NEW YORK (AP) — No large data centers can be built in New York for up to a year as the state creates rules to protect the environment and its energy grid from the power-hungry facilities fueling artificial intelligence.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Tuesday imposing the country's first statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers, which house thousands of computer servers and require massive amounts of energy and a steady supply of water to keep cool.

When Chuck Martens could no longer afford his rent, he came up with a solution. He negotiated with his landlords to swap his labor for a rent reduction. Now Martens does landscape work for his Omaha apartment complex. Seven days a week, he mows the grass, collects trash and wields a leaf blower. Hedge trimming is his favorite.

“It’s like you’re doing an ice sculpture, but with a trimmer instead of a chainsaw,” Martens, 77, said.

OMAHA — Signage went up last week, heralding progress on a signature project of the Omaha Inland Port Authority. 

The first phase of the port authority’s “innovation district” — an initiative seeded with a $30 million state grant — now has a home. It’s poised to sprout within a roughly 12-block area southeast of 30th Street and Ames Avenue, near one of the busiest intersections of one of Nebraska’s most disinvested communities.