PAUSE

08/21/2026

Jason West, the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Albany, talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine about the status of the update to the City's Climate Plan.

Jason West, the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Albany, talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine about the status of the update to the City's Climate Plan.

08/18/2026

PAUSE, Frack Action, Capital District DSA and Resist Albany Data Center are holding a press conference at Albany City Hall on Thursday Aug. 27 at 10 AM. Please RSVP (hit graphic). In addition to calling upon the Governor to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act, we will be calling upon the Albany Common Council to enact its own moratorium and to oppose the Kenwood Commons proposal for a data center in the South End of Albany, an environmental justice community.

Today, there are over 30 large data center proposals pending in New York State; if these data centers were to come online, they would need more than 11,900 MW of new electricity demand—nearly double the energy demand of all of New York households.

Communities near existing data centers have experienced higher electricity bills, undrinkable water, and noise pollution. Without safeguards, these facilities risk driving up utility bills for everyday New Yorkers, strain our electric grid, increase water use and pollution—all while providing relatively few permanent local jobs after construction.

New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, sponsor of the Responsible Data Center Development Act, and Food & Water Watch, will be embarking on the New York Fights AI Data Centers statewide tour from August 22 to August 30. The Senator will visit over a dozen sites with active or proposed data centers across New York State to hear the concerns from impacted communities and advocate for Governor Hochul to sign the Senator’s bill, which codifies requirements for public participation and transparency, renewable energy use, and labor standards. The legislation also creates separate water and energy rate classes for data centers in an effort to protect ratepayers from increased costs.

Today, there are over 30 large data center proposals pending in New York State; if these data centers were to come online, they would need more than 11,900 MW of new electricity demand—nearly double the energy demand of all of New York households. Communities near existing data centers have experi...

08/12/2026

An article about the press conference yesterday with Sen. Gonzalez re her statewide tour to urge Gov. Hochul to sign the data center moratorium bill. The stop in Albany will be Thursday August 27 at 10 AM at Albany City Hall.

Mark Dunlea, coordinator of PAUSE (People of Albany United for Safe Energy) / 350Albany said, “The influx of data centers, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and the crypto boom, presents one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation, worsening the existential threat to human society posed by the climate emergency. The rapid expansion of data centers, with their enormous appetite for electricity and water, takes ecological degradation to a new level. We urge the Governor to sign the statewide moratorium bill. We also urge the Albany Common Council to protect residents by passing its own moratorium and opposing the proposed data center in the South End, an environmental justice community which already has more than its share of pollution.”

The Responsible Data Center Development Act (S.10642/A.11560,) passed both chambers of the New York State Legislature with bipartisan support in June 2026. The bill addresses the environmental, economic, labor, and community impacts of large-scale data center development by imposing a one-year moratorium on 20 MW+ hyperscale data centers and requiring any future data center developments to meet energy efficiency standards, include a host communities public benefit program, have project labor agreements, and hold public hearings prior to permit approvals. The legislation also requires detailed environmental and cost analysis of data centers impact on our water, energy grid, utility rates, and Indigenous communities. The bill would also create new ratepayer classes for both electricity and water to ensure data centers are not driving up utility costs for household consumers.

The “NY Fights AI Data Centers” statewide tour is scheduled to visit 13 sites with data centers or proposed data centers across New York.

07/26/2026

Oliver Holmes Jr. PE, returns for this forum, to talk about the current proposed plan for a data center in the City of Albany, on the border of the Town of Bethlehem now being referred to as “Kenwood Tech Center”. He will also give a brief talk about Climate Change and how the mass building of AI Data Centers is impacting our future. (Oliver has worked on energy conservation, climate change and sustainability issues for 40 years.) We will also have local community organizer, Isaac Silberman-Gorn, who was also with us last month and will return to talk about the local situation. ( Isaac is a community organizer specializing in political analysis and grassroots mobilizing who has worked to oppose fracking and in support of a clean energy future for New York for about 15 years. )

07/19/2026

On June 11, Governor Hochul’s Public Service Commission kicked off a process to commit massive amounts of public money toward the construction of nuclear reactors in unspecified communities across upstate New York. State agencies have put forth an “options paper,” not asking whether New York should carry out this plan to build new nuclear reactors, but how they should go about it.

Submit a comment in Governor Hochul’s nuclear planning proceeding to say “no new nuclear in New York.” Comments are due August 10.

On June 11, Governor Hochul’s Public Service Commission kicked off a process to commit massive amounts of public money toward the construction of nuclear reactors in unspecified communities across upstate New York. State agencies have put forth an “options paper,” not asking whether New York s...

07/13/2026

More hot air from Governor Hochul, who is pushing hard for extremely expensive and dangerous nuclear power while gutting the state's climate law, suspending the All Electric Building Act, slow walking the Build Public Renewables Act, grossly underfunding climate action (state climate plan says $10B annually), and doing little to promote cheaper solar and wind. But she wants us to applaud her for not removing the state goal to cut greenhouse emissions by 85% by 2050 - long after she is no longer Governor. -- Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is defending her decision to walk back New York’s carbon emissions targets, telling POLITICO the state is committed to fighting climate change but that it cannot hit its near-term goals while keeping energy affordable for residents.

While New York pushed back a near-term climate goal, the Democratic governor touted the state’s solar deployment, a major new transmission line and plans to boost nuclear power to achieve its 2050 net-zero target.

07/13/2026

As with many of his initiatives, President Trump's push to expand nuclear power has failed to persuade developers to invest in very expensive, high-risk plants.

The administration touts breakthroughs for the industry as it cites AI’s enormous energy appetite. So why aren't commercial reactors getting built?

06/27/2026

I sat through this presentation by the developers of the proposed Data Center in the south end of Albany. They zoomed in from London, where they are based. Some of their assertions need to be fact checked, such as using very little water in the cooling process, no power generation on site (how to deal with emergency blackouts), little noise.

Common Councilwoman Deborah Zamer, who chairs the planning committee, said Friday that multiple zoning law changes would have to occur and the Planning Board would have to issue a recommendation among several other approvals that are required at the city level.

She said she has also introduced legislation at the city level that, if approved, would show the council’s support for a new bill passed by the state Legislature that would ban new data centers in the state for one year. The legislation has not been acted on by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Zamer said the zoning question regarding data centers is complicated and has implications across the city.

“We need to take a look at the entire city, not just the data center site,” Zamer told the Times Union in a phone interview. “There’s a lot of analysis that needs to take place in order to form an educated opinion.”

Zamer has said in the past that data centers are not allowed under any of the city’s zoning designations and so legislation would have to be passed to allow for such a use. Zamer said Friday that requirement remains in place, although she added that the state ban, if signed, would make the project’s approval moot.

The developer behind the Kenwood Commons data center and tech campus project will seek a zoning change for the site under the city's existing "light industrial" classification.

06/26/2026

(audio) On Tuesday, June 30 at 11 AM, concerned residents and climate groups will hold a media event at the State Street entrance to the Capitol in Albany to announce opposition to Governor Hochul’s ill-advised plan to drastically expand expensive, dangerous nuclear power production throughout the state. The event is one of 9 events happening throughout New York on Tuesday as part of a statewide day of action against Hochul’s plan. Isaac Silberman-Gorn of Frack Action talks with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

On Tuesday, June 30 at 11 AM, concerned residents and climate groups will hold a media event at the State Street entrance to the Capitol in Albany to announce opposition to Governor Hochul’s ill-advis

04/17/2026

On April 3, 2026, The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York welcomed acclaimed environmentalist Bill McKibben to discuss his latest book, "Here Comes the Sun." Following his talk, McKibben spoke with local environmental leader Benita Law-Diao about the hope of innovative solutions like solar energy and what is at stake if we do not act now. The talk was part of a fundraiser for Water Justice Lab, an initiative of NATURE Lab, which works with local youth, training them to become stewards of our water resources and inspiring the next generation of climate justice leaders.

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