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Pennsylvania Community Groups Urge Officials to Restrict Data Center Development – Inside Climate News

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Pennsylvania Community Groups Urge Officials to Restrict Data Center Development – Inside Climate News


As plans to build huge data centers multiply across the United States, some Pennsylvania communities are pushing back.

Responding to public opposition, commissioners in Hampden Township, near Harrisburg, voted in September against allowing data centers in office park zones.

In the borough of Blakely, northeast of Scranton, a developer dropped plans for a data center that same month after local protests.

And in Anthony Township in central Pennsylvania, a citizens group is urging municipal leaders to reject an application by Talen Energy, a power-generating company, to rezone 1,300 acres near one of its power plants to an industrial classification that could be used for a data center.

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“To pick up that much land and build any kind of industry would be very detrimental to the whole rural atmosphere,” said Sam Burleigh, a co-founder of the group, Concerned Citizens of Montour County. 

Taryne Williams, a spokesperson for Talen Energy, said a change to industrial zoning would align with the classification of other Talen-owned land in the area.

“We are still assessing the viability of potential projects, and the rezoning request will help support any possible future development opportunity near the plant, which could include data centers,” Williams said.

Data centers power the internet, but what’s driving the new increase in proposals around the country—many of them supersized—is artificial intelligence. Boosters say these complexes are big taxpayers and bring jobs. Critics often cite the intense buildout in Northern Virginia as an illustration of the effect they can have on communities, from constant low-frequency noise to spiking electric bills and major water usage.

Data-center developers warned the Virginia utility Dominion Energy at the end of last year that their upcoming projects would need 40 gigawatts of electricity—the energy equivalent of increasing Virginia’s households nearly fourfold.

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Dominion plans to respond by building more natural gas power plants, which could raise utility bills for households and businesses while increasing carbon emissions.

Many data centers also have on-site diesel generators that are meant for backup power but are being run more frequently, worsening air quality and prompting noise complaints from residents.

“We’ve seen the devastating impact of these hyper-scale data centers in other states. We applaud Hampden Township for standing up against this water and energy guzzling industry,” said Virginia Marcille-Kerslake, eastern Pennsylvania organizer for the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, which took credit for mobilizing public opposition to the proposed zoning change there.

Some 300 Hampden residents signed a petition opposing the zoning change. The town’s seven commissioners voted unanimously against it.

“When we caught wind that Hampden was doing this, we created a flyer with a QR code to raise awareness,” Marcille-Kerslake said. “We started knocking on doors, and nobody knew about it but as word started to spread, the comments people made were so well-informed.”

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Marcille-Kerslake urged municipalities to restrict data centers to industrial zones and away from homes, schools and hospitals. Food & Water Watch recommends imposing conditions on data centers rather than banning them altogether.

“You have to put it somewhere, so you have to have a very strong ordinance to keep the data center in the industrial district,” she said.

Twenty-one data centers are now planned in Pennsylvania, according to padatacenterproposals.com, a database that tracks the projects. Many are in the northeastern part of the state. 

Among the projects moving forward is one planned by Amazon Web Services in Salem Township, near Wilkes-Barre. The project, one of two Amazon data centers that represent a total investment of $20 billion by the tech giant in Pennsylvania, is expected to use about as much electricity as 750,000 homes.

Not far from there, in Hazle Township, NorthPoint Development is planning a 15-building data center on some 1,280 acres.

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And in neighboring Delaware, recently unveiled plans to build a six-million-square-foot data center in the northern part of the state have prompted a bill in New Castle County calling on the developer to ensure that the electric grid will have sufficient capacity to supply the 1,200 megawatts that the giant center would need. Delaware is part of the regional grid run by PJM Interconnection, which also includes Pennsylvania and Virginia, and it’s already under pressure from data-center growth. 

The latest version of the New Castle County bill also calls for the developer to plan for the center’s decommissioning so taxpayers are not left with the cost of closing it down.

Developer Starwood Digital Ventures said about 40 percent of the site would be open space, about twice the share required by the county, and around double that typically occupied by data centers around the country.

The company plans to meet the plant’s huge energy needs by connecting to an existing 500-kilovolt power line that is “one of the largest capacity lines that is employed on the U.S. grid,” said Starwood’s CEO, Anthony Balastrieri. “Having access to that infrastructure that already exists is very beneficial.” 

About This Story

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.

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That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.

Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?

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Breakfast for dinner is on the menu at these Western Pennsylvania eateries

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Breakfast for dinner is on the menu at these Western Pennsylvania eateries


Breakfast dishes can be a fun departure from traditional dinner foods when dining out. While plenty of diners serve breakfast all day, many of those spots close at 2 or 3 p.m.

“It’s one of those things that everybody wants — we sell a lot of breakfast at night,” said Back To The 80’s Diner co-owner Shane Hissem. “After 4 p.m., we sell about 30% breakfast. I think sometimes people just get hungry for it.”

Hissem, his wife Kari Hissem and Aimee Bell co-own the Greensburg diner decked out in ’80s memorabilia, including a mounted E.T. in a bicycle basket, servers decked out in ’80s leg warmers and fanny packs, Pac-Man wall art and a MTV-themed wall.

The cheesy hash browns ($3.49) and fruit-filled stuffed pancakes ($8.98) are a hit, along with eggs Benedict ($9.99).

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“People love the vibe and the breakfast at night,” Hissem said.

Server Bria Boyle said her customers really dig the pancakes for supper.

“French toast, pancakes and a lot of omelets are ordered at night. Customers come in at 7:30 p.m. and get their coffee and breakfast — we even serve Spam,” Boyle said.

Oakmont Bakery retail manager Billy O’Block holds three specialty breakfast sandwiches sold all day at the bakery/cafe in Oakmkont. (Joyce Hanz | TribLive)

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Breakfast, er, dinner sandwiches

Cameron Wycich of Shaler likes to get creative when he orders build-your-own breakfast sandwiches at Oakmont Bakery in Oakmont.

The cafe there serves 10 different breakfast sandwiches all day, until 7 p.m.

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“Today I ordered a blueberry bagel with bacon, egg and cheese. I occasionally order one for dinner,” Wycich said.

Oakmont Bakery co-owner Tony Serrao said offering breakfast options all day has proved popular with customers.

“People come in and order them all day long, especially kids coming over from the high school after school. They love to get hash browns, breakfast sandwiches and they even like to put the hash brown on the sandwich,” Serrao said.

Sandwich prices range from $6 to $10.

Breakfast for dinner is a concept that just “caught on” for Oakmont Bakery.

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“We just revamped our cafe and offer fresh-squeezed orange juice all day now, too. We are a bakery, but our cafe has just evolved over the years,” Serrao said.

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The Giant Cinnamon Roll Pancake at Youngstown Grill in Youngstown near Latrobe. (Courtesy of Youngstown Grill)

 

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Extra large pancakes

Craving a mega-sized pancake for supper?

You’ll find them at Youngstown Grill near Latrobe. The best seller is the giant cinnamon roll pancake ($6.95), which covers the plate.

A homemade cinnamon sauce is made in-house and you can add chocolate chips or blueberries for $1.50.

Breakfast here is served until 8 p.m. Another popular breakfast choice is the Youngstown scramble ($9.95) served with eggs, onions, green peppers, home fries and a choice of bacon or sausage, all mixed together.

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Hash it out

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The Corned Beef Hash Breakfast served at Tap It Brewery and Grill in Mt. Pleasant. (Courtesy of Tap It Brewery and Grill)

 

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Tap It Brewery & Grill in Mt. Pleasant is another spot for hearty breakfast-for-dinner options. They serve breakfast until closing between 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., depending on the day.

The house-brewed beers pair well with breakfast.

The most popular breakfast meal is corned beef hash ($10.95), which is made with braised beef in a brine and served with breakfast potatoes, two eggs and toast.

Menu highlights include The Mammoth Special ($10.95) featuring two eggs, choice of sausage, ham or bacon, choice of two regular pancakes or two waffles or two French toast and one side. Three stuffed pancakes ($8.95) are served folded like a taco and stuffed with a homemade cheesecake filling (apple, strawberry, cherry or blueberry) and served with a side.

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Frederic Rongier, owner of Paris 66, folds a breakfast crepe inside his East Liberty restaurant on May 6. (Kristina Serafini | TribLive)

 

Savory crepes

Authentic French crepes are served for dinner at Paris 66 Bistro in East Liberty.

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Proprietor Frederic Rongier studied at a crepe-making French institution in 1999.

One of the two dinner options is made with buckwheat and is gluten-free. Both can be made with Swiss cheese, egg and a choice of ham or bacon.

Crepes are $25 each and adding smoked salmon is $12 more.

Rongier is keen on buckwheat crepes.

“It’s 100% French and the taste is not comparable with anything else,” he said, also recommending pairing a crepe with French cider Cidre Brut ($42), a dry, crisp alcoholic French drink.

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Crepes are commonly eaten for supper in France, particularly in the Brittany region, said Rongier, a native of France.

“Guests feel like they are in France when they eat one,” he said.



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What each Pennsylvania 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary candidate would do on Day 1

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What each Pennsylvania 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary candidate would do on Day 1


It’s one of the hottest-contested races on the May 19 ballot in the 2026 Pennsylvania primary election. Four Democrats are running to succeed retiring U.S. Rep Dwight Evans in what has been rated the most Democratic-leaning district in the nation, Pennsylvania Congressional District 3.

The candidates are tax attorney Shaun Griffith, state Rep. Chris Rabb, Dr. Ala Stanford and state Sen. Sharif Street.

CBS News Philadelphia interviewed all four candidates to discuss a bevy of topics important to voters. On Wednesday, the focus was on affordability. On Thursday, the focus was on what makes these candidates stand out in a sea of Democrats. Friday’s focus is on what each candidate would do on the first day in Congress if elected.

State Sen. Sharif Street

Street has his eye set on economic and funding issues. The state senator says bringing down prices, funding mass transportation, and education are at the top of his priorities.

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“We got to make sure we continue to get prices down. We got to make sure we continue to create jobs,” Street said. “We got to make sure we continue to fund mass transit. We got to get money for our schools. And by the way, I have talked about, and I’m the only candidate in this race who has consistently talked about we need a massive federal infrastructure program for schools.”



PA-03 Congressional District candidate interview: state Sen. Sharif Street

13:49

Dr. Ala Stanford

Stanford, a medical doctor, says her top agenda item is making healthcare more affordable.

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“Restoring the subsidies to the Affordable Care Act, it has to be,” Stanford said. “It impacts everyone, whether you have private insurance or whether you are a Medicare/Medicaid recipient. Because we know right now, people are not getting the preventative care, the screening, and the treatment that their doctors have recommended.”



PA-03 Congressional District candidate interview: Dr. Ala Stanford

18:35

Tax attorney Shaun Griffith  

Griffith talked about plans to regulate data centers and hold the White House accountable. But priority one for him is universal healthcare.

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“Making sure that we have Medicare for All or some similar bill put forth for a vote. Let’s put it on record,” Griffith said. “Who in the house believes health care is a human right, and who doesn’t?”



PA-03 Congressional District candidate interview: Tax attorney Shaun Griffith

10:14

State Rep. Chris Rabb

If elected to Washington, Rabb says he’d first look to rein in the Trump administration.

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 “We have to begin the de-Trumpification of government,” Rabb said. “Trump and his thugs need to be held to account. But we also have to make sure we restore all the things he’s sought to destroy, institutionally, politically, operationally, we have to start there.”



PA-03 Congressional District candidate interview: State Rep. Chris Rabb

11:01

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An Outpouring of Frustration Over Pennsylvania’s Rapid Data Center Growth – Inside Climate News

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An Outpouring of Frustration Over Pennsylvania’s Rapid Data Center Growth – Inside Climate News


The latest example of burgeoning opposition to rapid data-center development in Pennsylvania came at a town hall meeting overflowing with frustration about how the state is managing the surge.

As about 225 people watched, more than 20 speakers in the two-hour online forum late Wednesday spoke about resistance to an industry they blame for rising electricity prices, heavy water use, noise pollution and rural industrialization. Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has tried to thread the needle of welcoming data centers while proposing some guardrails, was a frequent target.

“This is a public trust and transparency issue,” said Jennifer Dusart, a small business owner and resident of Mechanicsburg, near the state capital. “Too many Americans are finding out about these projects after decisions have been made. We have been bulldozed over, and when citizens have raised concerns, they are often dismissed as uninformed, emotional or anti-progress.”

According to the Data Center Proposal Tracker, Pennsylvania has nearly 60 data centers that have been officially proposed, are in early planning stages, have received approval to build or are under construction. 

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Karen Feridun of the environmental nonprofit Better Path Coalition, which organized the town hall, said the Pennsylvania Data Center Resistance Facebook group she started in January with a few dozen members now has more than 12,000 followers. Kelly Donia of East Whiteland Township in southeastern Pennsylvania, who lives near a proposed data center, said she’s a registered Democrat who had been excited about speculation in 2024 that Shapiro would be the Democratic vice presidential candidate. But she said she no longer supports him because he has courted data centers. “He is losing his base,” she said. “I want him to hear this loud and freaking clear. I’m going to make it my job to make sure that man never gets elected again for any office.”

While an Emerson College survey in November found that Pennsylvanians were split on data-center development—38 percent supported it, while 35 percent opposed it—opposition to such development close to home was more pronounced. A February poll of registered voters in the state by Quinnipiac University found even more pushback: 68 percent said they would oppose a data center for AI in their community. 

Neither the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, nor Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, a developer of large data centers, responded to requests for comment, though industry advocates have said the growth will bring jobs and tax revenue to the state. 

The Shapiro administration said it seeks to protect communities while reaping the economic benefits of the booming data center industry.

“If companies want the Commonwealth’s full support — including access to tax credits and faster permitting — they must meet strict expectations around transparency, environmental protection, and community impact,” Rosie Lapowsky, a Shapiro spokesperson, said in a statement. “This is about setting a higher bar for projects, not lowering it, and ensuring development happens responsibly and in a way that benefits Pennsylvanians.”

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In February, Shapiro proposed standards as part of his budget address, including that new data centers seeking state support must either provide their own power rather than drawing it from the grid, or fully fund their power needs and the transmission infrastructure that comes with them.

Feridun said Shapiro did not respond to multiple invitations to attend the town hall, which she thinks the state should have hosted to give people a chance to express their concerns about data centers. 

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Colby Wesner of the activist group Concerned Citizens of Montour County, which successfully opposed a data center, criticized House lawmakers for passing the Shapiro-supported HB 2151, which would require state officials to draft a model ordinance that towns could use to respond to data center applications. 

Supporters say its use would be voluntary and it would help local officials protect quality of life in their communities. But Wesner believes it will benefit the industry if enacted: “There is absolutely no way this ordinance won’t be a data center developer’s dream.” 

Donia urged townships to change their zoning so they have the legal right to deny data center applications in places they don’t want them. Without carefully zoned land, towns are vulnerable to lawsuits from developers, she said.

“If you’ve got terrible ordinances in your township, and you add in bad zoning, guess what? You get a hyperscale data center,” she said.

The surge in data center projects in Pennsylvania has been driven by tax breaks for developers, as allowed by a 2021 law that lawmakers should repeal, said Republican state Rep. Jamie Walsh, who spoke at the town hall event. In Virginia, the state with the most data centers, developers have to pay a sales and use tax, but Pennsylvania doesn’t require that, he said.

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“That has made Pennsylvania a target. In Virginia, they have to pay tax on the contents of those buildings. Pennsylvania will never realize that. That is why we’ve become ground zero,” said Walsh, who represents Luzerne County in northeast Pennsylvania.

State Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat who represents part of the Philadelphia suburbs, plans to introduce a bill to place a three-year moratorium on data center development so state and local governments can first study and plan for the industry. She announced the bill in a legislative memo in February and expects to introduce it soon, a spokesman said.

Muth told activists at the town hall that the data center industry has not done enough to fully disclose its plans to the public. ”This has all been planned long before any of us had a clue, so don’t feel that you missed all these things,” she said. “You were supposed to; no one wanted you to know about it.” 

Michael Sauers, a retired school teacher from Bloomsburg, southwest of Scranton, called on officials to amend the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, a regulation first published in 1970.

“This has to be strengthened to empower communities to be able to say no to unwanted development that is being shoved down their throats,” he said. “Communities must be empowered to reject top-down development that gives them little or no voice in the future.”

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About This Story

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.

That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.

Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?

Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.

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Thank you,

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