What Democrats Can Learn From New York’s Data Center Moratorium

When New York became the first state in the country to enact a moratorium on data center development, Adrienne Yocina was excited. For the past two years, the mom of three has been organizing in western Genesee County to stop a 600-megawatt data center from coming to a site close to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s reservation and a federal wildlife refuge.

But almost four months after the one-year moratorium began, Yocina tells me that she’s “getting nervous.” She’s worried that Democratic governor Kathy Hochul won’t sign a stronger bill to impose a stricter moratorium, and is concerned that the state Department of Environmental Conservation is not adequately involved in the process of evaluating data centers in New York.