New York

Energy/Power is the dominant stressor: the core legislative fights are about who pays for grid upgrades, special rate classes, and how to prevent higher electricity and gas costs for other customers (New York State Assembly, NYSenate). Water/Geology is the secondary stressor in the Finger Lakes, where the Cayuga Lake site and broader anti-cryptomining/AI coalition focus on noise, water, and environmental impacts (POLITICO, Seneca Lake Guardian).

None identified as a top-tier ballot-defining issue in 2026. The issue is most visible in Albany policymaking and local town politics, with Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and likely GOP challenger Elise Stefanik (R) operating amid broader energy-affordability politics, but no authoritative 2026 candidate platform source found tying either race centrally to data centers; local Lansing Town Board politics became entangled with the proposed TeraWulf project and a moratorium debate (POLITICO).

State-level moratorium bills are active but not enacted. Assembly bill A10141A / Senate companion S09144-A would impose a temporary moratorium on permits for new data centers, require a PSC report on rate impacts, and bar approvals before new DEC/PSC rules are in place; as of May 12, 2026 the Assembly page shows A10141A amended and recommitted to environmental conservation on May 12, 2026 (New York State Assembly). S6394A also remained active in 2025-26 but was only amended and recommitted to environmental conservation on June 9, 2025 (NYSenate). At the local level, Lansing, in the Finger Lakes, has considered a one-year moratorium on new development amid the proposed TeraWulf project at the former coal plant on Cayuga Lake (POLITICO).

Two major 2025-26 proposals address cost allocation. A10141A / S09144-A would require the PSC to issue orders to minimize impacts on electricity and gas rates for residential, commercial, and industrial users and would require data centers to bear all costs of service, including generation, transmission, distribution, and commodity-price impacts (New York State Assembly). S8546 would create a grid modernization surcharge on data centers and high-intensity data centers, with a separate line item bill, and establish a grid modernization fund for reliability, capacity, and clean-energy integration; it is currently in Senate Rules (NYSenate). S6394A also directs the PSC to establish a data center surcharge and discount plan and to regulate annual disclosure, but the public page available here does not show enacted status (NYSenate).

None identified.

1) TeraWulf Cayuga Lake / Lansing, Tompkins County — proposed AI data center on about 180 acres of a former coal plant; contested by local residents and environmental groups, with a town moratorium debate ongoing (POLITICO). 2) Upstate New York Google-backed TeraWulf project — an additional upstate project referenced in reporting as having Google backing, but the specific site was not identified in the source gathered here; status appears proposed/under development (POLITICO). 3) Greenidge / Seneca Lake crypto-power facility — not a classic hyperscale data center, but still central to New York's energy-and-environment debate because it continues to anchor anti-crypto and anti-AI-data-center organizing in the Finger Lakes; status remains contested/legally burdened (POLITICO).

Food & Water Watch; Seneca Lake Guardian; We Are Seneca Lake; No Data Center FLX; New York Communities for Change (Food & Water Watch, Seneca Lake Guardian).

None identified at the state political-surface layer as of May 2026. Talent and workforce dynamics in New York surface primarily at the sub-state and labor-market level — county and municipal proceedings on named projects, regional building trades council positions, and utility commission workforce testimony — which are out of scope for the tracker's state-political-surface read. Request a full RAIL briefing for sub-state and labor-market analysis.

Growing cluster. New York is not yet a national hyperscale super-hub, but it has meaningful upstate and downstate activity, including the Lansing/Cayuga Lake proposal and broader legislative scrutiny of utility impacts; exact statewide MW/facility totals were not confirmed in the sources gathered here.

"The all-Democratic board is divided on the moratorium" in Lansing, where a proposed TeraWulf data center at a former coal plant on Cayuga Lake helped trigger local political conflict (POLITICO).

New York State Assembly A10141A, New York State Senate S8546, POLITICO: Data center divides Finger Lakes town, Food & Water Watch NY moratorium letter, Seneca Lake Guardian, POLITICO: New York Democrats propose sweeping pause on data center construction