🏌️‍♂️ Swing into Friday.

• Ten years ago today, Western Pennsylvania lost beloved golfer and Latrobe native Arnold Palmer. His legacy goes beyond golf — he's credited with inventing his namesake beverage, and Latrobe's airport bears his name.

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, a high near 70.

🎧 Sounds like: "Soda Pop," by Britney Spears.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Mark Power!

Today's newsletter is 974 words, a 3.5-minute read.

Western Pennsylvania's two biggest data center projects are making strides to mitigate opposition, but it might not be working.

The big picture: As backlash against hyperscale data centers grows, some Pennsylvania companies are responding by generating their own power and water and choosing sites that previously housed dirtier industry.

• It begs the question of whether there is a "right way" to develop data centers in an era when opposition comes from left, right and center.

Case in point: Aligned Data Centers broke ground this month on a 2-gigawatt campus at the former Bruce Mansfield coal plant in Shippingport, Beaver County.

• It will be powered by on-site natural gas generation rather than the local electric grid.
• Aligned says it will adhere to Gov. Josh Shapiro's executive order adding guardrails to data center development.

What they're saying: Aligned CEO Andrew Schaap has called the site "the future of responsible data center development."

The latest: Shippingport's mayor and council support the project, but residents have filled public meetings to voice their opposition.

• At a Tuesday meeting, Jennifer Brown said "with AI and data centers, I think municipalities need to slow down and let regulation catch up."

Homer City's massive 4.5-gigawatt data center campus, which will be fueled by an on-site natural gas power plant, is seeing similar pushback.

• Opposition has only grown since Amazon submitted an application to develop 36 data centers on the site, she said.

Zoom in: Indiana County residents are worried about the campus' water usage, noise levels, greenhouse emissions and pollution, higher utility rates and impacts on property values, said Tamara Whited of opposition group Concerned Residents of Western PA, who lives less than 10 miles from the site.

Yes, but: The campus has its own water source, Two Lick Reservoir, which was constructed as part of the old coal power plant that used to be on the site, according to developers Homer City Generation.

• A modern water treatment facility is also being built to treat the discharge.
• The plant will also generate an extra 700 to 800 megawatts to the grid in hopes of bringing down local electricity rates.

The bottom line: Whited acknowledges community benefits will sway some in Homer City, but ultimately she believes the scale of that campus — 3,200 acres and one of the largest projects in the nation — will be too disruptive and change the character of the area.

Between the lines

Pennsylvania could have more than 100 large data centers in the coming years if all planned projects are built, increasing the state's capacity 40-fold to 22,000 megawatts, per an analysis by market intelligence company Cleanview.

By the numbers: Pennsylvania has roughly 88 projects proposed for after 2026, per the company.

Zoom in: Gov. Josh Shapiro said earlier this month that just five of more than 100 proposed data center projects statewide have the permits needed to operate.

• His recent executive order adds guardrails that make it harder for many projects to move forward.

The fine print: Cleanview only counts individual buildings as data centers.

Reality check: It's unlikely the more than 3,000 data centers on Cleanview's national list will come to fruition.

• 45 projects on Cleanview's complete list have already been canceled. Another 450 don't have a completion date.

What we're watching: Whether Shapiro's new data center restrictions slow the pipeline.

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⚡️ Environmental group PennEnvironment reports that energy efficiency standards for 15 commonly used appliances would save 10,500 gigawatt-hours of electricity — more than Pittsburgh and Philadelphia use in a year — and save Pennsylvanians $7.7 billion on their utility bills by 2050. (PennEnvironment)

James Copenhaver, who was wounded by two gunshots in 2024 when a gunman tried to assassinate President Trump in Butler, died Wednesday. Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office did not immediately provide information on how he died.

• Copenhaver, of Moon, was 76. (TribLive)

❌ Allegheny County Council unanimously passed a ban on data centers 25 megawatts and larger on 30,000 acres of county-owned property. (Press release)

🚲 Mayor Corey O'Connor announced the city has acquired land from CSX railroad to extend 1 mile of trails in the Strip District and 3 miles in Glen Hazel and Swisshelm Park. (X)

🏢 A 365-unit apartment project next to the Birmingham Bridge in the South Side was approved by Pittsburgh's Planning Commission this week. (🔐 Business Times)

It's time to settle the soda score, to finish the pop prizefight.

Why it matters: Pittsburgh lies at the intersection of many different regions, and we want to know if the boundaries are shifting in the soft drink name war.

The big picture: Several maps identify Pennsylvania as split between soda state and pop country, with many believing pop country is receding from Western Pennsylvania and deeper into the Midwest.

Zoom in: Soda appears on several menus across the region — like Milky Way in Squirrel Hill and Villa Reale Pizzeria in Downtown — while pop shows up at all of Kelly O's Diner locations.

• Rear End Gastropub & Garage in Etna can't decide. Its in-house menu uses soda, but its online Toast menu uses pop.

Your turn: Do you say soda or pop? Or something else?

• Cast your vote below, and elaborate if you want by emailing [email protected]. Voting ends today at 4pm.

Vote here

🗓️ Chrissy is OOO.

🥤 Ryan's grandpa always said "soda pop." A true man of the people.

Thanks to Chloe Gonzales for editing this newsletter.