Digital Power Network Opposes New York A.9039A, Warns Bill Will Drive Investment Out of State and Undermine Grid Modernization
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C. / Albany, NY — The Digital Power Network (DPN), the nation’s largest coalition of Bitcoin miners and digital infrastructure leaders, today issued a formal statement opposing New York Assembly Bill A.9039A (Barrett), misleadingly titled the “Accountability of Costs for Data Centers Act.”
While framed as a transparency and cost-allocation measure, DPN warns that the legislation is not neutral. Instead, it singles out large-scale digital infrastructure for discriminatory treatment, imposes punitive and undefined financial obligations, and creates regulatory uncertainty that will push investment out of New York.
“This bill is not about accountability, it’s about targeting,” said Hailey Miller, Executive Director of the Digital Power Network. “A.9039A creates a separate and stigmatized class of electric service for politically disfavored industries, replacing neutral rate design with ad hoc penalties. That is not sound energy policy. It is a blueprint for capital flight.”
Targeted, Discriminatory Treatment
A.9039A mandates that utilities and municipalities create a distinct service class for “large energy use facilities,” a category clearly designed to capture data centers, high-performance computing, and other forms of digital infrastructure. DPN warns that isolating one class of lawful business solely based on size and political optics violates fundamental principles of neutrality in rate design.
“If lawmakers can single out one category of load today, any industry can be targeted tomorrow.” Miller added.
Open-Ended Financial Penalties
The bill authorizes the Department of Public Service to impose undefined “financial surety requirements” on covered facilities, effectively granting unlimited discretion to require bonding, collateral, or other financial guarantees with no clear standards.
“This provision makes clear the bill’s real purpose: deterrence, not cost recovery,” said Miller. “Open-ended bonding mandates freeze financing, raise project costs, and make New York uncompetitive overnight. Infrastructure capital requires predictability. This bill offers the opposite.”
Factually Wrong About Grid Impacts
DPN emphasized that the bill fundamentally misunderstands how modern digital infrastructure interacts with the grid. Many high-load facilities, particularly Bitcoin miners, are flexible, interruptible, and dispatchable. They absorb excess generation during off-peak periods, curtail instantly during grid stress, and help stabilize wholesale markets.
“Treating these resources as inflexible cost burdens is factually wrong,” Miller said. “This bill discourages precisely the types of loads that help integrate renewables, reduce curtailment, and support reliability as electrification accelerates.”
Severe Economic Consequences
Digital infrastructure companies have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars across New York, repurposing abandoned industrial sites, revitalizing rural communities, and anchoring long-term utility revenues. These projects create high-quality jobs, expand the tax base, and catalyze new generation and transmission investments.
“Forcing these facilities into a stigmatized regulatory class with bespoke financial penalties will not recover costs,” Miller warned. “It will eliminate them, by driving investment to other states.”
A Step Backward for New York
DPN concluded that A.9039A will not lower electricity rates, modernize the grid, or improve reliability. Instead, it will make New York a global outlier at a moment when advanced computing, AI, and digital infrastructure are becoming core national assets.
“At a time when states should be competing for this investment, New York is proposing to push it away,” Miller said. “That is economically reckless and strategically shortsighted.”
For these reasons, the Digital Power Network urges the New York Legislature to reject A.9039A.
To read DPN’s full Memorandum of Opposition to A.9039A, click here.
About the Digital Power Network (DPN):
The Digital Power Network (DPN) is the largest coalition of Bitcoin miners and digital infrastructure leaders in the United States, representing over 85% of the Bitcoin hash rate among publicly traded U.S. mining companies. DPN advocates for policies that promote energy innovation, grid resilience, economic development, and the strategic role of digital assets in the 21st-century economy.