New York State and many localities have passed moratoriums or bans on the construction of huge datacenters. Many are worried the rapid growth of the huge computer processing centers is ignoring potential impacts to utility bills and the environment.
The New York State Bar Association held a seminar this past month on what can legally be done to regulate the potentially harmful projects.
The concerns that lead to New York State’s one-year moratorium and similar local measures range from higher energy and water bills to constant noise and land use questions. There are wider concerns with the immense electricity use required by the datacenters.
“The power is being generated somewhere, and there’s a huge gas buildout going on that is going to cause huge changes in air pollution in communities even if they’re not hosting the datacenter themselves.” Amanda Garcia of the Southern Environmental Law Center
Power grids must have enough capacity for peak usage, especially when accommodating surrounding communities during heavy air conditioning and electricity usage. But Garcia said the main demand she hears from local resident is greater transparency in factors such as water usage, impacts on utility costs and noise from the proposed plants.
Moratoriums on datacenters were adopted so the state and local municipalities could come up with policies that would address pollution and impacts on utility bills.
Energy Justice Policy Center Executive Director Raya Salter told the Bar Association workshop such state or local laws should include statutes on who bears the risks and costs.
“One is polluter pays and cost causation principle, right? The folks who are causing these prices, they could pay for what some of these costs are. And there are ways to structure the policy and the rate making to put those risks more onto the developer.”
Salter added developers could be required to generate their own power, though that could raise pollution concerns. She noted the moratoriums could allow municipalities to decide whether datacenters are the right type of investment for a community.
In addition to the state, the towns of Manlius and Lysander are among those that enacted moratoriums. Each placed any plans from developers on pause to come up with policies that would protect residents.
