Senate Bill S10642/Assembly Bill A11560

Enacts the responsible data center development act

Places a one year moratorium on the issuance of data center permits; requires utilities to establish an independent classification of service for large data centers; sets energy efficiency goals for data centers; provides for benefits for host communities

Why Take Action?

Some background

In 2019, TeraWulf Inc. acquired an 80-year lease for the decomissioned Lansing coal power-plant. In August of 2025, they proposed using the property to build an AI data center. TeraWulf faced significant backlash almost immediately with many residents along the lake worried about the use of lake water. As AI data centers have begun to spring up across the country, their environmental impacts have become increasingly apparent.

Water & AI

Data centers traditionally use water in one of two ways; evaporative cooling (consuming water) and a closed-loop system that recirculates water. They also require significant amounts of energy often generated using water at the facilities which supply the data centers. An UNU-INWEH Report suggests, “by 2030, AI’s water use will match the needs of 1.3 billion people”. Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people.

Cayuga Lake

Our lake supplies drinking water to more than 100,000 people. The lake itself is also habitat to at least 90 fish species, 43 species of aquatic plant, ~25 species of crustcean and a handful of mussel species. The surrounding basin is full of biodiversity with several marshes, wetlands, forests and more surrounding the lake. There are more than 1,200 native plant species in our watershed alone, not to mention the 10,000+ insect species and 150 breeding species of bird which also call the watershed their home.

All of this life, human and other, is possible because of how rich this region is in water. Introducing an additional stressor to the water sink also puts stress on us. If not evaporated, water used in cooling of tech equipment like computers often returns to the source at a significantly higher temperature than it initially. This increase in water temperature grows in significance as the input and output values skyrocket. Many native lake species only thrive in a specific range of water temperatures, where as many non-native and invasive species may thrive in a greater range, allowing them to dominate in a changing watershed.