Protect New Yorkers From AI Data Centers

Protect New Yorkers From AI Data Centers

Experts and advocates caution Governor Hochul and the PSC that New York's proposed data center environmental review fails to properly address critical environmental and affordability concerns

Contacts

Nydia Gutiérrez, [email protected]

Marissa Solomon, [email protected]

On Wednesday, 24 groups including Earthjustice submitted a letter to the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC), expressing that the environmental review process for Governor Hochul's data center moratorium is inadequate and fails to address many of New Yorkers' concerns about AI data centers. The draft scope primarily focuses on the technical issue of how data centers connect to the grid, and it's missing the full scope of what New Yorkers are concerned about: rising energy bills, air quality, water resources, climate change, noise, and quality of life.

Earthjustice's submission lays out the serious inadequacies on the PSC's Draft Scope of Work for the Generic Environmental Impact Statement, which glosses over many of the impacts on New Yorkers cited by Governor Hochul in her Executive Order.

"Yesterday's election confirmed that Governor Hochul did the right thing by instituting a data center moratorium. But her administration's plans to review data centers' impacts on New Yorkers are too narrow and miss the mark. If Governor Hochul wants to deliver on her promise and protect New Yorkers from energy-hogging data centers, she'll start with an actually holistic review process that actually looks at all of the negative risks that come with both new and expanding data centers," said Liz Moran, New York Policy Advocate at Earthjustice.

Read the group's letter here. In addition to the letter, read Earthjustice's complete comments here, and the cumulative impacts comments here.

In their comments, the groups urge the PSC to revise the Draft Scope to address the following:

• Broaden the Scope to consider all data center impacts, not just those from interconnection reforms. As currently written, the narrow scope risks failing to assess significant impacts that extend beyond grid management, such as data centers' impacts on New Yorkers' energy bills, air quality and climate change, water resources, land use, ecosystems, health, noise, and quality of life.
• Define roles for other necessary agencies, including the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of Health (DOH). Many of the most fundamental impacts from data center development lie outside the PSC's scope. Air pollution, water use and quality, land use change, noise, and toxic exposure are within the expertise of the DEC and DOH, but the current Draft Scope of Work does not describe these agencies' roles or what process will allow for their involvement.
• The Final Scope must evaluate a "no-action" scenario with no data center expansion. The Draft Scope includes plans to address a "no action" scenario that does not actually constitute "no action" but sets the no action baseline where data center development continues in New York without mitigation, but doesn't include plans to look at a New York without new or expanding data centers. The clear intention of Governor Hochul's moratorium is to pause the adverse potential harms caused by data center development until these harms are fully understood, but that can't be achieved without establishing a baseline of avoiding all adverse impacts.
• The Final Scope must ensure compliance with the CLCPA and the Environmental Justice Siting Law. These laws require New York to transition to clean energy and protect disadvantaged communities. The Draft Scope frames compliance with the CLCPA as a mere consideration, rather than a legal mandate, and fails to adequately address impacts in disadvantaged communities.
• The Final Scope must specify in greater detail how ratepayers will be protected. The narrow Draft Scope fails to specify in any detail which reforms will be considered, making it impossible to understand how these reforms would be assessed and applied. It raises more questions than answers, making it difficult for the public to adequately engage in the environmental review process.
• The Final Scope should evaluate a mandatory permit for any new or expanding data center. Depending on where and how some data centers are constructed or how they expand, it can be possible for even the largest ones to evade State permitting. Given data centers' potential for serious impacts on New Yorkers, an appropriate degree of permitting is critical to protect public health and the environment.

Read the coalition comments here, Earthjustice's complete comments here, and the cumulative impacts comments here.

Notably, the City of New York also submitted comments pointing out similar inadequacies in the draft scope, writing: "The City believes, however, that certain aspects of the Draft Scoping Document should be clarified to ensure that the GEIS provides the Commission with sufficient information to take the requisite "hard look" at potentially significant environmental impacts and to evaluate reasonable alternatives and mitigation measures. The City's comments below therefore seek to ensure that the GEIS adequately evaluates the range of large load development that may occur in the State, appropriately assesses cumulative and indirect impacts, and develops a comprehensive record regarding reliability, water resources, environmental justice, and climate-related considerations consistent with SEQRA."

Additional Resources

• About the Clean Energy Program

About Earthjustice

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.