Hochul’s data-center ban is a loss for New York — and a win for China
New York Post · RC · trust 38/100
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announces a one-year statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers as the state develops regulations governing their energy, environmental and community impacts. Matt Roberts/Shutterstock See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on Google Gov. Kathy Hochul dumped on regular New Yorkers when she jumped aboard the anti-science train with her “temporary” ban on building large new data centers.
This is set to be fracking all over again: Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s initial ban of that advance, also on the basis of bogus environmental concerns , turned permanent all too quickly.
As a result, New York loses out on tens of thousands of jobs and literally trillions in wealth even as fracking continues to enrich Pennsylvania right next door — with absolutely none of the harms the anti-frackers imagined.
Of course, local lefties (including much of the Legislature) don’t care: Superstition rules.
And so billions in investment are again headed to Pennsylvania because New York is banning progress.
Hochul may tell herself (and pro-business allies) that her executive order banning data centers is merely a “pause” to appease the greens until she wins re-election, but the pressure to extend it will only grow stronger — and she won’t need the business community after November, either.
Worse, she’s kneeling not just to fearmongering by the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who see every innovation as a threat, but by Chinese propagandists who want to strangle American AI development in the cradle.
Seriously: To justify her moratorium, Hochul trotted out Beijing’s talking points that data centers will “hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty.”
Electricity prices and reliability wouldn’t be issues if New York Democrats hadn’t banned fracking, forced the Indian Point nuclear plant to close and rammed through cripplingly costly green-energy mandates.
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Plus, tech firms have proved willing to build their own electric plants (often “clean energy” ones) to power data centers across the country.
Data centers are crucial to AI; without them, New York has no hope of leading in the next major US growth sector — and little hope of retaining its remaining leadership in older sectors that will increasingly rely on AI, including finance.
Heck, simply building the centers is a huge plus for local economies: That’s why the state contractors’ association and the construction unions oppose the gov’s ban.
New York desperately needs a forward-thinking chief executive who’ll stand up to the superstition and enemy propaganda, one who’ll ensure we embrace innovation and economic growth.
Instead, we’re stuck with Kathy Hochul, whose eyes are firmly planted on the safest way to protect her own job for another four years, no matter how many jobs it costs the public she pretends to serve.
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