Please sign your business onto this letter to Governor Hochul and the State Legislature calling for a temporary moratorium on data center development in New York to safeguard our businesses, communities, and environment.
The letter and sign-on form are below, and the deadline for signing is Friday, May 15.
Please note that only the name of the business will be listed in the letter; the other requested information is for internal use only.
If you have any questions or need more information, contact Bob Rossi at the New York Sustainable Business Council (bob@ny-sbc.org) or Eric Weltman at Food & Water Watch (eweltman@fwwatch.org).
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Dear Governor Hochul and New York State Legislators:
We, the undersigned businesses, urge you to support legislation establishing a temporary statewide moratorium on the permitting, approval, and construction of new data centers in New York (S.9144 / A.10141).
New York’s small businesses are the economic engines of our communities, accounting for 98% of all businesses across the state and roughly half of the state’s private sector workforce. We provide steady employment, meet essential needs, and help sustain the state’s tax base. The explosive growth of data centers threatens our businesses, especially in robust tourism and agricultural areas. This expansion is rapidly generating more fossil fuel pollution, straining water resources, devouring land, and raising electricity prices. This drives up our costs while depleting and poisoning the natural resources our businesses rely on.
The scale and speed of data center development have accelerated so quickly that the government has not had the ability to evaluate the impacts or put essential guardrails in place. As a result, key economic and environmental questions remain unresolved, and businesses and communities are being asked to absorb risks before clear standards have been established.
In the meantime, the evidence of significant harms caused by data centers continues to mount. In New York, the energy demand of proposed new data centers would dramatically increase statewide electricity usage, potentially exceeding that of all the state’s households combined. This will require a costly expansion of gas pipelines and power plants, driving up energy bills for our businesses and our customers — costs that small businesses are the least able to absorb.
In other states, large data center developments have received substantial tax abatements and incentives, raising concerns about shifting costs onto existing businesses and residents. As New York considers similar projects, small businesses cannot afford to shoulder additional tax or infrastructure burdens. What our communities receive in return for the air, water, and noise pollution is simply a short-term surge in construction jobs followed by very few permanent employment opportunities for residents.
Technological growth must not come at the expense of the businesses and communities that sustain New York’s economy. We urge you to support and pass S.9144 / A.10141 to pause data center expansion so that we can assess their risks and institute regulations to protect New York’s small businesses, the health of our communities, and our economic future.
Thank you for your consideration.
