New York state lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban construction of new data centres for 3 years, TechCrunch reported on Feb. 7. The bill follows growing concern about how data centres could affect local communities as the pace of AI infrastructure expansion accelerates. Similar legislation is already being discussed in several states, including Georgia, Vermont and Virginia, and Republican lawmakers are pushing comparable regulations in Maryland and Oklahoma, TechCrunch said.
Environmental groups are also stepping up their campaign. More than 230 organisations, including Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, urged the U.S. Congress to impose a nationwide moratorium on new data centre construction. Eric Weltman of Food & Water Watch said, "The New York bill is our idea," and New York state Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat, said, "New York is completely unprotected against large-scale data centres," adding, "We need to slow things down right now."
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced the "Energize NY Develop" project for large energy users and is pursuing steps to ensure data centres pay a fair share of costs for the power grid.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr