SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Five other states have introduced similar bills recently as data center development skyrockets:
On Friday, New York State Senators Liz Krueger and Kristen Gonzales introduced a bill that would stop the issuance of permits for new data centers for at least three years and ninety days to give time for impact assessments and to update regulations. The bill would require the Department of Environmental Conservation and Public Service Commissions to issue impact statements and reports during the pause, along with any new orders or regulations that they deem necessary to minimize data centers' impacts on the environment and consumers in New York.
The bill would require these departments to study data centers' water, electricity and gas usage, and their impact on the rates of these resources, among other things. The bill, citing a Bloomberg analysis, notes that, "Nationally, household electricity rates increased 13 percent in 2025, largely driven by the development of data centers." New York is the sixth state this year to introduce a bill aiming to put the brakes on data centers, following in the footsteps of Georgia, Maryland, Oklahoma, Vermont and Virginia, according to Wired. It's still very much in the early stages, and is now with the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee for consideration.
(Score: 4, Informative) by optotronic on Tuesday February 10, @02:29AM
Ohio encourages on-site or next-door electricity generation for data centers, but they make it harder (takes much longer to get permits) to use renewables. So, we have a new natural gas power generation plant going in next to the new Meta data center 5 miles from us. Maybe it'll be cheaper in the short term, but long term there'll be more environmental and health impacts. Of course, Meta won't have to pay to address those.