Washington spent years restricting China’s access to advanced semiconductors and the equipment used to manufacture them. Those controls protect an important American advantage. They do not tell states and communities how to evaluate the facilities needed to install, power, and cool those chips at home.
New York exposed that omission on July 14, when Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) ordered a one-year pause on certain incomplete state environmental permit applications for data centers capable of drawing 50 megawatts or more. The order does not halt previously permitted construction and expressly leaves local approvals in place. New York is using the pause to develop standards on electricity costs, environmental effects, and community benefits because those rules were not settled before projects arrived.
