ICYMI: Times Union Editorial Board to NY: Prioritize Affordability and Climate Over Big Tech's AI Interests

ALBANY, NY (08/27/2025) (readMedia)-- Yesterday, the Times Union published an editorial calling on New York State to develop policies to protect New Yorkers from the economic and environmental impacts of AI data centers. The Editorial Board urged state leaders not to abandon its climate commitments by generating more fossil fuels to power data centers, which consume enormous amounts of energy. The editorial also emphasized that the government has a responsibility to regulate how much energy it allocates to data centers and to prioritize the public good over corporate profits.

There's ample evidence to show that generating more fossil fuels to serve AI data centers and giving tax breaks and other economic development incentives to wealthy companies that own and operate them raises utility rates for everyone else. The Editorial Board warned of these economic consequences, adding that data centers fail to produce promised jobs to host communities.

In proposing potential policy solutions for the state, the Editorial Board echoed many of the same proposals Earthjustice has been calling for:

"But this [New York's attracting investment in AI] requires smart, environmentally sound policy, like including an energy demand analysis, and perhaps investment in clean energy sources, for any new data centers, much the way development projects now require environmental impact statements and ways to mitigate harm."

The editorial comes as the New York Independent System Operator's (NYISO) Power Trends report and draft State Energy Plan have signaled that New York needs more fossil fuel generation to meet demand for speculative large-loads like data centers. This misleading narrative, lacking reliable data to back it up, will harm host communities if followed.

In July, Earthjustice, joined by WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Evergreen Action, sent a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul and state agencies asking them to ignore misleading calls for more fossil fuel generation and stay the course on New York's clean energy mandates instead of pursuing an energy unaffordability agenda. The groups called on the state to prioritize renewable energy projects, which, paired with storage, are significantly cheaper and less-polluting.

Read the editorial here and below.

Editorial: The AI power question

Artificial intelligence requires a lot of energy, putting the onus on government to develop policy that is both economically and environmentally sound.

Once upon a time, you'd ask a search engine a question, and you'd get a list of websites that would presumably provide an answer.

No more. Now, with the help of artificial intelligence, you can get an answer that summarizes what you'd find out on the internet, without having to click any links. Accuracy and relevance? Eh, don't place any bets on it, but that's a whole other matter.

The essential point is that artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming as much a part of our lives as the technology that provides it. Just ask Google's AI itself: Prompted to list some benefits of AI, the large language model points out that AI is being used to help with medical diagnoses and assist in surgery; to detect financial fraud and devise investment strategies; to power self-driving vehicles and manage traffic and navigation systems; and to recommend consumer purchases and manage supply chains.

And here's a rather ironic one: "Optimize energy consumption."

Ironic, because AI itself is proving to be a huge and growing drain on our energy supply.

The jury may still be out on whether AI will ultimately improve or degrade the human condition. But either way, it's contributing to the demand for something that is unquestionably harming our world: our need for ever more electrical power, which inevitably leads to talk of more fossil fuel consumption.

The essential point is that artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming as much a part of our lives as the technology that provides it. Just ask Google's AI itself: Prompted to list some benefits of AI, the large language model points out that AI is being used to help with medical diagnoses and assist in surgery; to detect financial fraud and devise investment strategies; to power self-driving vehicles and manage traffic and navigation systems; and to recommend consumer purchases and manage supply chains.

And here's a rather ironic one: "Optimize energy consumption."

Ironic, because AI itself is proving to be a huge and growing drain on our energy supply.

The jury may still be out on whether AI will ultimately improve or degrade the human condition. But either way, it's contributing to the demand for something that is unquestionably harming our world: our need for ever more electrical power, which inevitably leads to talk of more fossil fuel consumption.

But the more practical if mundane question of how much energy we want one particular industry to consume should not be left for the private sector to figure out, because it is not strictly a private, free-market issue. As long as clean energy isn't unlimited, as long as it's insufficient to meet even the demand we have right now, government has an essential role in regulating where the limited resource of available energy goes. The same goes for all that public economic development money and tax breaks that AI data centers will no doubt be seeking.

That's not to say progress on AI should stop, or that New York shouldn't seek to attract investment in it. But this requires smart, environmentally sound policy, like including an energy demand analysis, and perhaps investment in clean energy sources, for any new data centers, much the way development projects now require environmental impact statements and ways to mitigate harm.

If data center operators, government policy makers and regulators are lost for a solution, maybe AI has one. Best to double-check its work, though.