Democratic U.S. Rep. Josh Riley, NY-19, criticized his congressional race opponent state Sen. Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, for his vote against a state data center moratorium bill at a campaign event in West Oneonta Thursday, Aug. 20.
The campaign press conference included remarks from Oneonta Town Supervisor Will Rivera, local arts leader and activist Geoffrey Doyle, Ilion anti-data center activist Jacquie Sweeney and Oneonta city resident Mark Pawkett. Former Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek also attended. Speakers were flanked by supporters with signs that read “Lower utility bills” and “Otsego County says no.”
Riley situated the data center debate in the context of rising electricity costs upstate, which have become one of the race’s main issues.
“At the heart of that debate is a simple question: Who pays for it?” he said.
Riley said that “if an out-of-state tech corporation wants to build a data center here in upstate New York, then they need to pay their own way instead of sticking us with the bill.”
Earlier this summer, Riley introduced the Fair Allocation of Infrastructure Responsibility for Data Act in Congress. If signed into law, the bill would prohibit covered utility services from recovering the cost of increased electricity usage by data centers using 75 megawatts of power or more from residential or small business customers.
In Oneonta, public interest in the national data center debate kicked off with a proposal last year from tech startup Eco-Yotta Inc.
The company’s original application documents described its project as a “data center.” Later versions described it as a hydroponic farm managed and heated by artificial intelligence computers, though the developers maintained that was always their intention. The property was listed for sale in February.
Rivera said Thursday that he was not aware of any retraction of the company’s application.
“These data centers consume loads of electricity,” Riley said at the event. “The project being considered here in Otsego County would use about 3 million kilowatt hours per year. For perspective, that would power hundreds of homes.”
The town of Oneonta unanimously passed a one year data center moratorium in May.
The state bill in question, the Responsible Data Center Development Act, passed with bipartisan support in June. In a statement to The Daily Star shortly after the vote, Oberacker said he voted no because “decisions about where data centers go should be made by the communities that will live with them and not by Albany politicians picking winners and losers.”
Oneonta’s state Assembly member, Brian Miller, R, C-New Hartford, voted for the moratorium. Rather than sign the bill, Gov. Kathy Hochul enacted her own executive order for a moratorium.
Asked to respond to Oberacker’s June statement Thursday, Riley said “that’s what this is.”
“This is the community, here, saying he voted the wrong way on it,” Riley said. “We need to listen to our neighbors, and what our neighbors are telling us very loudly and very clearly is that we cannot have these data centers coming in, steamrolling us, and then sticking us with the bill for all of it.”
Reached for comment about the event’s remarks on data centers, Oberacker responded that Riley “owns stock in NYSEG’s parent company while families across this district are getting hammered by skyrocketing utility bills. Maybe before lecturing anyone about energy policy, he should tell his money manager to sell the stock.”
Oberacker was referring to what WIVT has reported is a 0.66% portion of $100,00 to $250,000 Riley has reported owning in the Fidelity International Index Fund.
Oberacker said his position “is simple and it hasn’t changed: Albany shouldn’t dictate to local communities what happens in their own backyards. Josh Riley can’t say the same. He’s been silent while (Gov.) Kathy Hochul’s (Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Transmission) process strips away local control and forces massive solar projects on Upstate communities.”
Riley criticized ORES at a House Agriculture Committee hearing in June.
“That’s the real difference here: I stand with local communities,” Oberacker said. “Josh Riley stands with the Hochul agenda while owning stock in the utility company sending you a bill.”
At the press conference, Riley criticized Oberacker’s prior acceptance of campaign donations from a campaign committee associated with Avangrid. WIVT previously reported that the Oberacker campaign returned the donations.