Commentary: What New Yorkers fighting data centers want lawmakers to hear
New York residents are actively opposing data center development across the state, demanding a stronger, statewide moratorium. While Governor Kathy Hochul has enacted a limited moratorium via executive order, activists are urging her to sign the more comprehensive Responsible Data Center Development Act passed by the Legislature. Local communities in areas like East Fishkill and Lysander have already implemented municipal moratoriums.
Laura Shindell, the New York state director of Food and Water Watch, reflects on a recent advocacy tour across New York, highlighting widespread and intense resident opposition to data center development. Despite a limited moratorium on data centers enacted by Governor Kathy Hochul's executive order, residents view this as only a first step and are not interested in merely improving regulations for data centers. Instead, they seek to halt all new developments.
The tour revealed deep anger among communities, with examples like Ithaca displaying 'Stop Data Centers' signs and East Fishkill passing a three-year municipal moratorium to prevent a 1,000-megawatt data center proposal. Residents in Lysander, Onondaga County, also secured a six-month moratorium. Shindell notes a bipartisan consensus against these facilities, with citizens feeling that corporations are acting without transparency and threatening their quality of life.
Shindell emphasizes that sustained community resistance has already influenced legislative action, pushing a data center moratorium bill through both houses of the state Legislature and prompting Governor Hochul's executive order. She calls on Governor Hochul to take the next step by signing the Legislature's more comprehensive Responsible Data Center Development Act, asserting that New Yorkers demand a strong, complete moratorium without a rushed regulation-writing process.