New York Data Center Intel

Recent New York data center news

• Jan 26, 2026

  EPA moves toward changing particulate matter standard as manufacturers urge action

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to revisit and ask the court to vacate the Biden-era annual PM2.5 standard of nine micrograms per cubic meter.

  • Main action: The EPA filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to vacate the March 2024 PM2.5 annual standard (lowered from 12 µg/m3 to 9 µg/m3). The agency said the Biden EPA took a “regulatory shortcut” and failed to adequately consider compliance costs; EPA urged vacatur before the initial nonattainment determinations due on Feb. 7 and states’ implementation plans due in April.
  • Background and details: Industry groups including NAM and 15 trade associations (e.g., SMA, Aluminum Association, American Cement Association) have pressed the Trump administration to revert the standard; EPA previously estimated the 2024 rule could prevent 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays, with monetized benefits of $22 billion to $46 billion and $590 million in estimated costs by 2032. A 2025 ACA report estimated 1 million metric tons of cement needed for AI data centers by 2028 and projects U.S. data centers rising from 5,426 to 6,000 by 2027.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Anna’s Archive Multiple Domains Blocked After Spotify Scraping, Court Orders Cloudflare, NIXI to Comply

  Spotify and major record labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group) have sued the anonymous operators of Anna’s Archive and obtained a broad temporary restraining order to block Anna’s Archive domains.

  • Main action: The plaintiffs secured a temporary restraining order (issued Jan 16, 2026) from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York directing domain registries, registrars, hosting and internet service providers (including Cloudflare and the Public Interest Registry) to block access to annas-archive.org, annas-archive.li, and annas-archive.se, disable nameservers, prevent transfers, preserve evidence, and avoid notifying Anna’s Archive until blocking is implemented; the court set a hearing requiring Anna’s Archive to appear on January 16, 2026.
  • Background and details: The complaint alleges Anna’s Archive scraped over 86 million music files (~99.6% of Spotify’s listening data) and relied on Cloudflare and other US-based services for reverse proxying; registries/registrars named to implement blocking include NIXI, Tucows, Hosting Concepts BV, and proxy URLs remain accessible though downloading of Spotify-related data has been disabled. The article also references a related 2024 La Liga order that led to blanket blocking of Cloudflare and legal notices demanding payments of €261 to €450 to identified users.
• Jan 22, 2026

  Stream Data Centers Promotes Longtime Exec to CEO Post

  Stream Data Centers has appointed Michael Lahoud as CEO.

  • Appointment and timing:Michael Lahoud (previously co-managing partner; with the firm 15 years) has been named CEO, announced Jan 22, 2026; the move comes five months after funds managed by NYC-based Apollo acquired a majority interest from Stream Realty Partners and after Stream said it is positioned to execute a multi-gigawatt pipeline with Apollo potentially deploying “billions of dollars” into next-generation digital infrastructure.
  • Leadership changes and focus areas: Stream has restructured senior leadership to support larger development and operational scale: Stacey Medeiros (SVP, Hyperscale and Cloud), Santiago Suinaga (SVP, Hyperscale), Oisin O Murchu (Chief Development Officer), Rick Crutchley (COO, expanded operational responsibilities), and Amanda Abell (VP of Sustainability); Chris Bair (partner and chief commercial officer) provided a quoted statement on alignment with customer requirements.
• Jan 21, 2026

  Virginia proposes 20.78GW storage mandate as Trump, governors call for emergency PJM grid measures

  Virginia state delegate Richard C. ‘Rip’ Sullivan, Jr has introduced HB895 to raise mandatory energy storage procurement targets for Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy Virginia.

  • Main announcement: HB895 would require Appalachian Power to add 780MW short-duration by 2040 and 520MW long-duration by 2045, and Dominion Energy to add 16,000MW short-duration and 3,480MW long-duration by 2045; the bill is nearly identical to HB2537 (vetoed May 2025) but raises Dominion’s short-duration target from 5,220MW to 16,000MW within the same timeframe.
  • Background and related actions: The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors urged PJM (16 January) to hold an emergency procurement auction and to build more than US$15 billion of baseload generation; PJM responded by initiating a “Reliability Backstop Procurement” and directed immediate process discussions and deadlines to be considered at the 22 January Members Committee meeting. The bill and procurement push are motivated by rapidly rising demand in Virginia—driven largely by data centres—and recommendations from groups such as MAREC Action, NRDC, and Environment America.
• Jan 20, 2026

  Verizon Says Major Outage Caused by ‘Software Issue’

  Verizon announced that the Jan. 14 nationwide mobile network outage was caused by a software issue and that it closed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier.

  • Main announcement: Verizon said the outage was a software issue and is conducting a full review; outage aggregator Downdetector recorded more than 2.3 million user reports on Jan. 14, Verizon resolved the outage late that night and is offering affected customers a $20 credit; the FCC is “continuing to actively investigate and monitor the situation” and Rep. Andrew Garbarino requested briefings from the FCC and Verizon by Friday.
  • Background and deal details: Verizon closed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier after approval by the California Public Utilities Commission; Verizon absorbed roughly 9 million fiber passings and now says it passes about 30 million locations with fiber, versus AT&T’s long-term plan for 60 million passings and Verizon’s aim for up to 45 million.
• Jan 20, 2026

  Switched Source Expands Grid-Enhancing Technology Deployments by 60%

  Switched Source reported a 60% increase in deployments of its Phase-EQ grid-enhancing technology over the past year, with units now operating across more than 10 utility service areas from Alaska to Florida.

  • Deployment growth & scope: Switched Source reports a 60% increase in deployments year-over-year, with Phase-EQ units operating in more than 10 utility service areas including New York, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington state; field data from operational sites shows 10% to 25% increase in load-serving capacity on active distribution circuits.
  • Device function & program support: Phase-EQ is described as the first distribution automation device that balances power flow between the three phases by exchanging real and reactive power; the company was founded in 2016 and the project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E SCALEUP program. A recent Georgia Power deployment is designed to reduce load imbalance by half and voltage imbalance by more than 30%, with the utility supplying substation-level data to track performance.
• Jan 20, 2026

  Ted Hearn: An Appreciation of Rocco Commisso

  Rocco Commisso, founder and 100% owner of Mediacom Communications, has died at age 76; his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan is scheduled for Jan. 21, 2026.

  • Announcement: Rocco Commisso (age 76) has died; a funeral is set for Jan. 21, 2026 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan (announced in the Jan. 20, 2026 obituary). He founded Mediacom in 1995 and remained 100% owner through the Commisso family.
  • Background & facts: Mediacom grew revenue from $855 million (2001) to over $2.22 billion (2022) and adjusted OIBDA from $335 million to more than $1 billion; the article references the federal $42.45 billion BEAD program and notes Mediacom launched Mediacom Mobile in July 2024 and focused on rural broadband (Iowa and nearly two dozen other U.S. states).
• Jan 19, 2026

  Constellation Completes Acquisition of Calpine; Groups Have 55 GW of Generation Capacity

  Constellation has completed its acquisition of Calpine Corp. from Energy Capital Partners (ECP).

  • Transaction completed: Constellation completed the announced cash-and-stock acquisition of Calpine (initially announced as a $16.4-billion deal a year earlier); the transaction has a total value of $26.6 billion including debt, and the combined company will have 55 GW of generation capacity and serve 2.5 million retail and business customers. The merged company will maintain headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, with a significant presence in Houston, Texas, and will supply power to data centers, advanced manufacturing, and critical infrastructure.
  • Regulatory settlement and divestitures: To resolve U.S. antitrust concerns the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Texas Attorney General required the divestiture of six power plants (four serving PJM and two serving ERCOT): Bethlehem Energy Center; York Energy Center (York 1 and York 2); Hay Road Energy Center; Edge Moor Energy Center; Jack A. Fusco Energy Center; Gregory Power Plant. The DOJ filed a proposed consent decree (the Division’s first electricity-merger consent decree in 14 years) to address competition concerns in ERCOT and PJM.
• Jan 19, 2026

  What's your AI footprint? Tech has an environmental cost

  The Arizona Republic reports research and expert analysis quantifying AI’s environmental footprint and the resource demands of data centers.

  • Main finding and announcement: Reporting highlights research (Cornell; Jegham & Li) estimating that AI growth could emit 24 to 44 million metric tons CO2 annually by 2030 and use water comparable to 6 to 10 million American households; study-level details include per-query and scaled impacts (e.g., 700 million queries/day ≈ electricity of 35,000 U.S. homes and freshwater for 1.2 million people).
  • Background and study details: The piece summarizes multiple studies and expert comments: on-site cooling and off-site power-plant water use, a measurement showing GPT-3 training used water equal to two Olympic-size pools, location-specific metrics (Arizona: 17-ounce water bottle per 16 GPT-3 queries), and recommendations from researchers (Jegham, Pengfei Li) that developers measure and improve model resource efficiency.
• Jan 17, 2026

  Data center news: DTE agrees to power terms for Saline Township data center

  DTE Energy accepted conditions from the Michigan Public Service Commission for special contracts to power an OpenAI and Oracle data center in Saline Township.

  • DTE Energy accepted commission conditions to supply power under special contracts for a proposed 1.4-gigawatt Saline Township data center involving OpenAI and Oracle; Attorney General Dana Nessel and others requested a rehearing of the Dec. 18 fast-tracked approval, while DTE reserved rights to challenge future commission decisions and confirmed aggregate revenues will cover service costs.
  • Related local actions and details: Lyon Township residents and experts flagged risks for a planned 1.8-million-square-foot site; Saline Township site work continues on a 2.2-million-square-foot project after rezoning of 575 acres; Lansing City Council proposed dedicating 10% of Board of Water and Light revenue from data center utility use to housing services (final vote expected by late February); Saginaw adopted a 6-month moratorium to craft rules and encourage development on post-industrial brownfields; Van Buren Township and Allen Park controversies noted (Van Buren: up to 3.6 million gallons of water a day; Allen Park: 26-megawatt proposal).