Overview
- Legislation introduced in Albany would halt state and local approvals for new data centers for at least three years.
- The bill requires the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Public Service Commission to issue reports and recommend regulations during the pause.
- WIRED reports New York would be at least the sixth state considering a pause, joining Georgia, Maryland, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Virginia.
- One New York utility says roughly 10 gigawatts of mostly data center load are in the interconnection queue after tripling in a year.
- Governor Kathy Hochul recently launched an initiative to speed grid connections and require large users such as data centers to pay their fair share.