New York Senate District 58 Candidates Debate Data Center Moratorium
An election Q&A with New York Senate candidates Tom O’Mara and Jim Bobreski addresses the state’s data center moratorium and its potential effects on electricity costs and infrastructure. Bobreski supports the moratorium until stronger safeguards are established, while O’Mara opposes it and favors enforceable rules requiring data centers to pay their energy-related costs.
New York Senate District 58 candidates Jim Bobreski and incumbent Tom O’Mara offered sharply different views on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s data center moratorium. Bobreski backed continuing the moratorium until developers disclose electricity and water demands, address environmental impacts, provide financial guarantees and obtain greater public approval.
O’Mara called the moratorium politically motivated and argued that New York should regulate rather than halt data center development. He said facilities should pay for their full energy demand and that local governments should retain decision-making authority. The district includes Seneca and Yates counties, but the article discusses statewide policy rather than a specific data center project.