochul on making sure our bill is signed and we enact regulations that will protect communities and our environment.

Support for a data center moratorium extends demographics, political ideologies, and geographies. All across the state, in towns like North Tonawanda and Alabama NY, in counties like Rockland and Chautauqua, upstate and downstate, New Yorkers made their voices heard—Big Tech coming onto our turf should be on our terms — which means no more new data centers until we have the right processes in place.