Big Tech has its sights on New York. The industry wants a whopping 9,000 megawatts of electricity for its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the state — about 1.5 times the power that all New Yorkers consumed in 2024. This massive power demand will drive up electricity prices at a time when we’re experiencing skyrocketing bills outpacing the national average. 

New York isn’t alone. Nationwide, Big Tech’s data centers are raising utility bills, guzzling water, driving more pollution, gobbling up land, and threatening our climate. Nevertheless, state leaders, including Governor Kathy Hochul, are welcoming these facilities with open arms. 

We can’t let this happen. We need to hit pause on these facilities until we have a thorough regulatory framework that protects ratepayers and our health, communities, and environment. Here are six reasons we need a moratorium on data centers in New York and one way to take action. 

1. Higher Demand = Higher Utility Bills

New York is no stranger to new technology raising utility prices. In recent years, the state’s crypto boom has cost upstate households $204 million on electricity bills annually.

Now, higher demand from data centers threatens to raise bills even more statewide. How? New York utilities buy and sell power on the same market, managed by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). Because of this, when demand rises in one region, wholesale prices increase across the state. 

Utilities are the ones buying power on the NYISO market, but they’ll pass the increased costs on to us, the ratepayers. You’ll see these on your bill as “supply charges” or “purchase price adjustments.”

2. Data Centers Will Lead to More Expensive Dirty Energy

At the same time, the predicted pace of data center growth is far exceeding the state’s ability to build new electricity sources, according to NYISO itself. 

Along with potential blackouts, this will drive utilities to turn to expensive emergency resources like dirty old fracked gas power plants. And if the situation gets really dire, NYISO may allow utilities to charge us, the ratepayers, for the cost of building new fossil fuel plants.

3. Data Center Growth Drives Climate Change

Climate change is already hitting New Yorkers hard, from deadly summer heat to dangerous storms and floods. Data centers will spray fuel onto the fire, as they disproportionately use dirty energy. Nationally, data center demand is already leading to a surge in dirty gas power and will bolster coal use.

New York’s groundbreaking Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was designed to lower the state’s climate pollution by slashing fossil fuel use and scaling up renewables. Data center expansion directly counters this law — at a time when Governor Hochul is already working to gut it.

4. “Bring Your Own Power” Is a Pipe Dream

Governor Hochul has promised to make data centers “pay their fair share” for electricity. But none of the options proposed to accomplish this would guarantee lower bills.

So-called “Bring Your Own Power” schemes, including requiring data centers to build their own generation or take existing power plants off the grid for their use, could still lead to higher power prices for New Yorkers.

For example, higher gas consumption from data centers will make the price of gas even more volatile, which in turn raises electricity prices across the market, even if the gas is consumed off-grid.

Governor Hochul has also claimed that data centers should simply bring their own new clean energy. But this proposal is ludicrous. 

We found that powering a single medium-size 500 megawatt (MW) data center with on-site wind or solar would require a wind farm four times the size of the largest wind farm currently operating in New York, or a solar farm 12 times the size of the state’s largest. With that kind of demand putting pressure on available supplies of renewable energy infrastructure, the cost of renewable energy will also rise.

New York needs renewables for New Yorkers, not for Big Tech’s profit.

5. Data Centers Drain Public Money

While data centers consume massive amounts of electricity, they don’t offer much to the local communities. They provide very few permanent jobs. Yet many states, including New York, offer them lucrative incentives to set up shop. 

A $19 billion 500 MW data center at the Science, Technology & Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) in Genesee County will provide just 170 permanent jobs. 

This same data center is getting cheaper power. Based on STAMP’s tax information, we estimate that it will pay 5.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity. Compare that to what nearby residents pay — 17.22 cents per kilowatt-hour, more than triple the rate. To add insult to injury, this data center is costing New Yorker taxpayers $1.4 billion in tax breaks over 30 years. 

6. AI Data Centers Wreak Havoc on Our Communities, Politics, and Economy

The risks of AI data centers extend far beyond those specific to New York. Across the country, data centers are polluting the air with dirty generators, becoming noisy nuisances for their neighbors, devouring land, raising utility bills, and guzzling local water supplies. By 2028, U.S. data centers could demand as much water as 18.5 million U.S. households for cooling the superhot computers inside them.

Meanwhile, the artificial intelligence (AI) that these data centers are built to power is sowing chaos in our economy and politics. Tech CEOs themselves say AI will destabilize entire industries. And the unprecedented investment in data center infrastructure has created a bubble whose popping may tumble the whole country into a recession.

It’s clear that these facilities only drain our communities for Big Tech’s profits, without offering much, if anything, in return. Yet rather than do the right thing and press the pause button, many of our leaders — including Governor Hochul — are offering rushed, half-baked, inadequate ideas for regulation.

Take Action: Stop Data Centers in New York!

Instead of half measures, New York’s legislature must pass S9144 / A10141. This bill would stop new data centers until these complex issues can be truly understood and addressed in a way that protects our health, communities, and environment. 

Pausing data centers statewide is the only way to adequately defend affordable energy and a livable climate. Anything less is a handout to Big Tech at the expense of New Yorkers.