New York enacts one-year moratorium on new data centers
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday issued an executive order mandating a one-year statewide pause on new data centers, becoming the first state to enact such a moratorium, according to the Guardian. The move comes as the data center industry faces growing opposition from voters across the country, particularly among Democrats.
In Michigan, the controversy has centered on the planned $16 billion “Barn” data center in Saline Township, a partnership between OpenAI and Oracle. At a groundbreaking ceremony in June, Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared on stage with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, drawing sharp criticism from Democratic voters in the area.
Sarah Brabbs, a lifelong Democrat who lives six miles from the site, said she felt “just rage and sadness” at Whitmer’s support. “I will never not appreciate who she was during that time [the pandemic],” Brabbs told the Guardian. “But I’m extremely angry watching her essentially throw us under the bus, casually.”
Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, called the governor’s position “disgusting.”
The backlash illustrates a growing divide between Democratic establishment figures who view AI-driven data centers as economic development and a grassroots base that sees them as environmental and financial burdens. An Ipsos national poll found that Democratic voters “strongly/somewhat oppose” data centers by a margin of 17% compared with their Republican counterparts. Only 9% of Democrats said they supported a data center in their own community, compared with 21% of Republicans.
In Wisconsin, Democratic Governor Tony Evers praised Microsoft’s data center complex in Racine County as a “modern marvel” last September. But local Democrats have grown skeptical. Kelly Gallaher, chair of the Racine County Democratic Party, said the “tide has really turned” against such projects. “People are finally getting wise to it,” she said.
The Mount Pleasant site, bought by Microsoft in 2023, was previously the location of a failed $10 billion Foxconn project announced by the Trump administration. The village of Mount Pleasant borrowed close to $1 billion to fund infrastructure for Foxconn, leaving local leaders receptive when Microsoft approached. Microsoft’s first datacenter, called Fairwater, is now complete, and the second is expected to open in 2028, using up to 8.4 million gallons of water annually from Lake Michigan.
Microsoft canceled plans for a separate data center in Caledonia, Wisconsin, after local pushback, just one month after Evers’ announcement. In Michigan, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, Jocelyn Benson, is married to an executive of Related Companies, the real estate firm developing the Saline Township project. A survey of Michigan voters in May found that 64% of Democrats opposed having a data center within 25 miles of their home.
The issue has also surfaced in the Michigan Senate primary. Candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who leads in some polls, has called for partial public ownership of data centers, a position that sets him apart from many establishment figures.
Emails sent to Whitmer’s office by the Guardian asking if she thought her support for data centers could cost her politically were not responded to. In Pennsylvania, reports show the issue is bringing Republican and Democratic voters together against the projects. In Wisconsin, a swing state where Donald Trump won by less than 1% in 2024, voters have been left furious with their Democratic party leaders’ support for data centers.