Bayonne Bans Data Centers

BAYONNE, NJ — This week, Bayonne became the 23rd town in New Jersey to ban data centers.

The Bayonne city council approved the ban in a 5-0 vote and the ban was signed Thursday by Mayor Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski.

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Currently, there are no data centers in Bayonne. But in the past year, there were proposals to build three, including a large AI data center that would be built at the Delta Self-Storage Facility on New Hook Road.

For months now, Bayonne residents have packed council meetings to demand a data center ban, which became a defining issue in this year's election for a new Bayonne mayor and council. Ashe-Nadrowski and her council slate ran on a platform to ban data centers in Bayonne, and her team swept the May election.

The criticism of data centers is that first, they use tremendous amounts of water to cool down their servers. A single large facility can consume up to five million gallons of water every day. Secondly, data centers use a lot of electricity. While data centers pay for their own electricity, at the 2024 regional electric capacity auction — the auction that determines electricity prices throughout New Jersey — data centers accounted for 70 percent of the projected increase in demand to the New Jersey power grid. That means the operator of NJ's power grid, PJM Interconnection, says they have to buy 70 percent more electricity from out of state just to power in-state data centers.

However, supporters of data centers say America needs them to stay competitive in an AI landscape. There are at least 10 data centers in Secaucus, and two more are proposed to open.

Equinix, a data center giant, operates four data centers in Secaucus, all of which power New York City financial markets. CoreSite, another data center giant, runs a massive data center on Enterprise Avenue. They plan to open a second one on County Avenue.

Mayor Mike Gonnelli previously said he has no problem with data centers because they pay high taxes and bring no traffic.

In July, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul put a statewide ban on new hyperscale AI data centers. She is the first and only governor to enact a statewide ban. There are pushes for Gov. Mikie Sherrill to do the same.

Asbury Park, Red Bank, Phillipsburg and Neptune are some of the biggest New Jersey towns to ban data centers. There are movements underway in Old Bridge and Sayreville; the Howell town council will vote on a ban next week. The mayor of Cherry Hill vowed they won't open in town, and Jersey City introduced an ordinance limiting where they can open.

The movement to ban data centers in Bayonne was backed by the Friends of Liberty State Park and state Senator Angela McKnight (D-31), who represents Bayonne.

"This win in Bayonne is a win for everyone in New Jersey," said Bayonne resident Jennah Reddick, who led the fight. "We showed that the people can fight back and that we're the ones who have power, not the developers. We came together as a community to fight back against corporate greed, even when we were told it was a losing battle."

"What we just saw in Bayonne is that there's a price to pay for officials who side with Big Tech over the people who elected them," said Ben Dziobek, director of Climate Revolution Action Network (CRAN), the Gen-Z climate advocacy organization leading the push to ban data centers in New Jersey.

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