Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: In Western New York, Governor Hochul Highlights First Statewide Moratorium on New Hyperscale Data Centers as Support Continues to Grow

Governor Kathy Hochul today held a roundtable with state, business and local leaders from Western New York to highlight her Executive Order that creates the nation’s first moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, establishing the strongest standards for data center development and creating a blueprint to support localities. The Governor is temporarily pausing State environmental permits for up to one year in order to build a nation-leading regulatory framework that protects ratepayers, the environment, the energy grid and communities across the state.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon, everyone.

[...]  

My Mayor is over here, county folks, Deputy County Executive. Good to see everyone. I'm very pleased to continue my conversation on AI hyperscale data centers right in my hometown, and I know it's really been important. It's taken up a lot of the news coverage, and I want to thank John Flynn for hosting us — my early times having a chance to see you and congratulate you on your position as supervisor.

It is good to be home. I'll say for generations, New York has been a real driver of change. We embrace it. We love to be first. We always view ourselves as a place where great ideas are formulated and innovated. But right now, the winds of change are blowing in with hurricane force winds. This is extraordinary. What we're seeing is the — perhaps the most significant economic upheaval in history, what is happening with artificial intelligence, and it's changing the way we work, the way we live, the way we communicate, and it is just having a profound effect – both positive and negative.

The question isn't whether we should be embracing AI. We do. We do. We use AI every single day. I've used AI to rethink our government and came up with thousands of recommendations by asking people to use this as a tool to evaluate policies and rules and regulations and look at all the fees and, with the public giving us four thousand ideas and now AI coming up with thousands of ideas.

I have a blueprint to really just think about what we're doing and whether a lot of what our laws are antiquated. And AI was able to go through eighteen million words in a matter of a very short time, probably something that would have taken five or ten years to do at the human level. So I'm all on board — I just want to be very clear about that.

We're already building the largest supercomputer dedicated to artificial intelligence and public good right at the University of Buffalo — at my direction. This is called Empire AI. People are coming from all over the country to be able to use and to harness this power as we innovate new therapies for cancer and to think about how we track climate and weather, as we've seen us get hit with so many strange weather events in the last few years particularly.

So I want to make sure that people know we can use it in a smart way. But you also feel the dynamics. One is the disruptive effects of AI. I've also held roundtables with people who've lost their jobs — not that they thought they'd lose them to artificial intelligence, but their boss literally laid them off and said, "I'm replacing you with artificial intelligence." So these are people who maybe studied computer science, were on a career path that they thought would sustain them and their families for a long time, and the shock value of that is significant. So I've convened a group of thought leaders from industry and labor, technology, academia, to talk about the future of work in the era of AI and finding out the most vulnerable professions. Also, how we get people into the jobs that are going to be sustaining and give people a basic level of AI competency. And I harken back to what happened to this area after Bethlehem Steel closed down and the Ford plants and the GM plant downsized, and all of a sudden, so many were displaced and did not have an alternative, and I want to prevent that from happening – coming off of that knowledge base.

And so that's why we're doing so much there. But as we embrace AI, we also have to look at the impact on communities. Fourteen years in local government right down the road, always has me thinking about, what does this do to our community? And these hyperscale data centers consume an enormous amount of energy. There's no doubt about that, and in a time of limited resources, I have to make sure that whatever we do here is not going to increase utility rates for our residents and our businesses that have already made this our home. And so that is top of mind for me as well. They use giant tracts of land. Some would be a good use, better than had been there before, and some would be a very bad use.

The water that's consumed, the noise that's generated. So last last week, I signed the nation's first moratorium, one-year moratorium on building these hyperscale data centers just to give us some breathing room – to slow it down because right now I have over thirty projects before us in the state of New York, and if I powered every one of them, you would not be able to turn on the lights tomorrow. That's how serious this is. So we have to be thoughtful about this, really thoughtful, and that's what I'm excited about doing over this next year, working with state agencies, elected partners and others. So I don't just want to be first, I want to be the first in the right way, and that's been my challenge here.

Also, a couple more points before I get a chance to talk to all of you. I want to make sure that there is a robust community investment framework. I've seen what they do in other states. I want to make sure, especially when they come to our smaller communities that don't have a large enough planning department and economic development team and all those who would know everything that they could be asking for, that they're not getting the short shrift, that they're getting everything that's possible and more and just being thoughtful. I have a lot of ideas on this space, whether its direct contributions to the localities, their government, whether it's building — maybe helping build infrastructure, contributing to the grid. I want to make sure they contribute to grid reinvestment. Community centers, swimming pools, childcare centers. The sky's the limit because they want to come and when we give them the rules of the road and let them know with certainty that if you meet all this, you'll be able to come, then we've now changed the equation.

New Yorkers want protection, businesses want certainty, and I'm going to give both, and that is why we're doing this as well.

I'm excited about this chance, as I mentioned, and I wanted to have this conversation in Western New York because I know Tonawanda is contemplating its own moratorium. There's a large data center proposed for the Tonawanda Coke site. And as currently proposed and maybe this has changed, it would use the power from that would be the same amount of power consumed by the towns of Amherst and Tonawanda combined. That has to come from somewhere. That's just the reality check here. That's the reality check.

So I want to hear about this. Frank understands what it's like to live near one of these facilities. I'll be hearing from Frank in a couple minutes. Ted's concerned about the lack of jobs they might cause and what happens if they close. Melissa's worried about the electric use and how we'd like to see renewable energy as part of this. Kate's worried about the environment and the effect on natural resources, and Chris is worried about how many are being proposed. These are my local residents on the ground, the people who are living and breathing this every day, but also our elected officials here as well.

So I want New York to lead, but I want people who come here to build their futures – don't do it while asking New Yorkers to compromise theirs. We can make this happen in a thoughtful way. So I want to turn it over to Supervisor Flynn for a couple of comments, and then I'd like to put out some questions to the people who have come with us today.