It’s the Democrats’ turn to seek input on data centers.
State Sens. Marty Flynn and Nick Miller are hosting a Democratic Policy Committee hearing on the topic next week.
"Data Centers: Impacts, Operations, and Policy Considerations" will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2 at Marywood University’s Nazareth Student Center, 1300 University Ave., Scranton.
It follows a similar hearing held recently by their Republican counterparts.
Flynn, from Scranton, said he is expecting three or four people to testify. Other state senators are also invited to sit on the panel.
With advancements in artificial intelligence, the energy-intensive facilities are popping up across the United States. The sometimes acres-long buildings house servers that store data. Those servers get hot and need to be cooled. Water is often used to chill the computers.
Residents around the region are voicing concerns at municipal meetings about the location of planned data centers, the resources needed to run the facilities and other elements of data centers.
On Aug. 11, State Sen. Rosemary Brown, a Republican who represents Monroe County and parts of Lackawanna and Wayne counties, hosted the Pennsylvania Senate Republicans Policy Committee on data centers at Valley View High School in Archbald.
During the hearing, John Augustine, CEO of Penn’s Northeast, said he knows of at least 15 companies interested in developing data centers in Northeast Pennsylvania. The economic development agency covers nine counties and has signed seven nondisclosure agreements.
Public can submit hearing questions online
The Democratic Policy Committee hearing on data centers will not feature public comment. However, citizens can submit questions online at https://www.senatorflynn.com/event/data-centers/
The submission window closes on Thursday at noon.
The hearing will also be live streamed at PASenatorMiller.com/policy.
Data center legislation in Senate
The hearing will explore pending proposals from the legislature and discuss details of data center infrastructure and technology, according to Miller’s office. He represents parts of Lehigh and Northampton Counties.
Republican Sens. Greg Rothman, who represents Perry County and parts of Cumberland and Dauphin counties, and Tracy Pennycuick, who represents parts of Berks and Montgomery counties, introduced Senate Bill 939 in July.
Flynn is a cosponsor on the legislation which provides for high impact data centers; establishes the Office of Transformation and Opportunity and the Artificial Intelligence and creates the Data Center and Emerging Technology Regulatory Sandbox Program.
“When you look at what Pennsylvania has, we have natural resources ... We have a great geographical location, being on the East Coast, between Washington, D.C., and New York. We have a great infrastructure within the state for moving products across the state. So data centers make sense here,” Pennycuick said in an interview earlier this month.
One part of the bill addresses the uniformity of local ordinances.
“We want to make sure that everyone has an equal playing field for the location of a data center. We do not want to see ‘oh, you can't put a data center here, but you can put it there,'” she said. “We don't want municipalities to put undue burden on a business that wants to come in with an AI data center.”
Flynn on Tuesday said he drafted an amendment to the bill in response to concerns raised by constituents about the potential development of high impact data centers.
“This amendment ensures that residents and local elected officials have a decisive role in shaping large-scale development projects that could significantly affect their communities,” according to Flynn’s office. “Under the proposal, a municipal governing body must hold a publicly advertised meeting and approve any data center application by majority vote. If a majority of the local governing body votes against approval, the application for the project would be denied.”
The legislation has not been voted on yet.
