Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at efforts to regulate huge data centers that make artificial intelligence possible — and use significant amounts of electricity. We’ll also find out why Luigi Mangione’s state trial on murder charges was postponed.
Plans for the sprawling data centers that make artificial intelligence possible are raising concerns around the country — and prompting policymakers to mull what to do about them. As my colleague Tony Romm noted over the weekend, New York State has already taken some of the most aggressive steps. Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul became the first governor to impose a one-year moratorium barring state approvals of so-called hyperscale data centers, behemoths that need more than 50 megawatts of power to operate. “Artificial intelligence is literally transforming every sector of our economy,” she said at the time, “and I want New York to lead that transformation.” Hochul has made it clear that she is not anti-tech, citing the state’s efforts to lure the semiconductor maker Micron, which broke ground on a $100 million manufacturing complex north of Syracuse in January. She maintains that A.I. data centers are different: They require more power than the state can provide, at least at the present. That point was also raised by State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, a Democrat from Brooklyn, who was a sponsor of a moratorium measure passed by the Legislature in June. She said that if the roughly 30 hyperscale data centers now on the drawing board for New York were given the green light, they would use as much electricity as the wattage needed for one-third of the state’s residential customers. “Any large-scale project in this moment is a threat to our already strained grid,” she said, warning that rolling blackouts could result. She mentioned an appeal from Mayor Zohran Mamdani during hot weather last month, when he asked New York City residents to turn their thermostats up to 78 degrees. “It was because if you push our grid too far, you’d have a service disruption,” Gonzalez said, “and that’s without any large data centers.” Data centers have stirred fears about mass layoffs, with A.I. tackling work now handled by everyone from factory workers to lawyers. That has sparked concern about the centers: In a nationwide poll by Politico last month — completed just before Hochul announced the moratorium — 41 percent said they opposed building a data center within three miles of their home. That was up from 24 percent when the same question was asked in January. A separate Gallup Poll in March found that 48 percent “strongly oppose” construction of data centers near where they live. Another 23 percent said they were “somewhat” opposed. Hochul hasn’t signed Gonzalez’s bill. The governor imposed the moratorium through an executive order. Why didn’t Hochul sign the bill? “What the governor has said is she wanted to take action quickly,” my colleague Grace Ashford, who covers state government, told me. “She made the argument that ‘I can go faster.’ She also said doing the executive order doesn’t necessarily mean she won’t sign the bill.” Hochul has until Dec. 31 to decide and sign — or not. Gonzalez isn’t upset that Hochul went ahead with the executive order. “It was important to have an immediate moratorium,” Gonzalez told me, adding that she had worked with Hochul’s office on the executive order. But Gonzalez noted that the bill would go further than the executive order did, setting targets for hyperscale plants to draw power from renewable sources like wind and solar. Gonzalez sees an affordability issue if data centers are billed at the same rate for the electricity they use as ordinary businesses or consumers are. Utility companies could file for rate increases with state regulators based on the costs of delivering the additional electricity and maintaining the grid to do so. “All of the costs could be passed down to us as consumers,” she said. (Earlier in the year, Hochul directed the Department of Public Service to begin a proceeding called Energize NY, which Hochul’s office said would require data centers to pay more for the energy they use — or supply their own.) Hochul’s moratorium and other moves to regulate data centers have come in for criticism from the tech industry. Dan Diorio, the executive vice president of state policy and government affairs for the Data Center Coalition, a lobbying group, has called the New York ban too “open ended.” The group also issued a report in May that countered the idea that data centers have been “subsidized” by other customers — such as consumers — under existing rate structures. Some construction unions, which had been looking forward to building the data centers, also opposed the moratorium. Mark McManus, the president of the United Association, which represents plumbers and pipe fitters, said last month it “only accomplishes one thing: It kills good-paying jobs.” WEATHER Clouds will give way to sunshine as temperatures reach a high near 86. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 72. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Sept. 7 (Labor Day). QUOTE OF THE DAY “There was concern about the potential for increased pollution caused by drivers looking to avoid the toll. As this study confirms, that didn’t happen.” — Janno Lieber, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on a study from the city’s Health Department that found that air quality had, at most, improved only slightly in Manhattan since congestion pricing was introduced last year. The latest Metro news
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Last week, Luigi Mangione acknowledged shooting Brian Thompson, a health care executive, as he pleaded guilty to two federal counts of stalking that led to Thompson’s death. On Monday, his murder trial in state court, which had been scheduled to begin next month, was postponed amid his lawyers’ efforts to dismiss that case. Mangione had pleaded not guilty to the state charges, including second-degree murder, and if convicted would face a sentence of 25 years to life. Less than an hour after Mangione entered the guilty plea on Friday, his lawyers sought to have the state charges dismissed. They argued that going ahead with that case would violate Mangione’s protection against double jeopardy, which generally bars someone from being tried twice for the same offense. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said that “we are prepared to litigate” the dismissal motions filed by Mangione’s lawyers before Mangione is sentenced on the federal charges on Dec. 18. Legal experts said that prosecutors might be able to rescue the state case — or portions of it — by arguing that the two proceedings address different kinds of harm. Justice Gregory Carro ordered the district attorney’s office to file its response to Mangione’s dismissal motion by Oct. 9. The defense will have an opportunity to respond, and the judge has scheduled a hearing for early December. If Mangione’s efforts fail, the statements he made in federal court could be admissible in the state case, according to legal experts. METROPOLITAN DIARY Bad habit
Dear Diary: I was driving home after an afternoon in New Jersey with the grandchildren. Creeping crosstown on 57th Street can sometimes be the longest part of the drive, and I was anxious to make it home for dinner. On this day, traffic was crawling, and I was nervously chewing on my fingernail — a bad habit I have never been able to shake. I made it to Sixth Avenue when I heard a persistent honking coming from a bus next to me. I was confused. Had I cut the bus off? Was something wrong with my car? The bus pulled up alongside me, and I looked over cautiously. The driver was opening the door and leaning in my direction. I rolled down my window and mouthed a quizzical, “What?” The driver smiled, leaned a little closer and teasingly held out a nail clipper. Busted. I smiled sheepishly and mouthed: “I should quit, right?” He grinned in agreement and passed me as the light changed. — Camille Greenwald Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Grace Ashford, Davaughnia Wilson, Lu |
