Orangeburg, NY – Rockland County legislators, activists and residents gathered Tuesday at the Pearl River Little League fields, adjacent to an existing data center, to urge Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act. The event came just days after the Rockland County Legislature became the first county in New York to adopt a resolution supporting the state bill, which would establish a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, including the proposed expansion of the DataBank facility in Orangeburg – already home to four data centers.

“Thank you to the Rockland County Legislature for passing a resolution to urge Governor Hochul to sign a bill that would protect Rockland residents from grid instability, noise pollution, and environmental destruction caused by data centers. Rockland County is the first county in New York to pass a resolution in support of the Responsible Data Center Act!” said Melissa Hoffmann, organizer with Food & Water Watch, in a statement to the Rockland County Legislature. “The Responsible Data Center Development act will put a pause on data center applications in Orangeburg left behind by Hochul’s executive order for at least a year. Local residents are now calling on Orangetown to follow in the footsteps of the Rockland County legislature and stop DataBank’s application for its Phase 2 data center before it’s too late.”