Cross-posted from “New York enacts first US ban on data center construction” by @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone in !usnews@beehaw.org
New York has become the first US state to place a moratorium on the construction of data centers, The Washington Post reported. Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order pausing environmental permits for large data centers (consuming more than 50 megawatts) for up to a year. That would give state officials the required time to create rules protecting the electrical grid, environment and local communities.
“New York will lead the way in creating the strongest standards in the nation for data center development, ensuring that when companies succeed because of New York, New Yorkers succeed too,” said Hochul at a press conference. The order will take effect immediately and not affect projects that already have the required permits.
They’ll just name it something else and build it anyway.
The law is targeted based on how much energy it consumes, not what they call it.
Knee jerk doomerism is an emotional response, not an intellectual one.
Isn’t the easy way to work around this by building 2x25MW data centres next to each (down the road, a mile away, next county, whatever) and just ensure they operate as 1 with high speed dark fibre?
This… uh… Information Hub consumes 50 Mebiwatts of power, wink wink.
Labeling disagreement as “emotional” is easier than engaging with the substance. My point is about enforcement, not despair.
Saying ‘they won’t enforce it’ isn’t substance, it’s an assertion you provided no evidence for.
You want me to provide evidence of laws that aren’t enforced in the US?
You’re joking, right?
You don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s two ways to power a data center: grid power and island power. In NYS, island power is nearly impossible at scale due to laws about burning fossil fuels and you can’t hide that scale. They’ll never get permits. Grid power goes through a bureaucratic request queue. Putting a moratorium on 20MW+ means requests get denied.
No power, no data center