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New York to Impose the Country’s First Statewide Moratorium on Data Centers
New York will block the construction of any new large data centers for up to a year so the state can create rules to protect the environment and energy grid from the power-hungry facilities that fuel artificial intelligence technology. Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to sign an executive order Tuesday morning imposing the country’s first statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers, which house thousands of computer servers and require massive amounts of energy and a steady supply of water to keep cool.
“As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The order will pause state permitting for new large data centers and direct state regulators to create standards that address environmental impacts, energy demand, water usage and other factors, the governor’s office said.
Pesticide Makers Stack Wins Against Us Environmental, Public Health Groups
The U.S. Supreme Court handed a major legal victory to German agrichemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer last month when it reined in thousands of lawsuits accusing the German company of failing to warn users that glyphosate, the active ingredient in its Roundup weedkiller, causes cancer.
Since then, Bayer, which acquired U.S.-based Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018, has consolidated its Roundup business into a new unit, and sought duties on glyphosate imported from China.
The pesticide industry has secured other successes in recent months. In February, weedkiller dicamba was re-approved for two growing seasons with some restrictions. In April, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion concluded that atrazine does not pose an extinction risk to threatened and endangered species it studied.
In Bayer’s case, President Donald Trump’s administration sided with the Roundup maker, a position that caused a rift with pesticide opponents in U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, who supported Trump in the 2024 election campaign.
Pesticide Pollution in Midwest and Great Plains Rivers Is Getting Worse, Decade-Long Study Reveals
Pesticide pollution is a problem especially in the middle of the country. And sometimes there’s enough of it to possibly hurt aquatic plants and animals. U.S. farms use hundreds of millions of pounds of insect, weed and fungus killers each year and the runoff washes into waterways — especially in the middle of the country, where commodity crops are king.
A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey builds a clearer picture of pesticide pollution in streams. The scope of the study is notable, with scientists checking regularly for 80 chemicals across 81 sites for a decade. At most of the sites, they found troubling levels of at least one pesticide between 2013 and 2022. The levels were high enough to possibly harm aquatic plants or invertebrates — creatures like mayflies and stoneflies.
And the data only provide a snapshot of the situation.
Chemours Settles Forever Chemicals Lawsuit Out of Court
Mike Watters was running on two hours of sleep and one cup of coffee as he drove home to Grays Creek from the federal courthouse in Raleigh. Watters is among 2,658 plaintiffs suing Chemours, a chemical manufacturer near Fayetteville, North Carolina, for releasing toxic GenX and other PFAS into the Cape Fear River and surrounding air, soil, groundwater and drinking water wells — including the Watters family’s.
By the time he arrived in Raleigh for opening arguments in the lawsuit, he had waited eight years for his day in court. But Watters and the other plaintiffs won’t get to see a trial this week. He learned Monday morning that both sides had agreed to settle out of court.
“I wanted to see it go to trial,” Watters said. “I would have liked to have seen how a jury would have handled it.” Attorneys have yet to disclose details of the settlement, which affects all of the plaintiffs.
New York Sues 3M, Dupont and Other Companies Over So-Called Forever Chemicals
New York’s attorney general sued several large chemical and agricultural companies on July 9, alleging they knowingly sold harmful so-called forever chemicals used in cosmetics, non-stick cookware and other products.
The lawsuit against 3M, DuPont de Nemours, The Chemours Company and Corteva and other manufacturers is the latest legal action over PFAS, which have been linked to an increased risk of certain cancers and developmental delays in children.
“Big companies like 3M and DuPont knowingly sold toxic products that threatened New Yorkers’ health and polluted our environment for decades. It’s time for them to pay for the damage they caused,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
Controversial Louisiana Neoprene Plant Settles Hazardous Waste Probe With Feds
The now-idled Denka neoprene plant in LaPlace has reached a settlement with the federal government over allegations it mishandled hazardous waste and disposed of the material in landfills not designed for it. Under a federal consent agreement, Denka Performance Elastomer has agreed to pay a nearly $1 million penalty to settle the hazardous waste violations.
The plant, which suspended production in May 2025, had long been the subject of regulatory action and concern from residents over its emissions of chloroprene, classified as a likely carcinogen. For at least seven years, Denka workers ferried and dumped byproducts later determined to be hazardous waste in open air, new federal settlement papers allege. That process also emitted toxic and flammable chloroprene fumes at levels tens to hundreds of thousands of times greater than the long-term federal air safety standards, they say.
The chloroprene emissions, which federal regulators say were “excessive and dangerous,” were around workers and eventually wafted into neighborhoods near the plant that at one time had the highest cancer risk from air pollution in the nation. Workers were required to wear full-face respirators around some of the work questioned for its open-air emissions, regulators said.
Data Center Frustrations Cause Upheaval in County Primary Elections
In some Maryland counties, frustrations about proposed data center developments led to the ouster of local politicians during last month’s primary election, observers say.
In Frederick County, which is planning for a data center hub, the council chair lost his seat in the primary, and politically inexperienced candidates urging “data center sanity” largely won out.
In Calvert County, where officials are weighing data centers near the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, a similar story played out, and three county commissioners were shown the door.
Environmental advocates believe Maryland’s electoral landscape is only just beginning to see the ramifications of a tsunami of AI data center opposition, as an increasing number of proposals crop up in the state, raising local concerns about electricity use, water use, diesel generator pollution, noise and environmental degradation. “It’s the political story of this region, going forward,” said Mike Tidwell, founder and director of the nonprofit Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
A Chemical Plant Mishandled Hazardous Waste for Years, Then Quietly Shuttered
The blank, beige building at 507 N. Industrial Drive, still emblazoned with the words “Braven Environmental,” looks benign from the street. But on a recent weekend, an interior alarm beeped nonstop, piercing the midday quiet. Around back, past the side doors with a designated smoking area and a sign that read “Caution Respirators Required,” an acrid whiff of old oil wafted from several concrete pits.
Sharp metal parts jutted from barrels. Hunks of blackened machinery moldered nearby.
Braven Environmental, a New York-based company whose dozens of hazardous waste violations invited scrutiny by state and federal regulators, had hauled away most of its equipment. The plant was once touted as an example of how chemical recycling could solve the plastic waste crisis. Now it’s the latest case in point for environmental advocates who say that converting plastic into chemicals and fuel through pyrolysis is no solution at all.
State records show that the plant has mishandled hazardous waste. Chemical recycling waste can contain known carcinogens such as arsenic, benzene and hexavalent chromium, and internal emails show that state regulators expressed particular concern that the facility mishandled benzene.
