New York pauses new data centers above 50 megawatts for up to a year
Governor Kathy Hochul halted new environmental permits for large New York data centers pending a statewide review, while President Donald Trump said the move is diverting investment and jobs to other states.
New York imposed a statewide pause of up to one year on new data center projects requiring 50 megawatts or more of power while regulators prepare a Generic Environmental Impact Statement covering electricity demand, water use, air quality and other impacts. Governor Kathy Hochul’s order exempts already permitted projects and is paired with efforts to make large data centers pay more for power or supply their own and to seek removal of sales tax exemptions. President Donald Trump criticized the move, saying Hochul halted data centers being built or planned in the state for political reasons and that investment is shifting to states including Alabama, Florida, Texas and Arizona. TeraWulf said its New York projects, including Lake Mariner and Lake Hawkeye, are unaffected, though its shares fell 7.08% to $19.41 after the announcement.
- Generic Environmental Impact Statement: A statewide environmental review used to set standards and assess broad effects of a category of projects rather than a single site.
- 50-megawatt data center threshold: The New York permit pause applies to new data center projects that require 50 megawatts or more of power.
- high-performance computing: Computing infrastructure designed for intensive workloads such as artificial intelligence and large-scale data processing.