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HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday said he’s instituting what he calls the strictest data center guardrails in the country.
Shapiro signed an executive order that he says will give more control and oversight to municipalities when it comes to data center development.
“Guardrails that will hold these greedy developers accountable, will stop bad projects and put more power back into the hands of the local communities,” Shapiro said.
It’s not a moratorium like other states, but the order mandates four minimum standards. It requires companies to pay for their own energy, minimize noise and air pollution and water usage, hire local workers and give back to the communities in negotiated benefit agreements. If all of those standards are not formally agreed to with the municipality, Shapiro says the state will back the town in blocking the data center.
“Let me put that succinctly: if the local community doesn’t approve a project, the state won’t approve it either,” Shapiro said.
In western Pennsylvania, there’s widespread opposition to the latest data center proposal in the region. A Las Vegas developer plans to convert an abandoned 400-acre former racetrack in Big Beaver into a three-building, 600,000-square-foot data center complex.
Neighbors say they’re concerned about noise, pollution and water usage, as well as whether their electric bills will go up.
The borough planning committee will hold its first review of the application from Switch Data Centers later this month, but towns like Big Beaver are rushing to write data center ordinances and people fear they’ll be powerless to stop or modify the projects.
Shapiro did not reference the Big Beaver project, and in its initial presentation, Switch Data Center said it will be addressing community concerns.
Switch did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but Big Beaver resident Rachel McGreal says that if conditions are not met, the town should have the power to say no to the data center.
“I think if the majority of a town anywhere says that, then yes, I think the popular vote should win,” McGreal said.
Data centers have become a huge issue in the governor’s race, and Shapiro’s opponent, Stacy Garrity, released a statement accusing him of flip-flopping on the issue: “Last summer, Josh Shapiro was the biggest data center cheerleader in the nation, and he reaped in more than $5 million in campaign donations from out-of-state data center interests in the process. Now that public opinion has turned against him and his donors, Josh Shapiro is playing CYA.”
In this scramble to build data centers, people and municipalities say they’ve had little or no say. Time will tell if the governor’s order changes that.
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