NY Building Congress, Contractors
Decry Data Center Moratorium
NEW YORK—While environmental groups and some business organizations embraced Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent Executive Order imposing a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers, a number of construction industry organizations say the ban will hurt the state economy.
New York Building Congress President & CEO Carlo Scissura said in response to the moratorium issued on July 14: “This data center moratorium will damage our state’s economy, its workforce, and our competitive standing in the industries of tomorrow: plain and simple. We don’t say this lightly. Organizations across our industry don’t always agree on everything, but here, every trade and specialty is united. And our message is simple: A blanket moratorium is the wrong tool for a real-world problem that demands careful consideration.”
He concluded his statement urging Gov. Hochul to work with the state legislature on “a smarter path forward, one that puts real guardrails in place without slamming the door on the jobs, investment, and innovation that New York cannot afford to lose.” Mr. Scissura said the moratorium should be eliminated or short-lived.
A number of other construction industry and business advocacy executives also decried the data center moratorium.
Steve Fulop, CEO of the Partnership for the City of New York, said the move would leave New York behind other states in the AI boom, according to a New York Post report.
“Ultimately, the solution is going to be whether data centers get built or they don’t get built,” Mr. Fulop said in a radio interview. “The signal when you put a moratorium on this sort of stuff … is that it becomes a riskier proposition to put your money into New York versus maybe another state.”
Published: July 22, 2026.