By Staff Reporter
ALBANY — The public has until Tuesday to tell state regulators what New York’s first statewide environmental review of data centers should cover. Fifty-six state legislators say that isn’t enough time, and that the process has no public hearings.
The deadline is for written comments on the draft scope of a Generic Environmental Impact Statement. The Public Service Commission is preparing the review under Case 26-E-0045, its proceeding on how data centers and other very large electricity users connect to the grid and who pays for it. The scope will decide which questions the state studies before it writes rules. Those include water, air, noise, farmland, electric bills and effects on disadvantaged communities.
The review is also what stands between Western New York and the end of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s data center moratorium.
How the pause works
Ms. Hochul signed Executive Order 62 on July 14. It directs the Department of Environmental Conservation to hold in abeyance discretionary permit applications for new or expanded data centers that use 50 megawatts or more and that DEC had not deemed complete by that date. The pause lasts until the Department of Public Service submits a final impact statement and findings. Facilities used mainly for manufacturing, research, education or medical care are exempt.
“As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” Ms. Hochul said when she signed the order. Her office said the review “will take up to a year.”
The order has a key limit. It “does not apply to permits, approvals, licenses, or similar forms of permission from local governments.” Towns can keep reviewing projects. The state pause reaches a project only if it needs a discretionary DEC permit.
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the Responsible Data Center Development Act, praised the order in July. “By giving our State time to plan, we can ensure that development and innovation do not come at the expense of all of us,” she said. Both houses passed her bill at the end of the legislative session, Assemblymember Didi Barrett said in the same announcement.
The fight over the comment window
The PSC issued the draft scope Sept. 17 and set an Oct. 20 deadline, a little more than 30 days. Its notice did not schedule scoping hearings.
On Oct. 16, Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Anna Kelles, joined by 54 colleagues, wrote to Ms. Hochul and PSC Chair Rory M. Christian. They asked for a 120-day comment period and at least five public hearings split between upstate and downstate communities, The American Quorum reported. The letter does not extend the deadline by itself, and the published deadline stands unless the commission changes it.
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest made the same request in an Oct. 2 filing. It noted that DEC kept the scoping period for its hydraulic fracturing review open for more than two months in 2008 and held six hearings.
“Dozens of communities, most of which are under-resourced and under-staffed, are racing to understand the complex energy, air, water, health and noise implications that these proposals may bring to their communities,” the group wrote.
The executive order itself calls for “a formal public process, including public comment and a public hearing” to create the impact statement. It doesn’t say whether that hearing must happen at the scoping stage or only after a draft is written.
Why the queue matters for electric bills
The draft scope says nearly 14 gigawatts of requests from large electricity users were in the New York Independent System Operator’s interconnection queue as of August, with more than 8 gigawatts added in 2025 alone. Data centers made up 88 percent. When Ms. Hochul signed the order in July, the figure was nearly 12 gigawatts.
Those are requests, not plants under construction. They still matter to every ratepayer. The order says “the cost of electric system upgrades required to provide electric utility service to large loads should not be paid for by every-day New Yorkers.” It also warns that utilities and ratepayers face risk when “infrastructure investments are made in anticipation of loads that may not fully materialize.” The scope covers cost-allocation rules, possible capacity charges and requirements that data centers bring their own generation or storage.
Western New York’s test case
The region’s largest proposal is at the Western New York Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park, or STAMP, in the Genesee County town of Alabama. Stream U.S. Data Centers has proposed a $19.46 billion project there, The Batavian reported. The Genesee County Economic Development Center, which developed the park, has been preparing environmental responses for it.
In September, Alabama Town Supervisor Rob Crossen said the moratorium didn’t change the town’s duties. “The governor’s executive order changes nothing as far as our statutory requirements to act in a certain period of time,” he said.
At the same meeting, GCEDC President and CEO Mark Masse said Stream was adjusting site entrances to stay out of a wetland buffer. “They (Stream) were adjusting those so they will not require an Article 24 permit for their site,” he said. An Article 24 permit is a DEC freshwater wetlands permit. Whether the project still needs other DEC permits that would fall under the moratorium is a question for DEC and the developer.
The project also faces a lawsuit. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation, the Sierra Club and resident Leann Mullen sued the town, its boards, Stream and GCEDC in July. They challenge a zoning agreement that bars the town from changing STAMP’s zoning without GCEDC’s approval. The town’s response was due Oct. 16, according to The Batavian. On Oct. 12, Mr. Crossen told the Town Board that Stream had emailed asking the town to put off its schedule for the project. “We put it off until about Dec. 10,” he said.
What to watch
- Will the PSC extend the deadline or add hearings? The 56 legislators are asking for both. Western New York residents near STAMP would get a hearing only if one is held in the region.
- What goes into the final scope? Water withdrawals from aquifers and the Great Lakes, noise, and who pays for transmission upgrades in the NYISO’s western zone are all regional issues commenters can raise.
- How do local reviews fit in? Because the order leaves local approvals alone, towns like Alabama may finish their reviews before the state finishes its standards. Albany hasn’t explained how the two will be reconciled.
Comments in Case 26-E-0045 can be filed through the Department of Public Service’s document system. The Chronicle is seeking comment from the Department of Public Service, the governor’s office, GCEDC and Stream U.S. Data Centers.
Featured photo: Server racks inside a data center. Photo by BalticServers.com via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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