On June 4, 2026, both houses of the New York State Legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act, a bill that would put a one-year statewide pause on permits for the biggest new AI data centers. If Governor Kathy Hochul signs it, New York becomes the first state in the country to freeze them. But Hochul has already said she does not want a statewide freeze at all.
The fight in the Legislature is over, and the next one starts at the governor’s desk. The bill has passed both houses and is heading to Hochul, per the official New York State Senate page for S10642. The Senate cleared it 43 to 17, with one member absent and two excused, on June 4, 2026, voting on the companion Assembly bill, A11560, which had been substituted for S10642, according to that same Senate record. The measure passed the state Senate and Assembly in the final hours of the 2026 session, WBNG reported.
The word “moratorium” covers more than it sounds. The bill pauses new permits for one year, but only for the biggest data centers: those with a peak electricity demand of 20 megawatts or more, per the bill text on the Senate site. Within 18 months of the bill becoming law, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has to produce an environmental impact report on how much energy and water these facilities use and what they pollute. After that, any new center over 20 megawatts gets its own separate electric and water rate class, has to fund a host-community benefit program, and faces public hearings before it can break ground. A second tier kicks in at 5 megawatts: those projects have to pay prevailing union wages, use American-made iron and steel, and run on 90 percent renewable power by 2040.
