(The Center Square) – Bipartisan sentiment to tap the brakes on data center development appears to be growing among Pennsylvania’s top elected leaders.
Democratic state Sen. Katie Muth of Chester County has filed a bill to put a three-year moratorium on data center development – with co-sponsors who include two Republican senators – and Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity said it would be good to have a “pause” to let municipalities update zoning and other ordinances.
“I don’t believe a full moratorium is necessary, I think we just need to step back and take a pause,” said Garrity, who is currently state Treasurer. The ordinance updates, she said, are necessary “to ensure these projects do not fall on the backs of ratepayers.”
Garrity is running against incumbent Democrat Josh Shapiro. He has been a strong supporter of artificial intelligence and data centers but also has proposed standards for accountability, transparency and other aspects of data center development.
The pell-mell rush to build data centers has hit Pennsylvania hard. Uncertainty, confusion, and a lack of transparency around proposals has stirred widespread opposition to the proposals in many parts of the state.
Muth’s bill would affect data centers with monthly electricity demand of 20 megawatts or more. The moratorium, it states, would be applied to “hyperscale” data centers as well as infrastructure like new power plants and transmission lines associated with a hyperscale data center.
“These companies do not get to drain our water, consume our electricity, raise costs on families, threaten local control, and tell communities to accept it,” Muth said in a written statement. “This moratorium puts people before corporate greed, and it is long overdue.”
Co-sponsors on the bill are Republican Sens. Rosemary Brown of Monroe County and Elder Vogel of Beaver County, and Democratic Sen. Carolyn Comitta of Chester County.
Interviewed in the Capitol on Tuesday, Brown said there have been more than a dozen data center proposals in her district in Monroe County and parts of Lackawanna and Wayne counties. It was clear, she said, that there was a lack of preparedness within the communities, as well as a lack of knowledge.
“There are too many questions that are not being answered,” Brown said. Also, she said, there has been lack of transparency, and there is no justification for building a data center next to someone’s backyard.
The moratorium, she said, is the “correct” thing to do to “make sure you have the answers, and do it right.”
Brown has introduced her own legislative package related to data centers.
One proposal would require developers to provide “will serve” letters confirming utilities can handle a project at full build-out before an application is submitted, and another would limit large-scale data center development to areas zoned industrial. Still another would call for a water impact study and analysis at least 30 days prior to filing an application tied to a data center proposals, and require later follow-up.
