New York lawmakers have imposed a one-year pause on large data centres as public patience wears thin.
Public sentiment has turned sharply against large data centre developments, and the backlash is not slowing down. New York may now have the first statewide pause of its kind after lawmakers passed a one-year moratorium on large data centres.
The temporary prohibition applies to facilities with a peak demand of 20MW or more. According to TechRadar, the New York state legislature has passed the moratorium, but it is not law yet.
It still needs Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature, who has not said whether she will approve the bill. She has until December to decide.
There are a few caveats. It is a temporary pause rather than a full ban; it has not been signed into law, and it only covers large data centres. Even so, it could be the biggest legal move yet against the construction of these data-processing barns.
New York state senator Kristen Gonzalez said: “This is one of the first times that we’re really drawing a line in the sand and saying that as a state legislature, we have the responsibility to make sure that New Yorkers are in the driver’s seat. Big tech has been writing their own rules, or not having rules that they have to play by.”
The moratorium is meant to give New York authorities more time to examine data centres’ energy use and environmental impact. The state’s environmental agency would have to produce a report on electricity, water and land demand from the facilities.
A recent survey suggested that 71 per cent of Americans do not want data centres built in their local area. Concerns about water and electricity use were the main reasons, which means data centres are now less popular than nuclear power plants.
The obvious culprit is AI. The boom needs huge amounts of compute capacity, and that means more data centres with power appetites like small cities. AI companies keep promising that data centres will become greener soon, but that does not help many projects already at the planning stage.
The moratorium has opponents as well. Some politicians and industry figures argue that data centre development is essential for economic growth and technological progress. They acknowledge concerns about energy use and environmental impact, although that does not make the megawatt munching any easier to swallow.
