Pennsylvania Cracks Down on AI Data Centers as Backlash Grows

In brief
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order imposing new requirements on large data centers.
Data centers will lose access to the state’s fast-track permitting program and face new transparency and local approval requirements.
The order calls for data centers to pay costs they impose on the electrical grid rather than passing them to other customers.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order Tuesday imposing new restrictions on large AI data centers, including rules aimed at making developers pay for their impact on the state’s electrical grid.

Executive Order 2026-05 establishes new requirements for data centers with peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts. Developers seeking a streamlined state review must agree to Pennsylvania’s environmental, energy, workforce, and community requirements and obtain necessary local approvals.

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“I’m putting these developers on notice and letting them know that we will not let them bully Pennsylvanians, disregard our constitutional right to clean air and pure water, and drive up our utility bills,” Shapiro wrote on X. “I’m using the full weight of my executive authority to block the objectionable, unwarranted projects and put the nation’s strictest set of protections in place.”

The order also removes data centers from Pennsylvania’s Permit Fast Track Program and prohibits state agencies from signing non-disclosure agreements related to data center projects.

Pennsylvania will also create a public map of proposed facilities and require operating data centers to report their energy and water consumption annually beginning in July 2027.

The executive order also directs the state’s Special Counsel for Energy Affordability to seek utility rules making data centers cover certain grid costs and face curtailment first during some emergencies unless they secure enough power to meet their demand.

In the executive order, Shapiro noted that more than 100 data centers have reportedly been proposed in Pennsylvania, though only 20 have submitted permit applications to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

“From Archbald to Montgomery County to all across Pennsylvania, to your comments, texts, calls, and letters to my office, I’ve heard you loud and clear,” Shapiro wrote. “Pennsylvanians do not want AI data centers in their communities that would raise their utility costs and pollute their resources.”

Data center backlash

Opposition to AI data centers has spread across the U.S. as communities push back over electricity and the environmental impacts as more sites come online.

In January, a Brookings analysis warned that local resistance could slow or block AI infrastructure projects and called for binding community benefit agreements.

In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed a White House pledge to pay for new electricity generation and infrastructure needed for their data centers as costs rose after the start of the U.S. led war with Iran.

The fight over data centers has increasingly moved to local governments. By August, at least 37 people had been arrested this year in protests tied to AI data centers across the U.S.

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