Rep. Mike Lawler is pressing the New York Power Authority to disclose the value of the discounted electricity it's supplying to data centers after the USA TODAY Network reported the authority was withholding that information.
The Rockland County Republican argued the authority is providing a public benefit and should be able to reveal its costs without violating its confidentiality agreements with the companies. Lawler also addressed his demand to Gov. Kathy Hochul, noting that the seven trustees who oversee the authority are appointed by the governor.
“This is public power, sold by a public authority whose board is appointed by the Governor," Lawler said in a statement. "The public has every right to know what it is worth and who is getting it."
How the USA TODAY Network revealed data centers get discounted energy
The USA TODAY Network reported Sept. 16 that at least five New York data centers, including three in Rockland County, were listed as participants in the authority's ReCharge program, which offers businesses and nonprofits cheap hydro-power to lower their electricity bills. They were among 858 entities in all that were chosen to share 910 megawatts of power through ReCharge.
Hochul ordered a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers in July and vowed to seek a state ban on their receiving tax breaks, a practice that has come under fire as the public backlash against data centers has emerged. Three of four data centers in a Rockland cluster — all in the Orangeburg section of Orangetown — were approved for $138 million in state and county sales tax in 2024 alone, the USA TODAY Network has reported.
But how much those companies are saving on the state's discounted power is unknown. The authority told the USA TODAY Network it can't disclose how much it's charging ReCharge participants because it would reveal proprietary information that's protected under their contracts with the authority.
In response to Lawler's statement, the authority repeated that the data centers benefitting from ReCharge are "relatively small" and use far less power than the new artificial intelligence facilities that are causing a public outcry. It didn't address the calls for more cost information.
A Hochul representative responded by touting Hochul's first-in-the-nation data center moratorium and firing back at Lawler for playing politics.
"This is an embarrassing attempt to play politics by Mike Lawler, who is critical of Governor Hochul's data center moratorium but silent on whether he supports the lucrative tax breaks his home of Rockland County granted to them," said Ken Lovett, Hochul's senior communications advisor on energy and environment, .
Reinvent Albany, a reform group that has criticized all government subsidies for data centers, has been trying to calculate how much the power discounts are costing New Yorkers. The group has questioned the dearth of information, arguing the authority could release a total cost for its power discount programs and an average subsidy per customer without infringing on a business' proprietary interests.
Lawler echoed Reinvent Albany's calls for those pieces of information in his statement.
"If New York is going to use public power to attract data centers, it should be able to tell the public what the deal is and what taxpayers get in return," he said.
The authority does make public a list of all ReCharge participants and discloses how much power has been allocated to each and how many jobs they pledged to create. The biggest allocation among the Rockland data centers went to a Bloomberg facility which was granted 8 megawatts based on a pledge of 176 jobs.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mike Lawler urges NY to reveal energy bill discounts for data centers
