U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan introduced new legislation which aims to protect small communities who deny data center applications from federal lawsuits.
"We felt that taxpayer dollars should be spent on roads, public safety, community services, and not defending against litigation from large multi-billion-dollar corporations," he said.
The legislation also would provide reassurances for communities that approve the developments, including that the workforce stays local.
“We're making incredible investments into apprenticeship programs and career technical schools that we want to develop the workforce right here in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” he said.
The Luzerne County Republican introduced the “Local Control Protection Act” Thursday in the U.S. House. According to his office, the law would curb the ability of large corporations “to litigate and attempt to overturn local decisions regarding data centers and ensure approved developments maintain a benefit to the community.”
“It's not calling for a complete moratorium, and it's not saying carte blanche build away,” Bresnahan said. “So, what we are trying to do through this legislation is to empower the local community to make the best decision for all of our constituents."
The protections would apply when the denial is based on documented findings, concerns about public health, infrastructure, community character, water or similar concerns, according to Bresnahan’s office.
"Personally I did not feel that Washington, D.C., should be dictating what belongs in the backyards,” he said. “Our local electeds need to decide what's best for our friends and our families and our neighbors and what it means for a community.”
The act also requires that approved projects provide community benefit agreements.
“To get a project across the finish line, there needs to be a tangible investment on behalf of these owners and developers to be partners with the community,” Bresnahan said.
If passed as is, the law also would bar federal agencies from approving construction or operation permits if the developer has initiated or is maintaining legal action in any court seeking to challenge or overturn a local zoning denial.
Bresnahan said that every project is unique, but often there is a federal element to projects.
For data center projects approved at the local level, the legislation also:
● Requires those approved projects who seek federal incentives to build to demonstrate a real benefit to the community.
● Community benefits agreements (CBA) must be publicly filed and legally enforceable and include road, water and utility infrastructure mitigation and environmental and noise monitoring protocols.
● Each CBA must also include a public Local Workforce Utilization Plan requiring developers to prove they recruited and hired from the region before bringing in outside labor, partnered with local apprenticeship programs, career and technical education centers, and community colleges to train the workforce, and gave local contractors and subcontractors first consideration whenever qualified firms are available.
Cognetti responds to proposal
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democrat, is challenging Bresnahan for the 8th District seat in November.
A spokesperson for Cognetti’s campaign said Bresnahan is pretending to care about communities and “trying to trick us again ... as he did when he broke his promise to protect our health care and broke his promise to ban congressional stock trading.”
The campaign also says that Bresnahan personally invested in data center stocks and celebrated $25 billion of data center exploitation right in our own backyard.
During the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit held in July in Pittsburgh, Blackstone Infrastructure announced plans to invest $25 billion in Northeast Pennsylvania to build new natural gas power plants.
Bresnahan was not at the summit but later in a press release thanked the company for choosing Northeast Pennsylvania.
Bresnahan's response
"I'm so proud to welcome economic investment into our communities. This doesn't need to be and/or, this could be and/and,” he said in response to the Cognetti campaign. “We'll continue to have economic investments in our region, while preserving our communities and their choices.”
According to the company, the investment will help support the build out of Pennsylvania’s digital and energy infrastructure. QTS, which has plans to construct a 12-building data center in Salem Twp., is backed by Blackstone. The township is not part of the 8th congressional district.
The 8th congressional district covers all of Wayne, Pike and Lackawanna counties and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties.
Data centers in the district:
● Lackawanna County has 14 data center campuses proposed, including six campuses in Archbald, which is the most of any municipality in the state.
● In Wayne County, the Linde Corporation recently introduced plans to construct 20, 118,000 square-feet data centers in Clinton Twp.
● In Luzerne County, NorthPoint Development plans to construct a 15-building data center campus in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Twp. In November, township supervisors denied land development plans. NorthPoint filed an appeal to that decision in court. Luzerne County Judge Lesa Gelb denied that appeal. There’s also a proposal in West Hazleton.
● In Monroe County, residents are fighting the Pennsylvania Glacial Till LLC from turning its 500-acre property in Tobyhanna Twp. into a data center campus. The Tobyhanna Twp. Zoning Hearing Board will continue a zoning validity challenge hearing on Monday, June 22, at 5 p.m. at Khalahari Resort. There’s also a two-building data center campus proposed in Smithfield Twp.
