What Democrats Can Learn From New York’s Data Center Moratorium

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Save this storySave this storyWelcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season’s biggest issue: data centers. If you’ve got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Molly an email at [email protected] or reach them securely on Signal at mollytaft.76.

欢迎回到“权力游戏”（Power Play）！每周，资深撰稿人莫莉·塔夫特（Molly Taft）都会探讨中期选举季最热门的话题：数据中心。如果您对本专栏有任何疑问或想法，欢迎发送电子邮件至 [email protected]，或通过 Signal 安全联系：mollytaft.76。

When New York became the first state in the country to enact a moratorium on data center development, Adrienne Yocina was excited. For the past two years, the mom of three has been organizing in western Genesee County to stop a 600-megawatt data center from coming to a site close to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s reservation and a federal wildlife refuge.

当纽约州成为全国第一个对数据中心开发实施暂停令的州时，阿德里安娜·约西纳（Adrienne Yocina）感到非常兴奋。过去两年来，这位三个孩子的母亲一直在纽约州西部的杰纳西县（Genesee County）组织活动，试图阻止一个 600 兆瓦的数据中心落户在靠近托纳旺达塞内卡民族（Tonawanda Seneca Nation）保留地和联邦野生动物保护区的地方。

But almost four months after the one-year moratorium began, Yocina tells me that she’s “getting nervous.” She’s worried that Democratic governor Kathy Hochul won’t sign a stronger bill to impose a stricter moratorium, and is concerned that the state Department of Environmental Conservation is not adequately involved in the process of evaluating data centers in New York. “I feel like she’s just trying to shut us up,” she says of Hochul.

然而，在为期一年的暂停令生效近四个月后，约西纳告诉我她“开始感到紧张了”。她担心民主党州长凯西·霍楚尔（Kathy Hochul）不会签署一项更强有力的法案来实施更严格的暂停令，并担心州环境保护部没有充分参与纽约州数据中心的评估过程。谈到霍楚尔时，她说：“我觉得她只是想让我们闭嘴。”

Data centers are at the center of midterm races across the country, with politicians of both parties making promises to enact regulations or moratoriums on development. After next week comes the tough part: Newly elected officials must either break their word or follow through on those promises as they weigh large infrastructure projects coming to their states and residents who say they’ll reject data centers no matter what.

数据中心已成为全国中期选举的核心议题，两党政客都承诺将对开发项目实施监管或暂停令。下周之后，真正的考验即将到来：新当选的官员们必须在违背诺言或兑现承诺之间做出选择，同时他们还要权衡州内的大型基础设施项目，以及那些声称无论如何都要抵制数据中心的居民们的诉求。

How will those compromises go—and will they appease voters? New York’s moratorium, and the continued opposition from some groups, may offer clues.

这些妥协将如何进行？它们能安抚选民吗？纽约州的暂停令以及一些团体的持续反对，或许能提供一些线索。

In July, just two months after dismissing the idea of a data center moratorium, Hochul signed the nation’s first executive order to put a pause on development. Her order was a compromise. Just weeks prior, the state legislature had passed an omnibus bill that would have implemented a one-year moratorium throughout New York. The bill contained several provisions that made it more aggressive than Hochul’s moratorium, including stricter limits on the size of data centers and a mandate that the Department of Environmental Conservation conduct a thorough environmental impact review of data center operations. Rather than sign the bill, Hochul issued her own order. (The governor has until the end of the year to sign that bill, and her office says they are still looking at it.)

今年 7 月，在否决了数据中心暂停令的想法仅两个月后，霍楚尔签署了全国首个暂停开发的行政命令。她的命令是一种妥协。就在几周前，州议会通过了一项综合法案，原计划在全纽约州实施为期一年的暂停令。该法案包含了几项比霍楚尔的暂停令更激进的条款，包括对数据中心规模的更严格限制，以及要求环境保护部对数据中心运营进行彻底的环境影响评估。霍楚尔没有签署该法案，而是发布了自己的命令。（州长在年底前仍有权签署该法案，其办公室表示目前仍在审议中。）

One of the bill’s State Senate sponsors, Democrat Kristen Gonzalez, has been publicly supportive of Hochul’s moratorium. The governor’s office, Gonzalez says, proactively reached out to her after her bill passed to help design the moratorium for more immediate relief for New Yorkers.

该法案的州参议院发起人之一、民主党人克里斯汀·冈萨雷斯（Kristen Gonzalez）公开支持霍楚尔的暂停令。冈萨雷斯表示，在她的法案通过后，州长办公室主动联系了她，协助设计了这项旨在为纽约人提供更直接救济的暂停令。

Gonzalez went on a data center tour of New York at the end of the summer, talking to residents around the state about their concerns. She told me that the people she talked to overwhelmingly wanted Hochul to go further and implement more aggressive measures to protect communities from data centers. “There are local communities statewide that are living near existing data centers, dealing with significant air pollution and noise pollution, who are struggling with rising utility bills and rising water bills,” she told me. “We see the moratorium as a first step, but it can’t be the last.”

夏末，冈萨雷斯在纽约州进行了一次数据中心巡回考察，与全州各地的居民交流了他们的担忧。她告诉我，她交谈过的人绝大多数都希望霍楚尔能更进一步，采取更激进的措施来保护社区免受数据中心的影响。她对我说：“全州各地都有社区生活在现有数据中心附近，他们正在应对严重的空气污染和噪音污染，并为不断上涨的水电费而挣扎。我们将暂停令视为第一步，但这绝不能是最后一步。”

Hochul has a comfortable lead over Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman ahead of Tuesday’s election—something that may have been helped by the moratorium’s passing. In a recent Quinnipiac poll of New York voters, 53 percent of respondents said they trusted Hochul to do a better job in handling AI and data centers, compared to just 31 percent trusting Blakeman. Blakeman, who has voiced support for data centers, called Hochul’s moratorium “crazy” when it was passed in July. His campaign didn’t immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

在周二的选举前，霍楚尔在民调中以较大优势领先共和党挑战者布鲁斯·布莱克曼（Bruce Blakeman），这或许得益于暂停令的通过。在昆尼皮亚克大学（Quinnipiac）最近针对纽约选民的一项民调中，53% 的受访者表示相信霍楚尔在处理人工智能和数据中心问题上会做得更好，而只有 31% 的人信任布莱克曼。布莱克曼曾表达过对数据中心的支持，并在 7 月暂停令通过时称其为“疯狂”。他的竞选团队没有立即回应《连线》（WIRED）杂志的置评请求。

Hochul has also touted her tough on-data-center bona fides on the campaign trail. Early last month, she hosted a roundtable discussion on data centers with agricultural, environmental, and business leaders at a farm in the Hudson Valley. There, she told reporters that she wanted to work with the state legislature to implement more aggressive protections, including banning tax breaks for data centers. At the event, Hochul was flanked by Gonzalez and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Washington’s most prominent data center critics.

霍楚尔在竞选活动中也标榜自己对数据中心采取强硬立场。上月初，她在哈德逊河谷的一个农场主持了一场关于数据中心的圆桌讨论，与农业、环境和商业领袖进行了交流。会上，她告诉记者，她希望与州议会合作，实施更积极的保护措施，包括禁止为数据中心提供税收减免。在活动中，霍楚尔由冈萨雷斯和华盛顿最著名的数据中心批评者之一、众议员亚历山德里娅·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯（Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez）陪同。

I asked Hochul at the event how she anticipates handling continued opposition after her moratorium ends. How does New York balance economic development with community opposition if some people don’t want data centers in their backyards under any circumstances, even with the assurances from the state that Hochul’s office is working to create?

我在活动中问霍楚尔，她预计在暂停令结束后将如何处理持续的反对声音。如果有些人无论如何都不希望数据中心建在自家后院，即使州政府（霍楚尔办公室）承诺会制定相关保障措施，纽约州又该如何平衡经济发展与社区反对意见呢？

The purpose of her pause, she said, was that communities should be able to choose. “This is democracy in action,” she said. “If you want it, it should come with all kinds of guardrails and restraints, but if you don’t want it, it doesn’t come.”

她说，她实施暂停的目的是让社区拥有选择权。“这就是民主的实践，”她说。“如果你想要它，它就应该伴随着各种护栏和约束；但如果你不想要，它就不会出现。”

More New Yorkers may end up choosing the latter option. A Siena poll from September found that 63 percent of New Yorkers would oppose data centers being built in their area even after Hochul’s moratorium expires. (It’s even higher for New York Democrats, with 75 percent saying they’d remain opposed to data center development post-moratorium.)

最终，更多的纽约人可能会选择后者。锡耶纳学院（Siena）9 月份的一项民调发现，即使在霍楚尔的暂停令到期后，仍有 63% 的纽约人会反对在他们所在的地区建设数据中心。（对于纽约州的民主党人来说，这一比例甚至更高，75% 的人表示在暂停令结束后仍会反对数据中心开发。）

Many newly elected (or reelected) governors will face a similar dynamic: At least 20 gubernatorial candidates have promised a data center moratorium or pause, according to research compiled by government relations company MultiState. Even more have promised to regulate the industry more tightly. Formerly data-center-friendly incumbents like Texas’s Greg Abbott and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro have also made pledges to be stricter on their development.

许多新当选（或连任）的州长将面临类似的局面：根据政府关系公司 MultiState 汇编的研究，至少有 20 位州长候选人承诺实施数据中心暂停令。还有更多人承诺对该行业进行更严格的监管。此前对数据中心持友好态度的现任州长，如德克萨斯州的格雷格·阿博特（Greg Abbott）和宾夕法尼亚州的乔什·夏皮罗（Josh Shapiro），也已承诺将对数据中心开发采取更严格的措施。

Come January, new governors will face highly engaged constituents who are finding a political home for the first time in the fight against data centers. That includes Yoci

到了明年一月，新任州长们将面对高度参与的选民，这些选民在反对数据中心的斗争中第一次找到了政治归属感。这其中就包括约西纳。