July 21, 2026. New York passes the first statewide data center moratorium. Monterey Park votes a permanent ban. The freeze is spreading.
On July 16, 2026, the New York State Legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act. The bill imposes a one-year moratorium on state permits for new large data centers with peak demand of 20 megawatts or more. Governor Kathy Hochul has not yet signed. If she does, New York will become the first state in the country to enact a statewide data center moratorium.
The original bill, introduced in February, called for a three-year freeze and required a Generic Environmental Impact Statement with nine regional public hearings before any pause could be lifted. The version that passed is narrower. Projects that have already commenced construction by the effective date are exempt. The one-year clock starts when the bill is signed.
This is the legislative expression of something we reported on last week. The governors broke ranks. Now the legislatures are codifying it.
In June 2026, residents of Monterey Park, California voted to permanently ban data centers within city limits. It is the first U.S. municipality to do so at the ballot box, following months of public backlash over a proposed facility. The vote was not close.
Reuters is now running a worldwide tracker of jurisdictions restricting or banning data center construction. The map is growing. Governments in Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and multiple U.S. states are imposing moratoriums, zoning restrictions, or outright bans. The AI buildout collided with local democracy, and local democracy is winning.
New York is not alone. The legislative pattern that started in 2025 has accelerated through the first half of 2026:
At the federal level, proposed legislation would require data centers to report energy and water consumption and mandate EPA review for facilities over 50 megawatts. The political calculus is shifting. Two years ago, data centers were economic development. Today, they are infrastructure liabilities.
A single large data center can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes and millions of gallons of water per day for cooling. The facilities cluster. When fifteen data centers land in a single county, the local grid buckles. Ratepayers cover the upgrade costs. Water tables drop. And the communities that host these facilities see none of the economic benefit they were promised.
Gallup polling from April 2026: 71 percent of Americans oppose building new data centers in their community. That number crosses party lines. It crosses urban and rural. The opposition is not ideological. It is practical. People can see what is happening to their water bills and their electricity rates.
The Hochul decision is the near-term pivot. If she signs, New York becomes the blueprint. Other states with pending legislation will point to Section 3 of the Responsible Data Center Development Act and say: they did it, we can too. If she vetoes, the fight shifts back to the local level, where Monterey Park has already shown the way.
Either way, the freeze is spreading. $130 billion in data center projects were blocked in Q1 alone. The number for Q2 will be higher. We have been tracking this at our firm. Our Data Centers resource page maps the facilities, the opposition, and the legislation, updated weekly.
Beaumont & Sheridan is an information resource for individual creators. This post does not constitute legal advice.