Gov. Kathy Hochul told climate and business leaders that New York must expand its power supply while deciding how much electricity fast-growing data centers should use. In remarks at a Ceres Climate Week event, she paired plans for more nuclear generation with a call for data center developers to pay more of the costs their projects could place on communities and the grid.
Hochul said the state is working on 95 large-scale solar, wind, hydroelectric and offshore wind projects with a combined 10.5 gigawatts of capacity, which she said could serve more than 4.6 million homes. The figures were presented as the governor's account of the state's project pipeline, not as a count of power already reaching customers from all 95 projects.
The governor framed the challenge as a balance between keeping electricity affordable and reliable, meeting climate goals and accommodating new industrial demand. She urged investors at the New York City event to provide capital for clean-energy projects across the state.
Her remarks ranged from offshore wind and hydropower to nuclear generation and proposed data centers in St. Lawrence County. Although the event took place in New York City, the energy and siting questions she discussed extend to communities throughout New York, including upstate towns weighing data center proposals.
Wind, hydropower and federal approvals
Hochul said federal policy has made it harder for New York to meet its clean-energy goals, particularly by limiting opportunities for new offshore wind leases. She used the Empire Wind project as an example of the delays and uncertainty she says developers have faced.
She described Empire Wind as a roughly $5 billion investment planned to supply power to about 500,000 Brooklyn homes. Hochul said she worked to keep the project moving after a federal shutdown threatened its future. Those assertions describe her account of the dispute; the speech did not provide a new project timetable.
The governor also pointed to a transmission project bringing hydroelectric power from Quebec to New York City. She said it had been launched and powered up after she pushed for it early in her administration, but did not give a current output figure in these remarks.
Beyond those projects, Hochul said she wants a major expansion of nuclear generation in New York. She described it as part of a strategy to strengthen the grid and support economic development, while acknowledging that federal approvals are still needed for the next step. She did not announce a new plant approval, construction start or completion date at the event.
Hochul said she has discussed nuclear development with President Donald Trump. Her speech did not identify the specific approval she is awaiting or establish how much new generation will be built, so the proposal remains a plan rather than an operating source of power.
Data centers put pressure on local power decisions
The governor said five data center proposals in St. Lawrence County illustrate the scale of potential electricity demand. If all five were approved, she estimated, they would consume as much power as one of the new nuclear reactors she envisions. That comparison was conditional; the speech did not say all five projects have been approved.
Hochul said local governments should retain the decision on whether to accept data centers, but argued that small communities need help negotiating with large developers. She said the state should seek terms that leave residents better off rather than simply offering tax incentives to attract projects.
In the speech, Hochul said a one-year data center moratorium is in place and that the state is developing a policy for what follows. She did not specify the moratorium's legal scope, start date or expiration date in the remarks, nor did she identify which projects it covers.
She outlined terms she wants developers to face: no tax breaks, their own power supply or substantial payments toward the grid, and community benefits worth $1 million for every megawatt of power used. For a 100-megawatt project, that formula would mean $100 million in community benefits, she said. The speech did not establish those terms as enacted statewide requirements.
Hochul also called for data center operators to reduce energy, land, water and noise demands. She said she has challenged technology company leaders to develop more efficient approaches, including closed-loop water systems, while recognizing that AI facilities will require power.
A statewide choice still taking shape
The governor linked data center policy to other large employers competing for electricity. She cited Micron's planned upstate investment and described power availability as a factor in choosing which economic projects the state can support. Her remarks did not set a priority order for individual projects or announce a new grid allocation decision.
Hochul's climate argument drew on both the need to cut emissions and the effects of severe weather. She said recent winter storms and the possibility of another storm this weekend underscored the importance of a reliable grid, but did not present a new emergency action at the Ceres event.
She also said she expects to become a co-chair of the U.S. Climate Alliance next spring. For now, the practical next steps she identified are continued investment in New York's power projects, federal consideration of nuclear approvals and development of more specific rules for data centers after the period she called a moratorium.
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