As local tech groups predict that Pennsylvania will outpace its region for data-center growth in the next 10 years, another organization warned that some legislative proposals in play this session would weaken municipalities’ ability to say no.
“Local authority remains one of the few meaningful tools communities have to push back against large-scale data center and AI development,” Data & Society, a nonprofit that studies the social implications of data, automation and AI, said in a new policy brief. “State government should support, not override, local decision-making, especially with infrastructural decisions as consequential as this.”
It named several bills in the Pennsylvania legislature that it said would reduce local authority over siting decisions for major industrial facilities, centralizing that power within the state.
The bills include HB 502, a Democrat-led measure that’s part of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s “Lightning Plan” to speed the permitting of energy projects. The bill would set up a statewide board to make decisions on whether to approve large-scale energy projects, which data centers will need.
Among the other bills the group flagged are two Republican-led measures: SB 939, which would create a standardized “sandbox” to write statewide regulation for the industry, and SB 991, which would provide faster permits for data-center developers who commit to meet or exceed federal environmental standards.
