How Pa. went from data center darling to strict controls
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Data center opposition has hit countless Pennsylvania towns, including Mount Carmel Township in Northumberland County. Photo: Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
To paraphrase "The Graduate" — I've got two words for you, Pennsylvania: local control. That's the past, present and probably future.
The big picture: The Keystone State was set to be a key player in the next economic revolution thanks to $90 billion in AI and energy investment announced in Pittsburgh last year, but grassroots uprisings, fear of changing local communities, and shifting feelings about tech have combined to put Pennsylvania on a new course of anti-data-center backlash.
Catch up quick: Gov. Josh Shapiro issued an executive order last week in part to give municipalities more control over where hyperscale data centers are built — a move that may have significant implications as proposals face growing public opposition across Pennsylvania.
- Before the state will issue permits, developers must show their project has secured all required local zoning approvals.
- Developers that accept the state's GRID standards can pursue state reviews while seeking local approvals.
What they're saying: "The common thread … is that local governments now go first," K&L Gates lawyers wrote in a brief following the order. "State permits wait on local land use and zoning approvals regardless of which path a developer chooses."
Stunning stat: Real estate services firm JLL's midyear North America Data Center Report finds community acceptance is now the industry's leading challenge: 79% of Americans support U.S. leadership in AI, but only 14% support a data center in their own community.
Case in point: When Shapiro visited Luzerne County in November 2024 to pitch his new fast-track permitting process and tech center, it was met with positivity and some ambivalence, says Luzerne County resident and activist Annie Vinatieri.
- Then utility companies started to ask residents to run power lines through their properties. Vinatieri and others soon discovered the Project Hazelnut hyperscale data center plans through Right-to-Know requests, she says.
- Less than a year later, residents flooded local meetings and got township officials to table the plans.
- "It is a complete 180 from that 2024 press conference," says Vinatieri. "People don't want to be kept in the dark …. If they had been upfront about stuff, it might have gone better."
State of play: The majority of Americans say they mainly oppose data centers because of their effect on the local environment (50%), neighborhood character and quality of life (14%), and utility rates (10%), according to a Fox News poll taken in late July.
- Only about 11% of Americans oppose data centers mainly because of their negative views of AI.
The bottom line: It's unsurprising that local control is wielding its power against data centers, since local control tends to win out in Pennsylvania politics.
- Several municipal mergers in the Pittsburgh-area have failed over the years as residents have maintained their desire for local control.
- The PennEast pipeline was canceled in 2021 after years of opposition from locals along the 116-mile route from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.