Opinion: Pennsylvania needs a mandatory data center moratorium

By Deena Stoudt, Gillian Wenhold and Michael Friend 

What happens when a data center wants to move into your backyard? You organize, you rally, and you make your voice heard. That’s the situation in Allentown and South Whitehall Township, where Lehigh Valley residents have fiercely shown up to tell our elected officials that our communities aren’t for sale.

In early August, Allentown residents organized by Food & Water Watch, PA Stands Up, and Democratic Socialists of America pushed for — and won — stronger restrictions on where data centers can be built, noise pollution, setback distances and decommissioning standards.

While residents across the commonwealth are heroically defending their homes and have been successful in shutting down data center proposals, that responsibility shouldn’t be on our backs. Our state lawmakers have a duty to protect the well-being of residents — a mandatory three-year data center moratorium must be a priority when legislators return to Harrisburg in September.

A Fox News poll released in late July shows 74% of Pennsylvania voters oppose data center construction in their communities. That sentiment has been reflected on Allentown’s Emmaus Avenue project and South Whitehall’s Project Atlas, both of which face fierce public pushback. But our state lawmakers have yet to take meaningful action to halt this controversial development invading Pennsylvania towns.

Seeing the problem, some Pennsylvania’s legislators have taken real steps toward addressing the issue, like Sen. Katie Muth, D-Chester, who filed legislation for a three-year mandatory pause in data center activities this summer.

Meanwhile, others have proposed more performative provisions. For example, Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh, introduced a bill, SB1345, that would give municipalities the option to implement an 18-month data center moratorium. The word “moratorium” may elicit excitement, but this bill is riddled with exemptions and includes a waiver process that gives developers a built-in pathway around a pause. While municipalities lack the right to ban data centers, they already have the ability to voluntarily pause the construction.

Simply, Coleman’s bill is the latest nothing-burger to come out of Harrisburg, despite his acknowledging that Pennsylvanians want a moratorium. It creates the appearance of protection while giving developers a roadmap to avoid it. Lawmakers, inspired by Gov. Josh Shapiro’s embrace of the data center industry, are trying to toe a moderate line by throwing out band aid solutions while ignoring the things necessary to address the problem’s root cause.

Pennsylvania has over 2,500 municipalities — the third most out of any state in the country. Our legislators must provide communities the support they need by doing the heavy lifting at the state level. We must ensure data centers aren’t forced into communities that are wholly unprepared for them.

An optional protective approach riddled with exemptions and a developer waiver is not the solution to a rapidly developing industry shrouded in secrecy. Lawmakers must pass a mandatory statewide data center moratorium instead.

Pennsylvanians urgently need data center protections. We know the harms this kind of development will bring without them. Just look at the state’s fracking history. Data centers largely rely on fossil fuels, and it’s part of what makes Pennsylvania so attractive to developers. But for the people who have to live here, data centers are just the latest characters in a long history of exploitation.

While the state’s shale gas supply is slated to power these industrial facilities, we’re facing threats of increased water and air pollution, transmission line build out, skyrocketing utility bills, among so many other negative impacts. Pennsylvania already took a “build now, ask questions later” approach with the fracking boom, and look where it landed us: higher gas costs, an unaddressed radioactive waste problem, broken promises of increased jobs and elevated childhood cancer rates.

And for the reasons named, it’s also why Shapiro’s newest executive order aimed at restricting data centers doesn’t go nearly as far as residents need. There are still the same paths for harmful data centers to materialize, and while some guardrails are a change up from Shapiro’s wholesale embrace of the development, the order doesn’t apply to existing proposals, like Project Atlas.

Pennsylvania is at an inflection point. A mandatory data center moratorium isn’t just about meeting a political moment, it’s also about confronting and staving off one of the greatest challenges of our lifetimes. Data centers threaten to upend our communities, our environment and our democracy. It’s time the Legislature does something meaningful to address this burgeoning crisis. It must pass a mandatory statewide data center moratorium now!

This is a contributed opinion column. Deena Stoudt is a member of Food & Water Watch; Gillian Wenhold is a member of Lehigh Valley Stands Up; Michael Friend is on the steering committee of Lehigh Valley Democratic Socialists of America. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at themorningcall.com/opinions.