To the Editor:

Both Canton and Potsdam are researching data centers to create or enforce data center moratoriums. However, on July 14th, Governor Hochul, after a personal visit to the Midwest to discuss the process of dealing with the trillion-dollar companies wanting to build them, and the impacts on local residents and municipalities, signed Executive Order No. 62, “A Temporary Moratorium on Data Centers in New York.

While the State Develops Higher Standards for Data Center Development and Benefits Blueprint to Support Localities” (https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/first-statewide-moratorium-new-hyperscale-data-centers-launched-governor-kathy-hochul).  

These companies use Non-Disclosure Agreements to play one site against another and prevent local government from keeping the public informed and getting feedback, negotiate massively disproportionate tax breaks (e.g. sales tax exemptions on the purchase of their computer systems, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue), add backup (or primary, in some cases, as proposed in Lansing) diesel or gas generators which are noisy and polluting, may misrepresent actual job creation, and often impose other penalties on local infrastructure and residents.

 As of July, there were 12 Gigawatts of data centers in negotiation within New York State – more power than the requirements of all the households in many states! Hochul recognized that the state’s infrastructure – water and power – is not adequate to handle these  demands, and that localities may not have the ability to negotiate on even terms with these massive corporations. The executive order is intended to generate a series of guidelines to protect local communities’ interests, get hyperscalers to invest in the infrastructure required to meet their needs, and  

Are our local officials working with the state’s Empire State Development and Department of Public Services to determine what their recommendations and regulations will be? That seems to me to be the first step; they have much more information than can be gleaned from talking to other localities – and it prevents mismatches between local and state policies. 

Donald A. Duncan
Hannawa Falls