Data Centers

Archbald Borough Council held a conditional use hearing Wednesday to hear from testimony from a data center developer seeking to build a large campus in the municipality.

Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan addressed data centers during a commissioners meeting Wednesday; commissioners Chris Chermak and Thom Welby also weighed in.

Consumer advocates and a Pennsylvania public utility commissioner are urging state lawmakers to tax data centers and other large energy users to help lower residents' energy bills.

Ransom Twp. Supervisors met Thursday for a zoning hearing after Scranton Materials LLC filed an application for a data center zoning overlay on their Newton Road property. They denied the request after attorney Laura McGarry pointed out flaws in the hearing process and Scranton Materials LLC’s case seeking the change.

More than 200 volunteers, from youth groups to the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, crafted fringe blankets and donated food for the Blankets & Broth event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Scranton Materials LLC requested a data center overlay for its property in Ransom Twp. Supervisors met Thursday for a zoning hearing on the change but had to move the meeting to next week after objections from the crowd over the need for more space.

Amazon Web Services hosted a workshop workshop for educators at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke.

State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Republican Party’s endorsed challenger to Gov. Josh Shapiro in this year’s election, suggested Monday that Pennsylvania’s rural communities would be good locations for new data centers built to power artificial intelligence technologies.

Archbald 25 Developer LLC and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection held a public meeting this week in Archbald to talk about Project Gravity, a data center campus which is proposed for 186-acres of mine-spoiled land in the borough.

Supervisors met at 7 p.m. on Friday, prompting questions and outrage from residents.