In July, New York became the first state and largest economy in the world to hit the brakes on energy-hungry, water-guzzling data centers. On July 14, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order to pause the construction of large-scale (50 MW+) data centers statewide.
How did this happen?
In just seven short months, Food & Water Watch and our allies and grassroots partners changed the conversation on data centers in New York, upended state politics on the issue, and passed a bill to pause data centers in the State Assembly and Senate.
We knew from our research and the experience in communities across the country that AI data centers exact enormous costs on everyday people — including raising electricity bills, driving more dirty energy and pollution, and guzzling our clean water — while enriching tech giants. We were quick to join existing grassroots fights against AI data centers in New York and unite them under one demand: a statewide moratorium.
Here’s how this incredible win came together, and where we need to go next.
We Demanded What We Needed
Food & Water Watch has a long history of wins in New York based on asking for what we need, not what others say is politically possible. That goes all the way back to 2011, when we were the first national organization to call for a ban on fracking and then helped lead the charge to pass a statewide fracking ban in New York.
We saw a similar situation playing out with data centers. Many advocates and lawmakers spoke about regulating AI data centers while they continue to move full steam ahead. But we knew that wasn’t enough. The harms are too great, and Big Tech is moving too fast.
We knew we needed to hit the brakes to give our leaders the time needed to find if and how data centers can be built to minimize harm to our health and environment. In November 2025, we became the first national organization to call for a moratorium on data centers nationwide.
Then, just a month later, we began working with long-time ally State Senator Liz Krueger to draft a moratorium bill for New York. Krueger was willing to champion a moratorium at a time when no one else thought that was winnable or possible.
We Supported Frontline Communities
This fight would not have been possible if not for the dedication of community members fighting data centers in their backyards all across the state.
Indigenous leaders from the Tonawanda Seneca Nation led the charge against a data center proposal threatening their land. Grassroots groups across the state jumped into action to defend their communities, including PUSH Buffalo, Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, No Data Center FLX, Data Center Crisis Coalition of NY and NJ, and Seneca Lake Guardian.
More recently, Mohawks United in Safety and Health formed to fight data centers in the North Country, one of Big Tech’s main targets for new proposals in the state.
All these leaders and grassroots groups were instrumental to the whole movement’s understanding of data centers’ harms and how to navigate local processes to stop them.
Food & Water Watch also joined several local fights, including against two proposals in the Hudson Valley: one in Orangeburg and another in East Fishkill. In June, East Fishkill passed a three-year moratorium on data centers, and in July, Orangeburg Planning Board voted to require an environmental impact statement on the proposed data center, pausing the project indefinitely. Notably, Hochul’s order doesn’t cover the Orangeburg proposal, and we’re continuing to fight it — more on this below.
Local organizing not only helped defend communities from disastrous data center proposals; it also drove more press and attention to the issue at the state level. These fights in the Hudson Valley and in Central and Western New York built more momentum for a statewide moratorium in Albany and helped make this a bipartisan issue (seven Republican Assemblymembers voted in favor of the bill). They also connected us with dedicated activists who would speak at future rallies and join our campaign for statewide action.
We Grew and Maintained Support in the Legislature
Once the moratorium bill was introduced, we began working to gain the support of state lawmakers. For example, we published a fact sheet and shared it with legislators to inform them on the issue. This research helped us gather more sponsors and helped bill sponsors prepare to debate the bill on the floor.
As opposition from Big Tech and its allies grew, some lawmakers began to waver. We continued pressuring legislators to maintain their support till the very end, including by gathering more than 60 memos of support from other organizations and distributing them to lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session.
We Showed Our Power to Those in Power
As we were working with our closest allies in Albany, we were also working with everyday New Yorkers to show their own representatives how important this issue is to them.
Food & Water Watch volunteers met weekly to prepare each other to visit their representatives’ offices. They drove more than 12,000 e-mails and 1,200 phone calls to legislators and Governor Hochul in support of a moratorium. We also worked with organizations in the NYRenews Coalition to mobilize massive shows of support.
We organized letters signed by more than 150 groups and 500 small businesses in New York in support of a data center moratorium. We held press conferences, including one in Albany to lawmakers and a virtual press conference highlighting activists fighting data centers in their own communities throughout the state. And we bused more than 100 New Yorkers into Albany for a rally and lobby day, arranging meetings so they could speak directly with lawmakers who represented them.
Then, once the moratorium bill passed, we turned our attention to Governor Hochul to pressure her to sign it. Within just 24 hours of the bill passing the legislature, we drove more than 1,400 messages from New Yorkers to Governor Hochul calling on her to do just that. Her July executive order came down because of the strength of the movement.
After This Victory, New York Must Go Further!
Food & Water Watch and our allies changed the direction of the entire conversation around AI data centers, from “regulations” to a moratorium. With grassroots groups on the frontlines of the data center boom, we also helped elevate the issue to one of the most important in state politics.
Most critically, a one-year moratorium presses pause on several enormous proposals that communities have been fighting. It gives these communities more time to organize to protect against these facilities that are invading their neighborhoods.
Governor Hochul’s moratorium is an encouraging and much-needed victory for people across New York. But it must be only the first step she and the legislature take.
Hochul’s one-year pause only covers data centers that consume over 50 MW of energy, leaving communities like Orangeburg in Rockland County, which faces a cluster of 20-50 MW proposals, unprotected.
Hochul’s executive order also falls short of requiring robust studies that are needed to fully evaluate data centers’ harms and lacks a strong public participation process, so New Yorkers can have a say in the data centers coming into their communities.
That’s why Hochul must still sign the bill passed by the legislature, which she has until the end of 2026 to sign.
Still, while we’ll continue to organize at the grassroots level to build the movement required to protect all New Yorkers from data centers, this is a huge win that should be celebrated. And we must build upon this win. We must press the pause button on all data centers in New York and across the country.
Tell Governor Hochul: Sign the Data Center Moratorium Bill!