New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hit the campaign trail in Dutchess County Wednesday with U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pat Ryan to call for tough regulations on data centers.
Nearly three months after she signed an executive order pausing hyperscale data center development statewide, Hochul said she is working on a strong framework to regulate data centers after the one-year moratorium ends.
Hochul suggested data center companies should pay $1 million per megawatt to communities where they plan to build.
The Democrat said, under her plan, data centers would only be built in communities that want them. She also said developers should pay a premium.
“When these enormous, highly profitable mega corporations come to an area like New York, they should not be even asking for a single tax break or a property tax abatement as has happened in the past,” Hochul said on Wednesday.
Hochul recently worked with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to pass a new tax on homes worth over $5 million, whose owners don’t live in New York City. The law is currently being challenged state court.
Ocasio-Cortez said that the governor and communities like East Fishkill are leading the way in challenging data centers.
“What is so exciting about this moment is precisely how it came about from a bottom-up approach. People right here in the community of Fishkill, they heard that a massive hyperscale data center was set to be opened up right here in this community. That was going to consume one gigawatt, to the governor's point, nearly a million homes' worth of power and energy and added strain on our electrical bill,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
In June, the East Fishkill Town Board passed a 3-year moratorium on data centers. The data center freeze came in response to massive community outcry and preempted what could have been the largest data center in New York at 1 gigawatt (or 1,000 megawatts), which had appeared on New York Independent System Operator’s interconnection queue.
Communities have raised concerns about environmental impacts, loss of farmland and rising energy costs.
Josh Morgenthau, owner of Fishkill Farms, said he was particularly worried about the possibility of a data center nearby. In years past, he said the aquifer they use to supply the farm has run dry and they have had to truck water in. He said he’s also concerned about how a data center could affect a nearby creek and lead to hikes in electricity costs.
When Hochul was asked about campaigning with Ocasio-Cortez, the governor said there was no calculation behind it.
“It's all about our mutual interest in focusing on affordability, lifting up New Yorkers, empowering localities and I wouldn't read any more into it than that,” Hochul said.
