Lawmakers in New York State have introduced a bill proposing a three-year, state-wide moratorium on all data center projects.

Although no US state currently imposes a state-wide data center moratorium, the proposed bill makes New York State the sixth state – alongside Virginia, Oklahoma, Maryland, Georgia, and Michigan – to consider drastic measures to curb the pace of data center developments amidst skyrocketing demand.

Introduced by Democratic state senator Elizabeth Krueger on February 6, S.9144 would also require the state government to investigate and mitigate the impact of data centers on the environment and utility rates.

“Massive data centers are gunning for New York, and right now we are completely unprepared,” said Senator Krueger.

“When one of these energy-guzzling facilities comes to town, they drive up utility prices and have significant negative impacts on the environment and the community – and they have little to no positive impact on the local economy.”

One of the bill’s key supporters, environmental protection NGO Food & Water Watch, added that the legislation responds to “documented and emerging impacts” like heightened demand on the electric grid, an overreliance on fossil fuels, increased waste production, and water waste.

Food & Water Watch stated earlier in January that it would be expanding the scope of its data center opposition campaign earlier, aiming to “stop all new data centers, nationwide, until we have protections for communities and the environment.”

S.9144 is currently being considered by the Environmental Conservation Committee, and it has to receive the approval of this committee before it can be considered in either the lower or upper houses of New York State’s legislature.

In the US, bills have to receive approval from both houses before they can be signed into law.

The announcement of the proposed moratorium comes as political figures at local, state, and federal levels take note of widespread public opposition to data centers.

At the local level, moratoria have emerged as a powerful tool to restrain new developments, allowing local authorities to re-evaluate whether data centers are a right fit for the community, depending on the state of utilities like water and electricity, the availability of land, and public sentiment.

Although some of these local authorities have imposed indefinite data center moratoria, so far, every proposal for the imposition of state-level data center moratoria has been designed to be temporary.

Moratoria are typically limited by time. S.9144 and the moratorium proposal in Oklahoma have a three-year limit, whereas Virginia’s has a two-year limit.

In cases where the moratorium is indefinite – like Maryland – the broader moratorium proposal will usually allow for it to be lifted once certain conditions have been met.

In Maryland’s case, the moratorium will be terminated if legislation that requires the “colocation of data centers with a new or existing” power generation facility is enacted.

Proposers of data center moratoria at the state and local level will likely continue to mix and match these two components – the duration of the moratorium, and the inclusion of mechanisms to lift the moratoria – to produce restrictions of varying severity.