New York has become the first state in the country to hit pause on new large data centers, and the contrast with what is happening in Falls Township could not be sharper. Governor Kathy Hochul signed Executive Order No. 62 on July 14, freezing certain state environmental permits for the biggest facilities while regulators write new rules. Eighty miles down the road, Amazon is most of the way through building a two million square foot campus on the old U.S. Steel land, and nobody in Harrisburg is talking about slowing it down.
Key Takeaways
- New York’s Executive Order No. 62 holds state environmental permits for data centers drawing 50 megawatts or more while an environmental review is completed, with no fixed end date.
- Pennsylvania has taken the opposite approach, and the Falls Township campus at Keystone Trade Center is the clearest local example, approved unanimously in March 2025 and now well along. Its permanent staffing is projected at up to about 200 roles, not the 1,250 statewide figure often quoted.
- Falls residents who signed a petition asking for a pause of their own have no state moratorium to point to, which is the practical difference between the two states.
What New York Actually Did
Executive Order No. 62 took effect July 14. It does not ban data centers. It directs the state Department of Environmental Conservation to hold discretionary permits and approvals in abeyance, which is a formal way of saying the paperwork stops moving, until the Department of Public Service finishes a Generic Environmental Impact Statement and files its findings.
The threshold matters. The pause applies to facilities that would consume 50 megawatts of energy or more, so it is aimed squarely at hyperscale projects rather than the server room behind a hospital. There is a list of carve-outs as well: projects whose applications were already complete before the order took effect, projects that do not need discretionary approval from the department, facilities used mainly for manufacturing, research, education or medical care, and local permits, which the order does not touch…