Bills from Cryan, Quijano would pause data center development and commission statewide studies on their impacts.

After a year of mounting fury and frustration with the development of large-scale data centers across New Jersey, some Democratic legislators are setting their sights on a host of new data center regulations — and perhaps an outright ban, at least on a temporary basis.

Democratic state Sen. Joe Cryan is set to unveil a package of bills this month that would, among other things, prohibit the construction of data centers over one megawatt until the state Department of Environmental Protection completes a review of their “environmental, infrastructural, and financial impacts.” Like most of his fellow legislators from both parties, Cryan was once far friendlier to data centers, but he said he’s since become convinced that development has moved too fast with too little understanding of its potential downsides.

“I think the previous administration went too far, too fast with AI,” Cryan said, referring to the pro-data center policies put in place under former Gov. Phil Murphy. “I think the current administration has shown a responsibility to deal with it, and now it’s clearly time to say, ‘Whoah, let’s listen to the folks involved here and take a break, and let’s get it figured out so that it’s right.'"