Why AOC Suddenly Showed Up in the Hudson Valley

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't represent the Hudson Valley in Congress, so when she showed up in the Hudson Valley this week, many wondered why.

We've learned why she stopped by a Dutchess County farm this week with other elected officials.

Why AOC Came To Dutchess County This Week

The answer is data centers. Specifically, the fight over whether tech companies should be allowed to build massive ones right here in the Hudson Valley.

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Congresswoman AOC joined Governor Kathy Hochul and Hudson Valley Congressman Pat Ryan at Fishkill Farms, a family-owned multigenerational farm in East Fishkill, on Tuesday for a roundtable with local farmers, advocates, and small business owners.

The topic was AI data centers. These enormous server facilities power artificial intelligence and require massive amounts of energy and water to operate.

Officials discussed what their potential arrival in communities like East Fishkill would mean for the people who already live and work here.

“Across the country, Silicon Valley billionaires are trying to impose data centers on communities that don’t want them," Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. "Governor Hochul, Representative Ryan, and I heard directly from Hudson Valley farmers on the impacts these data centers have on the farming communities in New York State."

East Fishkill is specifically one of the communities where data center development has been proposed, which is why the conversation landed in Dutchess County.

"We're not going to let anyone, especially not a bunch of billionaire tech oligarchs, come in here and poison our water, drive up our utility bills, and build this powerful technology that even they acknowledge could have devastating impacts for humankind," Representative Pat Ryan said.

He described the issue as one that cuts across political divides because it comes down to communities deciding what happens in their own backyards.

Governor Hochul signed a moratorium this summer, pausing new data center construction for up to a year while the state builds new protections for communities, the power grid, and water supplies.