New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order this week that includes a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers in New York State.
To learn more about the executive order and how it impacts local businesses, WAMC's Capital Region Bureau Chief Grant Ashley joined Lucas Willard on Northeast Report.
Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Willard: So, Grant, you've done some reporting on how this order could affect data centers, including one that is proposed in the city of Albany.
Ashley: Yes. So that would be the proposed Kenwood data center. It's on the former Kenwood site in South Albany. It's not too far from the port. In the past, it's been a convent, a school, and then it was more or less destroyed by a fire in 2023. Guild Ventures is the name of the company that owns the land. They want to build a mixed-use facility on that land that would include housing, research facilities, and a large data center, which is why we're here today.
Willard: Yeah. So, can that data center move forward under this moratorium?
Ashley: That is a great question that we do not yet know the answer to. So there's no formal plan submitted. They've said that they plan to do that shortly. You know, by the end of August certainly would be their timeline. And you know, the reason we don't know is because Governor Hochul's executive order has you know two. Well, there's many exemptions, but two we're going to talk about today, and that is that data centers that use less than 50 megawatts of power can still be built, and those that supply hospitals and healthcare facilities can still be built. Assemblymember Gabriella Romero has that site in her district, and she also wasn't sure this week.
Romero: I'm waiting for the NISO report, New York NYSIO, the NISO report, to give us like a more definitive figure on the mega wattage. I actually think they might be exempt potentially because of the actual exemptions in the executive order. There are four categorical exemptions that she carves out in her executive order, and they potentially could be exempted through that, and actually not through the megawattage.
Ashley: But no matter what, the moratorium is only one year, right? So you know, guild ventures could wait this out, develop some plans, and then move forward in 2027.
Willard: So Governor Hochul has explicitly said that this is not a ban. So New York State is not saying no to data centers forever, and as you mentioned, there are some exemptions to this moratorium. What can you tell me about how the governor feels about this? Yeah, I mean Hochul has said very clearly at a roundtable on Thursday that she's not considering a ban.
"We're confirming that is not a ban. We're not entertaining that," Hochul said. "We're talking about a pause, a moratorium right now, to allow us to ask all the questions that I have, all of these people have, and people across the state have to make sure we get it right."
Willard: And of course, Grant, the New York State Legislature actually did pass its own data center bill during the session that wrapped in June, that is separate from the executive order that Governor Hochul signed. But during that roundtable discussion, I saw Energy Committee Chair Dee Dee Barrett say to the governor that she has ideas that were included in that initial legislation that was not signed that she'd like to have conversations with the governor, but bringing it back locally to Albany, Grant. There's been a lot of concern. There's been community rallies about this. What are some of the voices that are opposed to large-scale data centers saying right now?
Ashley: Yeah. So there is one group in particular that's been very active at the city level. That would be No Kings Collective Albany. They supported that one-year moratorium that was passed by the state legislature, and that proposal, of course, would have banned data centers that use more than 20 megawatts, which is far below the 50 in Hochul's executive order, and it had less room for exemptions than Hokel's order does. That group called Hochul's executive order quote both a step in the right direction and wildly insufficient. They're also pushing for a citywide ban on data centers, and they're trying to stop the Kenwood project in the permitting process. Right, they have to get a lot of approvals from the city to move this project forward. I talked to Brian Paz Hernandez about this. He's a co-facilitator of No Kings Collective Albany, and you know he and the group are worried about the data center's effects on utility bills and quality of life.
"It will be very close to residential neighborhoods. It will certainly create a lot of noise and will bother them," Hernandez said. "Additionally, we haven't seen any information from the developers to prove that it will create long-term good-paying jobs."
Ashley: And they do have some support on the Albany Common Council about this earlier this month. The council voted to support the state legislature's moratorium. Councilmember Deborah Zamer put forward that proposal, and she said the city doesn't even have the zoning laws for these data sets. Right, they need you know to develop codes and regulations around this.
"We've heard rumors about the size of this potential data center, but the fact remains that rather than dealing with piecemeal projects throughout the city, we really do need to have a comprehensive plan and conversation about what these kinds of large-scale data centers would mean for our communities," Zamer said.
Ashley: But then you know, will the council support a citywide ban like No Kings Albany wants? That remains to be seen.
Willard: So, how is Kenwood and and Guild Ventures and the local business community? How are they responding to all of these developments.
Ashley: So Guild Ventures at least has seemed supportive of regulation. They gave me a statement. Part of that reads, "We designed Kenwood to be a project others could model themselves on, which would include limiting effects on the environment and utility bills." They went on to say, "We believe the standard is not a constraint, but the reason projects like this succeed, and the governor's action may well move the rest of the industry toward a similar level of responsibility," right? So that you know they're at least willing to play ball. And then I also spoke to representatives from GE Vernova, which is a spinoff of GE, which of course has a large presence in the Schenectady region. Their CTO Krishna Jana Lagada didn't really seem that concerned about the moratorium.
"Nothing really changes in the sense of we respond to our customer needs," Lagada said. "You know, working with our customers, working with the government, making sure that when power is needed, power is available."
Ashley: And of course, you know, GE can still you know they're manufacturing parts and doing research. They can still sell a lot of their products to you know companies in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, these states that are moving forward with data centers at a more rapid pace. And then a day before Hochul made her announcement, a you know Albany area company, Plug Power, announced that it was in the process of developing a deal with Stream data centers to sell some land out at a industrial park in Genesee County in western New York, and they said that that deal would be delayed, you know, for the New York regulatory process. And their CEO Jose Luis Crespo spoke about that a little bit on Monday.
