By Chris McKenna,
ORANGEBURG — Signs of a backlash against America’s data center boom flashed through a hot, crowded room where residents were lined up to speak out about the latest local project.
In a pocket of Rockland County with at least four data centers, a Dallas-based company that just built one was already looking to expand. Opponents turned out in force, objecting for reasons unique to the site but also for a broader concern: the massive amounts of electricity that data centers use and how that will affect rising utility bills.
“We are overly saturated with data centers,” Kris Sweeney, who lives in nearby Pearl River, told the Orangetown Planning Board at a hearing on the DataBank project on Wednesday, March 25. “There is no talk of the cost to us, the local utility ratepayers.”
“So there’s currently no regulations to have the ultra-rich owners of these data centers pay more,” Sweeney added. “So guess who it is? It’s us again, the Orangetown ratepayer.”
From town halls around New York to government corridors in Albany and Washington, the spread of these giant tech operations to meet the demands of artificial intelligence is causing jitters about spiking power use and a strain on capacity.
That it’s happening in the midst of an affordability crunch and as utility bills keep going up has only stiffened the resistance, and spurred clamor for action.
NY efforts to halt data center construction or shift cost burden
New York’s Public Service Commission launched a review in February to adjust how data centers and other large energy users connect to the power grid, and how they can be made to cover resulting costs so ratepayers are spared. That move stemmed from a plan Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a month earlier in her State of the State speech.
“New York will continue to lead in attracting new technologies, but we must also grow responsibly, ensuring affordability comes first and those profiting from data growth pay their share,” Hochul said then.
At the time, New York had 48 projects with huge power demands lined up to request service — a total of 11 gigawatts. That’s more power than all of New York City uses on a summer day with air conditioners blasting.
One of the biggies on deck is a data center between Rochester and Buffalo in Genesee County — a proposed campus that would take up 2.2 million square feet in three buildings and reportedly would draw 500 megawatts of power. It has stoked local opposition that includes a nearby Tonawanda Seneca Nation reservation.
In February, a pair of Democratic state lawmakers proposed a moratorium that would pause construction of data centers in New York for at least three years until their combined environmental effects can be studied. The bill by Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Anna Kelles also would have the Public Service Commission set rules to minimize higher utility costs for consumers.
And a similar proposal at the national level emerged just this week, floated by two prominent progressives: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
What are the data center proposals in Orangeburg?
DataBank recently built a roughly 145,000-square-foot data center that has yet to start up, and is now seeking approval for a second phase. It initially proposed another building of equal size but has since cut its plan in half, to 78,000 square foot, after the project came under scrutiny.
The property is in a light industrial park in the Orangeburg section of Orangetown, next door to a Bloomberg data center. They are part of a cluster in that area that also includes a JP Morgan Chase data center on the Rockland Psychiatric Center campus, and a data center on Ramland Road operated by 1547 Critical Systems Realty.
At this week’s meeting, DataBank representatives said their expanded operation would use a total of 30 megawatts to power its tech equipment — and up to 45 megawatts overall for the business.
Two of the nearby data centers also are expanding and seeking more power. JP Morgan Chase has applied for an additional 22.3 megawatts, and 1547 Critical Systems Realty requested 30 megawatts more, according to a list of interconnection requests kept by the New York State Independent System Operator, the nonprofit that runs the state grid.
Opponents of the DataBank expansion held a rally in Orangetown Town Hall before packing into the Planning Board’s meeting room on March 25. High among the concerns they raised that night: the property’s proximity to the Lake Tappan reservoir and potential for contamination of a drinking water supply.
They questioned the noise from diesel-powered generators that will power the data center during outages and be turned periodically to be tested. Joyce Fan, who lives nearby in Old Tappan, N.J., said the Bloomberg Center runs its generators three times a month, for six to seven hours each time, causing a disturbing din in her house even with doors and windows closed.
Clifford Davis, an attorney representing some opponents, spoke at the outset of the public comments and repeated a perceived legal flaw, arguing that Orangetown’s zoning for its light industrial district — where both Bloomberg and the existing DataBank building — doesn’t allow data centers.
During questioning before then by Planning Board members, DataBank representatives said the expanded operation would cause minimal noise and posed no risk to Lake Tappan. The diesel, they said, will be held in double-walled storage tanks that would prevent any fuel from leaking and making its way to the reservoir. The generators will be tested once a month, each running at different times for about an hour.
As for the zoning objection, DataBank’s lawyer said that question had long been settled by the town’s approvals of both the Bloomberg data center and the existing DataBank building.
Opponents are urging the board to require a full-fledged environmental review known as an impact statement, which DataBank argues is unwarranted. The board has asked DataBank for further information and made no decision yet about whether to require an impact statement.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Inside the fight to stop data center expansion in Rockland County