NY S.10642 / A.11560 / Responsible Data Center Development Act / passed both chambers Jun 23 / on Hochul's desk 10-day clock / 1-yr pause >20MW / 18-month EIS / separate electric+water rate class / 33% renewable by 2030 / mandatory public hearing / 51 NYISO projects in queue
New York State Senate Bill S.10642 (sponsored by Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Chair of Internet & Technology) and Assembly Bill A.11560 — the 'Responsible Data Center Development Act' — passed both chambers on the final days of the 2026 session and now sits on Gov. Hochul's desk with a 10-day signing window (hard deadline ~July 4) — if signed, it becomes the first STATE-level data center moratorium in the United States, in contrast to the 60+ county and city moratoriums that have stacked up over the last 3 months
Plain-English version of what happened. New York has a part-time state legislature that adjourns in mid-June; in the last 72 hours of the 2026 session, both the Senate and Assembly passed S.10642/A.11560, the 'Responsible Data Center Development Act,' authored by Sen. Kristen Gonzalez (D-Queens), who chairs the Senate Internet & Technology Committee. The bill is more ambitious than every existing data-center statute in any other state — it bundles five separate operative provisions into a single omnibus law, not just a moratorium clause. The bill now sits on Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk; under New York law, she has 10 days from formal delivery to sign it, veto it, or sign it 'contingent on a chapter amendment' (meaning she negotiates with the legislature to amend specific provisions before signing). Hochul has not announced a position. As of June 10 she said publicly that data-center siting 'should be left up to municipalities,' which reads as a soft signal she may veto or negotiate a chapter amendment — but she is also up for re-election in November 2026, and the Food & Water Watch / Sierra Club coalition that drove the bill has the constituency she needs. The five operative provisions, all in a single statute (this matters because, like FL SB 484, every provision is on the surface — no hidden language in revenue bills): 1. **One-year moratorium on any new data center permit for hyperscale facilities with peak load >20 MW.** Existing facilities and projects already under permit are grandfathered. The bill defines 'data center' broadly enough to capture not just AI training campuses but also general-purpose cloud, hyperscaler colo, and crypto-mining facilities at the >20 MW threshold. 2. **Mandatory 18-month statewide environmental impact assessment.** The NY Department of Environmental Conservation, in consultation with the PSC and other agencies, must finalize a statewide report within 18 months covering: average and peak electric load, electricity generation sourcing, discounted/subsidized electricity received, water consumption and discharge, land use, GHG and other pollution, electronic waste, and public funds / tax incentives received. This is the most exhaustive structured-data demand any data-center statute has yet imposed — essentially a state-mandated dataset of exactly the variables Cliff's diligence product produces. 3. **Separate electric AND water rate classes.** The bill directs the PSC to create distinct rate classes for large data centers in BOTH electric and water tariffs — making it the first US statute to apply ratepayer-protection logic to water as well as power. This is structurally important in NY where municipal water rates are politically contested in NYC and Long Island. 4. **Renewable-energy mandate, starting at 33% in 2030.** Existing data centers must source increasing fractions of their electricity from renewable sources, beginning at one-third by 2030 and ramping (the bill text directs the PSC to set the ramp schedule). This effectively imposes Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA, 2019) targets specifically on data centers, ahead of the broader CLCPA schedule. 5. **Mandatory local public hearing for any future data-center permit.** Once the moratorium lifts, every new permit application requires a public hearing with public comment in the local community. This is the same provision FL SB 484 added. The scale of impact: per state regulators, there were 51 large-load projects (mostly data centers, some advanced manufacturing) seeking to connect to the New York electric system by 2030 as of May 2026. Most of those are in the NYISO interconnection queue. A 12-month moratorium would push every one of them back at least a year, and combined with provisions 3+4 (rate-class and renewable mandate) would change the economics of returning to the queue post-moratorium.
Why it matters
Four implications. (1) This is the first moratorium signal to land INSIDE an RTO. Every prior moratorium of the last 3 months (Duke Carolinas, TVA, FRCC, MISO-Wisconsin minus the Madison/Manitowoc/La Crosse fragments) has been in non-RTO or partial-RTO territory. NY is fully inside NYISO, which is one of the six RTOs that received FERC's June 18 show-cause order. So if Hochul signs, the corpus has to add a new category: 'state-level moratorium inside an RTO,' where BOTH the FERC RTO cost-allocation framework AND the state moratorium are simultaneously operative on the same site. That's a regulatory regime no other US site currently sits in. (2) The 20 MW threshold is the most important number on the desk today. If Hochul signs at 20 MW, that becomes the de facto reference threshold for every future state-level moratorium bill — meaning the next 5–10 states copying NY's template will probably also use 20 MW. For Cliff, this means the 'hyperscale' category for diligence purposes should be defined at 20 MW peak load, not 100 MW+, because that's where the regulatory boundary actually sits. (3) Provision 2 (the 18-month statewide EIS) is structurally what Cliff is building. The NY DEC will be required to assemble exactly the structured dataset — load, generation sourcing, water consumption, GHG, land use, e-waste, public funds received — that Cliff's diligence product produces. If Hochul signs, NY DEC will spend 18 months building a single state-level version of what Cliff sells across 50 states. There's an obvious GTM read here: become the contractor / data-vendor for that DEC build. (4) Provision 3 (separate WATER rate class) is the first US statute to add a water-rate carveout for data centers. Florida SB 484 mandated water hearings; NY S.10642 mandates a separate water tariff class. This is the start of water becoming a peer regulatory variable to power for diligence purposes — and water utilities are typically municipal (NYC DEP, Suffolk County Water Authority, etc.), so the diligence stack expands beyond IOU + RTO to include city/county water authorities.