On Tuesday, New York became the first state in the country to freeze new data center construction outright. Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order imposing a one-year moratorium on any new data center that draws 50 megawatts or more — the threshold that covers essentially every serious modern facility. Projects that already have every permit in hand can proceed; everything still in the pipeline gets shelved while the state spends a year writing “consistent standards” and studying environmental impact. New York currently has roughly 130 data centers. Virginia and Texas each have more than 500.