Data Centers
Clean Air officially launched a two-tiered campaign on Wednesday May 20, 2026 with goals of fighting for a renewable energy industrial use of the former Tonawanda Coke site (the Riverview Innovation Tech Campus, where a data center is now proposed), as well as for regulations of data centers broadly in Erie and Niagara Counties, which will tie into statewide efforts.
Check out the recording from our launch meeting on May 20, 2026 for an overview of our new campaign!
To learn more or to join the campaign, or reach out to Bridge!
Current Actions
At this time, we strongly encourage contacting your legislators in Albany in favor of S9144A/A10141A, which would institute a 3-year moratorium statewide on any data center developments. You can send a letter using Food and Water Watch’s online letter campaign here, and can find phone numbers to call staff or legislators directly here – if this bill passes by Thursday June 4 (scheduled end of session), our local campaigns will continue, but we will have much more time to work with.
We also strongly encourage showing up for local government meetings to voice your opposition to data centers in your community, to call for local-level moratoriums, and to use the time during that moratorium to pass local zoning amendments to regulate data centers. Niagara Falls and Plattsburg NY (Local Law 6-2018) have models for zoning amendments or other regulations that you can look at, but each community will need to adapt these models for your specific community needs.
In the Town of Tonawanda, we urge attending Town Board, Planning Board and SEQR Committee meetings, and in those spaces echo the following –
- Why you personally are opposed to a data center at the Tonawanda Coke campus, and support for renewable energy generation and storage instead
- That the Riverview Innovation Tech Campus proposal for the first phase of the data center project be split from the RITC proposal for the final phase of the clean-up
- That the data center proposal go through a full Environmental Impact Statement
- That the town institute a moratorium on data center developments and pass a local zoning amendment to regulate future projects
- That the town reconvene the Tonawanda Community Working Group to streamline community involvement and oversight of the ongoing clean-up at the Tonawanda Coke sites, and expand and make permanent this working group to also encompass other current and future clean-up and industrial development in the River Road corridor.
The schedule for upcoming Town of Tonawanda meetings is available here.
You can also sign up for a lawn sign! We want to have at least 150 distributed by the end of the summer, mostly in the Town of Tonawanda. We are asking for a donation of ~$10 per sign to cover the printing costs, but this is sliding scale and optional – each sign costs about $7 to print, so you can base your optional donation around that cost point. Your donation also covers your membership fee. Please fill out the form so we can track where our signs are going up, and use this link to donate (also available on the landing page after filling out the form.)
