Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan has asked Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania General Assembly for a three-year statewide moratorium on new large-scale data center approvals.
Gaughan is seeking the move because he says Pennsylvania lacks a comprehensive regulatory framework to address the scale and speed of the industry's development.
DATA CENTERS:
IN-DEPTH COVERAGE
WVIA News' reporting on data center developments in the region include a recent three-part digital series and a TV panel discussion:
● Potential Impacts on Water Supplies
● Potential Impacts on the Electric Grid
● Local Response to Data Center Developments
● Elected officials hesitant on data centers in region, want to keep decisions local
● Data Centers: Deal or Dilemma? Keystone Edition full episode
"To me, a moratorium means a pause. Let's just stop this for three years so that we can study it and make sure that we know of the environmental issues, all of the impact on water, electricity, so on and so forth," the commissioner said.
Gaughan sent a letter with his request to the governor on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the governor's office said Tuesday afternoon that Shapiro had not received Gaughan's letter yet.
Gaughan's reasoning
In Lackawanna County alone there are at least 11 data center campuses proposed by developers, six of which are in Archbald.
Many of the projects do not have end users or named end users, meaning the campuses could be built without a tech company to operate to rows and rows of servers that store essentially everything done online that make up the inside of the data centers.
The industry requires substantial amounts of power. Data centers run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Industry experts have said proximity to power is one of the reasons Pennsylvania is so attractive to developers — Northeast Pennsylvania in particular.
A single data center can consume an average of over 300,000 gallons of water each day for cooling, which is equivalent to the water use in 1,000 homes, according to the Environmental Law Institute.
Residents not just in Lackawanna but across the region have been calling for more information about how the industry will impact what Gaughan calls their “livelihood.”
"These people are crying out for help, and they're not doing it just because they have nothing else to do. They're doing it because these are their homes … this is their property, and they're very concerned,” he said.
“We, I think, as commissioners, have an obligation to do everything in our power. And one of the things we have as commissioners is the bully pulpit and the ability to interact with the governor and our state legislators,” Gaughan said.
Gaughan, who often attends public meetings and hearings, in his letter asks the governor and the General Assembly to consider legislation to pause data center development, which he believes will allow the state to:
- Conduct a comprehensive study of energy and water impacts, including cumulative regional demand.
- Evaluate environmental and land-use implications, particularly in communities with legacy industrial land and fragile ecosystems.
- Develop uniform standards for siting, setbacks and infrastructure mitigation.
- Examine appropriate taxation frameworks, including whether impact fees or revenue sharing models should be authorized to ensure host communities are fairly compensated.
- Prohibit the use of nondisclosure agreements (NDA) that prevent local elected officials from sharing material project information with the public or that otherwise circumvent Pennsylvania's transparency and open-meetings principles.
Shapiro's standards
During his budget address earlier this month, Shapiro announced a set of standards that his administration will use to hold data center developers accountable.
He called it GRID — the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards. He said it was developed alongside the community.
“I know Pennsylvanians have real concerns about these data centers and the impact they could have on our communities, our utility bills and our environment,” he said. “And so do I.”
Under GRID, Shapiro said:
- Developers must commit to bringing their own power generation or pay entirely for the new generation that they will need.
- Developers must commit to strict transparency standards and direct community engagement.
- The projects need to hire and train local workers, including entering into community benefit agreements that fund important local priorities and support the towns that host them. Shapiro received a long applause after announcing that standard.
- They must also commit to the highest standards of environmental protection, especially water conservation.
“Too many of these projects have been shrouded in secrecy, with local communities left in the dark about who is coming in and what they’re building,” the governor said. “That needs to change.”
The governor’s office said the administration “looks forward to working with stakeholders and the General Assembly to implement the GRID principles.”
During a Feb. 8 podcast interview Shapiro said there are areas where neighbors are saying "we don't want this here" about data centers close to homes.
"And by the way, I agree with them. I wouldn't want that there, and we're not going to support those projects," he said on the Nathan Jun Report.
"Look, we have to beat China when it comes to AI supremacy. Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to house these data centers because of our energy production," Shapiro said during the podcast. "It's got to be done in a way that protects our planet, protects communities, and allows the local community to actually benefit from this."
Putting the 'cart before the horse'
Gaughan said for residents, especially in Lackawanna County, monetary investments are not enough.
"I think it's not really clear yet how much of a benefit communities are actually going to get in terms of tax dollars," he said.
He used the Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Dunmore and Throop as an example. Those host communities can sometimes afford a new fire truck or police car but there’s a sacrifice.
"We're sacrificing our environment, we're sacrificing our land, we're sacrificing our water, our air," he said. "And especially with this industry, it's not quite clear what the actual impacts are going to be, because it's new and it's fast moving.”
Gaughan said his great-grandfather formed the South Scranton Surface Protective Association in the 1900s. The group tried to take the coal industry to task because at the time homes were falling into the mines.
"No one took into consideration all of the damage that coal mining would do to our area. It has literally taken us decades to come out from underneath that,” he said.
He worries that the data center industry will do the same thing.
"We haven't studied it enough yet. There are so many bills now that are being talked about, introduced, discussed in the Pennsylvania State Senate and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Why are we putting the cart before the horse?" he said. "Let's regulate this industry. Let's make sure that we're all on the same page before we move forward and alter the landscape forever of Lackawanna County again.”
