NY Governor Kathy Hochul on Her One Year Data Center Moratorium

New York Governor Kathy Hochul joined Odd Lots to explain why she ordered a one-year moratorium on new large data centers in the state and what she hopes to achieve during that pause. Hochul said the immediate driver was a recent surge of proposals and the need to manage constrained energy and water resources responsibly: she repeatedly framed the moratorium as a “step back” to set clear rules rather than a ban. The PSC has been charged to produce a plan within the year that ensures data centers either bring their own power or pay a premium to support the grid, while contributing to a newly proposed grid resiliency fund and local community investments. Hochul stressed that smaller towns lack negotiating sophistication and planning staff, and she wants a community investment framework so host localities capture tangible benefits.

The conversation expanded beyond permitting to Hochul’s broader AI, energy, and labor strategy. She touted New York’s public supercomputer and said the state used AI to comb statutes and regulations, generating over 4,000 recommended reforms to eliminate outdated rules. Hochul also emphasized workforce planning: she has created a Future of Work Commission to organize reskilling and mitigation for workers disrupted by AI (citing autonomous vehicles and the Waymo pause as an example where displaced drivers need alternatives). Economically, she signaled a preference for long-term, high‑paying manufacturing such as semiconductors — citing Micron’s roughly $100 billion planned investment with an estimated 10,000 direct and 40,000 indirect jobs — over powering lightly used data-center capacity. On energy supply, she called the Indian Point closure a mistake without replacement capacity, described actions to add transmission from Quebec and said she is pressing federal agencies for approvals and financing to expand nuclear (including small modular reactors). Hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal probed the political tradeoffs — whether the moratorium will look like a business-hostile stance or serve as a test case other states copy — and Hochul repeatedly returned to the need to balance enabling AI innovation with protecting communities, grid reliability, and workers during rapid technological change.