NEW YORK BECOMES THE FIRST STATE TO SLAM A ONE-YEAR BAN ON NEW AI DATA CENTERS — GOVERNOR SIGNS EMERGENCY ORDER AS POWER GRIDS AND WATER SUPPLIES BUCKLE Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Tuesday imposing a one-year statewide moratorium on new data center permits in New York, making it the first state in the nation to take this step. No state agency will issue permits for facilities 50 megawatts or larger until a comprehensive environmental review is completed. The move comes as the AI infrastructure buildout collides head-on with the limits of the physical world. Power grids are straining. Water consumption from cooling systems is accelerating. Local communities are watching their electricity bills spike and their neighborhoods turned into industrial zones serving corporations headquartered thousands of miles away. A Gallup survey from May found 71 percent of Americans opposed data centers in their communities. Hochul’s order directs state officials to develop a Generic Environmental Impact Statement establishing consistent standards for data centers going forward. Dozens of projects already in the permit pipeline are now frozen solid. The tech industry has spent years telling Washington that AI requires unlimited build-out with no interference. New York just told them that is not how infrastructure and democracy work. Other governors are watching. The moratorium season may just be beginning, and the companies that bet billions on uninterrupted expansion are now doing the math on what a domino effect looks like. Keywords: New York data center moratorium, AI data center ban, Kathy Hochul AI policy, data center environmental impact