New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Executive Order 62 on July 14, establishing a temporary moratorium on new data center permitting while the state develops higher development standards and a benefits framework for host communities. The order directs the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to hold in abeyance any discretionary permit application for data center construction or expansion that is pending or filed after the order's date and has not already been deemed complete.
What the Moratorium Covers and Who Is Exempt
The moratorium applies to facilities that consume 50 megawatts (MW) or more of energy and are used for data storage, cloud computing, or content delivery on a continuous basis. Facilities used primarily for manufacturing, research, education, including the Empire AI consortium, or medical care are excluded from the definition and are not subject to the order. The Department of Public Service (DPS) is directed to prepare a Generic Environmental Impact Statement examining data center energy demand, water use and quality, air quality, disproportionate impacts on disadvantaged communities, and noise, with the moratorium remaining in place until that report is complete. The order cites nearly 12 gigawatts of data center load requests currently sitting in the New York Independent System Operator's interconnection queue as of May 2026, more than 8 gigawatts of which entered the queue in 2025 alone.
The Community Investment Framework Sets a Dollar Benchmark
Empire State Development (ESD) has 60 days under the order to publish a Community Investment Framework that localities can use when negotiating with data center developers. A companion policy outline released alongside the order sets a baseline recommendation of $1 million in operator contribution per megawatt of anticipated demand, meaning a 100 MW facility would be expected to contribute roughly $100 million toward local infrastructure, workforce development, housing, or other community priorities, though final terms remain negotiable between developers and host communities. The order separately directs DPS to form a Data Center Interconnection Working Group within 60 days and to consider a New York Grid Acceleration Fund that could require data centers to help finance grid upgrades and cover stranded-asset risk. DEC must also report within 12 months on whether its water withdrawal rules adequately account for data center demand.
New York joins a growing list of states pausing data center development to work through grid and community impacts before approvals resume. Maine adopted a similar moratorium structure earlier this year, pairing a permitting freeze with a formal state review council. Vermont's own attempt at a data center moratorium bill failed after a gubernatorial veto. The two outcomes show how differently states are resolving the same underlying tension between economic development pressure and grid capacity.
New York has already seen this fight play out at the municipal level with other energy infrastructure. Battery storage moratoriums are now active in 98 municipalities statewide. A single statewide order, rather than a patchwork of local bans, is New York's attempt to get ahead of that same pattern before it repeats for data centers.
