Letter to the Editor: Hochul must sign responsible data center development act

Governor [Kathy] Hochul deserves credit for signing the nation’s first statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers on July 14. Her executive order pauses state environmental permits for facilities drawing 50 megawatts or more while New York studies their effects on the grid, water supplies, and utility bills. But the order should be the floor, not the ceiling. The Responsible Data Center Development Act (S10642/A11560), passed by the Legislature in June and still awaiting the governor’s signature, goes further — and it needs to become law.

The difference matters. The executive order pauses only projects of 50 megawatts or more. The Legislature’s act sets the threshold at 20 megawatts and adds protections the order lacks: a separate utility rate class so data centers — not residential ratepayers — pay for the grid upgrades they require, mandatory public hearings, and escalating renewable energy requirements. A 50-megawatt threshold invites developers to build 30- and 40-megawatt facilities that escape the pause entirely, yet still strain local water supplies, emit a constant low-frequency hum that existing noise laws were never written to address, and consume finite grid capacity.

Because interconnection queues are congested, developers are also turning to private, on-site gas plants “behind the meter.” That maneuver bypasses utility oversight, but host communities still absorb the air emissions, noise, and pipeline expansions.

Some towns are acting alone — East Fishkill in Dutchess County adopted a three-year moratorium in June. But a town-by-town patchwork cannot protect a regional grid or the Hudson Valley watershed. Only a statewide standard can.

The integrity of our electric grid and natural resources depends on getting the rules right before this infrastructure is built, not after. I urge Governor Hochul to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act.

Terra Meierdierck
Warwick
Outreach Program Manager, NJIT