Squaring New York State’s stringent green-energy law with the looming demand for power-intensive data and AI centers is going to be hard enough most places, but especially on Long Island. There, long-standing grievances against the electric utility, now known as LIPA, that date back at least as far as rejected nuclear-plant aims from the 1960s hang over any such project. So this week’s report in Newsday about a 550,000-square-foot data facility being eyed for a developing area of Brookhaven town west of Southampton should send up the red flags. As with all sizable commercial or residential growth in Suffolk County, this will be subject to intense scrutiny and review that only the most bulletproof plans are likely to survive. (Not only energy but water usage is a factor in these East End environmental studies, on top of traffic, biodiversity, etc.) The results may have a lot to say about whether economic dynamism has much of a future in an area where most voting residents are comfortably situated to enjoy the picturesque surroundings as they are. –July 19, 2025
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/computer-data-center-warehouse-yaphank-hfdnl8i8
Tim W. Ferguson 