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I support Assemblymember Anna Kelles and state Senator Liz Krueger on their proposed Senate Bill S9144. In the article “Data center moratorium legislation introduced” from February 9, the proposed bill is said to establish a three-year pause on the siting/permitting of data centers. In this time the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Public Service Commission is forming a report on the industry’s impact on the environment and on New York ratepayers.
I think this is a wise choice. The development of data centers has become increasingly abundant in recent years, but they have not been around long enough for the long-term effects to be properly studied. However, the results of data centers in the short-term have been mostly negative. The servers and IT devices that make up data centers run on electricity generated by fossil fuels, which release significant amounts of carbon dioxide and directly impact climate change. Cooling systems are used to keep the data centers from overheating, leading to excessive water consumption that strains local resources. To give perspective, a Google data center used around 450,000 gallons of water a day. Diesel generators are also utilized by data centers to prevent downtime, and these generators produce pollutants such as particulate matter and other dangerous chemicals that have serious health implications and contribute to climate change too.
There are of course reasons that data centers are a booming industry. The opportunity for economic development is substantial. There is a myriad of job positions that data centers create, ranging from construction to management. Data centers could increase tax revenue and economic diversification. Considering the amount of money that has been invested (over $1 billion for larger centers), the economic potential is vast.
Caution is key in the implementation of data centers in New York. Though there are potential economic benefits, there are known negative environmental impacts. In three years, we might have more information on how data centers can have a positive economic result, but we do not currently have enough data to support that claim. There should be a way to support technological innovation and the connectivity that data centers bring without sacrificing the environment. Especially given the EPA’s recent ruling to revoke the “Endangerment Finding,” (the legal basis for climate initiatives that states greenhouse gases are harmful) we must strive to protect our environment from the irreversible damage data centers could cause.
Julia Franciscus
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Thank you for this important letter! It should be known to everyone reading this (and everyone in our region) that a 2.2 million square foot data center is currently being pushed by the Genesee County Economic Development Center (Genesee County’s Industrial Development Authority) for the huge boondoggle STAMP site in the rural Town of Alabama. This would be one of the largest data centers possible, the size of ELEVEN Super Walmarts. AND it would be bordering the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s land and Big Woods, an important and sacred wildland, in addition to it being on and surrounded by prime agricultural land and sensitive, ecologically important wetlands, wildlands, and preserves.
This proposed data center is just a desperate attempt for GCEDC to salvage its horribly-sited speculative STAMP project. STAMP was sold to the state Empire State Development Corporation–which has subsidized it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars while ignoring the state’s “smart growth” law–on the grounds that STAMP would be a prodigious job-creator. Yet the proposed data center would create only about 110 jobs and demand titanic resources for infrastructure, energy, and water. Not only is this proposed data center a giant middle finger to the Tonawanda Seneca next door, it is a poorly-disguised, horrible deal for New York’s taxpayers, rural residents of the area, and the rural/agricultural economy and character of Genesee County. It’s great that this letter celebrates the proposed moratorium on data centers– if you agree with Julia’s points, then you must help defeat this specific monster data center proposed for our region!