New Delhi, July 14 -- ALBANY - The executive order arrived the same week Meta announced 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in Louisiana and Georgia homeowners were losing their land to transmission lines being built for the same industry. In New York, that industry is now paused.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Monday imposing the country's first statewide moratorium on large-scale data centers, covering hyperscale facilities that draw more than 50 megawatts from the power grid. The pause lasts up to one year while the state develops permanent standards. No other US state has moved this far this fast against an infrastructure category that the tech industry has spent years describing as essential national investment....