State Sen. Jarrett Coleman on Wednesday urged residents who have organized against proposed data centers across the Lehigh Valley to keep the pressure on.

During an hour-long telephone town hall, Coleman said the crowds who have filled municipal meetings where the data center projects are on the agenda have caught the attention of local officials, who know they won’t be reelected if they back the unpopular developments.

“There’s power in numbers,” Coleman, R-16, told callers. “When you show up at meetings and you make public comment and tell them your personal stories, those are your elected officials who are sitting up there. They’re going to have to see you in the community. You’re a lot more influential than you think.”

The 16th District, which is split between Lehigh and Bucks counties, has data center proposals at the former Air Products headquarters site in Upper Macungie Township and the Project Atlas data center complex across the street from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township.

The Upper Macungie zoning hearing board rejected Air Products’ proposal last month, though an appeal is likely. A planning commission hearing on the Project Atlas data center was canceled this week. Coleman, who lives in the Parkland School District and was a school board member, said the hearing could be rescheduled on July 9 or Aug. 13.

Coleman, who is up for reelection in November, said that he is one of the only local officials to take a hard line against data centers. He touted two bills he’s co-sponsoring: Senate Bill 1344, which would repeal the sales tax exemption on data center equipment enacted in 2021 to incentivize data center development; and Senate Bill 1345, which gives municipalities the option of placing an 18-month moratorium on new or unapproved data center applications so they can revise their zoning ordinances. Both bills are in committee.

Many of the people who called in during the town hall said they were concerned that data centers will harm the environment. Others were asking for an explanation of the purpose of the behemoth complexes.

Coleman said he believes data centers should be built in less-populated states, like Arizona and New Mexico. A former pilot, he described flying over “desolate” areas of the country where he believed data centers would be less of a nuisance.

“There’s other places in the United States that are a much better fit. They don’t have to be in Pennsylvania. So many people move to the Lehigh Valley and Upper Bucks because it’s beautiful and not polluted. We need to come together as a community and say, ‘No, not here.’ “

Coleman’s Democratic opponent in the Senate race, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, said he also supports a moratorium on building new data centers, but said the solution to keeping them out of communities is more nuanced than what Coleman presented. The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code requires zoning for all uses, including technology like data centers, Pinsley noted, so municipalities have to manage developers’ requests carefully.

Pinsley said residents should be looking at who is profiting from the massive amounts of energy data centers will consume.

“We need this to be less profitable for our utility companies,” Pinsley said. “No matter where you live, we’re all on the same grid.”