A statewide campaign urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign legislation regulating large data centers will stop in Geneva and Lansing this month, bringing public rallies to communities near the Greenidge Generation and TeraWulf operations.
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate Internet and Technology Committee, plans to visit 13 active or proposed data center sites from Aug. 22 through Aug. 30 with Food & Water Watch and local advocacy groups. The tour is intended to build support for the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which passed both chambers of the Legislature in June and awaits action by Hochul.
Geneva and Dresden events set for Aug. 24
The Finger Lakes portion of the tour begins Monday, Aug. 24, with a noon rally and press conference at the Finger Lakes Welcome Center, 35 Lake Front Drive in Geneva. The public event will focus on Greenidge Generation’s cryptocurrency mining operation and the possibility that the site could be used for a large artificial intelligence data center.
Gonzalez is scheduled to appear with Seneca Lake Guardian and the National Coalition Against Cryptomining. A 3 p.m. boat ride and meeting with community members in Dresden will follow, although that event is by invitation and its location had not been announced in the release.
Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Seneca Lake Guardian and president of the national coalition, said the region’s farms, wineries, small businesses and natural resources could be affected by unchecked data center development. She described Greenidge as a warning that a fossil-fueled cryptocurrency mining operation could pivot toward AI data center use.
Taylor also criticized the Hochul administration’s handling of Greenidge’s air permit, saying the state should have upheld an earlier denial instead of reaching an agreement that allowed the company to continue operating. The release did not include a response from Greenidge or the Hochul administration.
Lansing rally will focus on TeraWulf
The tour returns to the Finger Lakes on Friday, Aug. 28, for a noon press conference at Myers Park, 29 Auburn Road in Lansing. The event is public and will focus on TeraWulf’s data center operation.
Sustainable Finger Lakes, FLX Strong, Frack Action and Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now are expected to participate.
Gay Nicholson, president of Sustainable Finger Lakes, said the organization wants the broader protections contained in the pending legislation. She accused TeraWulf of creating harmful noise, benefiting from sales-tax treatment and challenging its local property assessment while disputing that a proposed 300- to 400-megawatt project would affect regional utility bills. The release did not include a response from TeraWulf.
What the pending legislation would do
The Responsible Data Center Development Act, S.10642 and A.11560, is sponsored by Gonzalez in the Senate and Assemblymember Didi Barrett in the Assembly. According to the release, it passed both chambers with bipartisan support in June.
The bill would impose a one-year moratorium on hyperscale data centers using at least 20 megawatts. Future projects would have to meet energy-efficiency standards, include a host-community public benefit program, use project labor agreements and hold public hearings before permits are approved.
It also calls for detailed reviews of data centers’ effects on water supplies, the electric grid, utility rates, the environment and Indigenous communities. Separate electric and water rate classes would be created for data centers in an effort to prevent their costs from being shifted to household customers.
Gonzalez said communities have different concerns about what large data centers could mean for utility costs, the environment and families. She said the tour is designed to hear from local officials, organizers and residents while pressing for regulations that extend beyond the state’s current permit pause.
Barrett said the legislation is intended to address costs to ratepayers and the environment, demands on the electric grid and natural resources, workforce standards and effects on host communities. She called Hochul’s executive order a first step but said the bill offers a broader framework.
Bill would go beyond executive order
Hochul signed Executive Order 62 on July 14, pausing discretionary permits for certain large data centers while the state Department of Public Service develops a generic environmental impact statement and consistent standards for the industry.
The executive order applies to hyperscale data centers using 50 megawatts or more. The pending legislation would set its threshold at 20 megawatts and establish public participation, labor, efficiency, cost-analysis and community-benefit requirements in state law.
Advocates on the tour are urging Hochul to sign the legislation so those provisions would remain after the executive-order moratorium expires. The release did not state when Hochul may act on the bill or provide the administration’s position on it.
The senator’s office said 38 large data center projects are in the New York Independent System Operator’s interconnection queue. If all were built, the projects would require more than 11,900 megawatts of new electricity demand, which the release described as nearly twice the combined demand of New York households.
Advocates contend that large data centers can increase pressure on utility rates, electric infrastructure and water supplies while creating relatively few permanent jobs after construction. The release did not include comments from data center developers, utilities or industry groups responding to those claims.
Tour includes stops across New York
The tour is scheduled to begin Aug. 22 with events in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. A public town hall is planned for 11 a.m. at Trinity Church, 371 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo, followed by a 7 p.m. town hall at the Doris Jones Community Center, 3001 Ninth St. in Niagara Falls. The release also lists an invitation-only visit to six proposed data center sites in Erie and Niagara counties at 10 a.m.
On Aug. 23, Gonzalez plans to meet with residents of Alabama and Genesee County concerning a proposed data center at the Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park. Those events are invitation-only, and times were not confirmed.
After the Geneva and Dresden stops, the tour will hold a 6 p.m. rally Aug. 25 at Orangeburg Town Hall in Rockland County. A town board meeting, public-comment period and local moratorium vote are scheduled there at 7 p.m.
An East Fishkill community discussion about a local moratorium is planned for Aug. 26, but the release did not provide a time or location. An Albany press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 27 at City Hall, 24 Eagle St., focused on the proposed Kenwood data center.
Following the Lansing stop, the tour is expected to hold a town hall Aug. 29 in Lysander concerning a proposed data center in that community. Its time and location remained to be confirmed. Although the release described the tour as running through Aug. 30, it did not list an event for that date.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.
