In effect
Scope
Executive Order 62 directs the Department of Environmental Conservation to hold in abeyance discretionary permit, approval, license, and similar applications for construction or expansion of a covered data center, when the application is pending or filed after the order and DEC had not determined it complete before 14 July 2026. The order's definition covers facilities, or groups of facilities on the same or contiguous sites, that consume or can consume at least 50 megawatts and meet the stated equipment and service characteristics. It excludes facilities primarily used for manufacturing, specified research, education, or medical care. The order says it does not apply to local-government permissions. It does not pause the NYISO interconnection queue and does not order existing facilities to shut down.
Dates
- Effective
- 14 July 2026
- Scheduled expiration
- None scheduled
- Completion condition
- The DEC hold lasts until the Department of Public Service submits its report of the final Generic Environmental Impact Statement and the associated findings statement. The order text does not set a one-year expiration. A separate instruction tells DEC to deliver a water-withdrawal assessment no later than twelve months after the order; that report deadline is not the end of the permit hold.
- Source document
- 14 July 2026
- Last checked
- 22 September 2026
- Issuing authority
- Governor of New York
Summary
On 14 July 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul issued Executive Order 62. The order's title calls it a temporary moratorium. Its operative permit clause directs the Department of Environmental Conservation to hold specified discretionary applications for construction or expansion of covered data centers until the Department of Public Service submits a final Generic Environmental Impact Statement and findings. Covered facilities are those that consume or can consume at least 50 megawatts and meet the order's other definition, with stated exclusions. Applications DEC had already determined complete are not held. Local permits are outside the order. The order does not give a calendar expiration, and it does not direct existing operating facilities to shut down.
What this does not establish
- The reviewed text is the HTML publication of the order on the governor's website. The linked PDF was not compared word for word with that HTML.
- Public descriptions of a one-year pause were not adopted as the legal end date, because the order's hold continues until the final GEIS and findings are submitted.
- The order also directs studies, a community-investment framework, and interconnection working groups. Those directions are not recorded as a separate grid-interconnection pause. The order does not say NYISO must stop processing queue requests.
- A bill that legislative offices have described as passed by both houses is not recorded here. The official bill page could not be opened on the as-of date, so its status is an unresolved question rather than a second action.
- Calling the order a moratorium repeats its title. The legal effect recorded here is the DEC abeyance, not a prohibition on every data center in New York and not a local construction ordinance.
Unresolved questions
- Whether the Department of Public Service has submitted the final GEIS and findings, which would end the hold under the order's own terms, was not confirmed on 22 September 2026.
- How many applications DEC has actually held, and whether any were determined complete before 14 July 2026, was not counted.
- The status of the separate Responsible Data Center Development Act, including whether it has been signed or vetoed, was not established from an official bill page.
Relationships
Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. A later implementation or a related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.
- No related action is recorded.
Sources
https://www.governor.ny.gov/executive-order/no-62-establishing-temporary-moratorium-data-centers-new-york-while-state-develops
- Executive Order 62 PDF linked from the order page download linked from the reviewed HTML; not separately compared · 14 July 2026