Kathy Hochul
Kathy Hochul is the Democratic governor of New York, in office since 2021.
“It is not a ban. It is simply saying step back, take a breath, and get it right. Businesses want that knowledge of what the rules of the road are.”
Odd Lots · Money & Markets · July 2026
Context
Hochul on Odd Lots, hours after announcing a one-year moratorium on large new data centers in New York. She was asked why she acted now and what the pause is meant to achieve.
Transcript
…Governor Hochl, thank you so much for coming on Audlots. Delighted to join both of you. All right. So the big news came out this morning, a one-year moratorium on big new data centers in New York State. Why now? What was the catalyst for this particular decision today? Well, there's been really
…to that. My main challenge is in the state of New York, making sure we keep the lights on and making sure that people can afford to keep the lights on. And so the challenges that I have to deal with in this environment where everything we want to do for clean energy, renewable energy, or all the
…want to come in. I said this in my state of the state back in January. I launched the Public Service Commission to start this process. They'll be done within this year of the moratorium so we can have certainty for businesses. But you come, you bring your own power source or you have to pay a premium to use our grid. And those are the basic foundations of what we're doing with this moratorium. It is not a ban. It is simply saying step back, take a breath, and get it right. Businesses want that knowledge of what the rules of the road are. We've actually had some interesting tweets from the builders of these facilities who are now saying, hey, just tell us the rules. Tell us the regulations. We're okay with that. And that's exactly what we're doing. But also responds to a lot of frustration from these communities, from people who don't think that they're paying their fair share or that
they're just coming in and to start forcing themselves in. And that's really annoying to people. It's just, they've had enough. Americans have had enough. So this is the U.S.'s first statewide moratorium on data centers, which means inevitably this is going to be seen as a test case or an…
for here? What should the outcome of the moratorium actually be? Very specific goals. My public service commission will take this year to devise a plan where we figure out how to make sure that they bring their own power or that they're substantially contributing to the grid. Secondly, I want them…
Right. We know in some instances, I think I've seen headlines like in Louisiana, for example, the big meta campus, not campus, data center. It's like there's going to be, you know, payments to teachers in the area. The idea, I suppose, is, okay, any place that's open for data center business, let's…
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