Last week, The Washington Post joined a growing number of national news outlets paying attention to the proposed annihilation of Archbald for the construction of “hyperscale” data centers. The headline of the Post story wasn’t shy about why a Washington, D.C., newspaper read around the world is interested in the zoning woes of a tiny Northeast Pennsylvania borough:
“A town of 7,000 planned so many data centers, it’s like adding 51 Walmarts.”
I can’t say for sure that the Post reporter cribbed the analogy from me, but he’s welcome to it. So far, it’s the best way to help people visualize the staggering scale of the proposed projects being piled on Archbald.
As “David vs. Goliath” stories go, this one rivals the original. Archbald and its neighboring communities in the Midvalley are epically archetypical of the underdog attacked by a pack of wolves. The same is true of communities throughout Lackawanna County, the region, the state and across the nation.
So far, a total of about 90 data centers have been proposed in Archbald, Dickson City, Jessup and Olyphant boroughs and Clifton, Covington, Newton and Ransom townships. More than half of these vampiric concrete mausoleums would be crammed into Archbald. The borough stands out due to the unique magnitude of the onslaught its citizens are standing up against.
Along with 51 Walmart Supercenter-sized buildings, the borough is being bullied into absorbing massive new infrastructure projects including a power plant and 12 miles of electrical lines on towering monopoles. The data centers come with hundreds of diesel generators, thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, toxic emissions and noise pollution linked to cancer and other diseases, and devastating declines in property values.
If even half of these projects are approved, what’s left of Archbald won’t be worth living in. The existential nature of the threat resonates with anyone anywhere who’s sick of seeing Wall Street steamroll Main Street.
The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire tech “broligarch” behind Amazon.com and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Post published the story despite Amazon’s position as the lead player pushing data centers in Pennsylvania.
If the fight to save Archbald is too newsworthy for The Washington Post to ignore, it should be of urgent interest in Harrisburg, and particularly to Gov. Josh Shapiro. Usually, an infamously ambitious politician running for reelection can’t afford to ignore the pleas of constituents under siege, but the incumbent governor seems confident he’ll win in a walk.
History is on his side.
Shapiro is a “pro-business Democrat” in the tradition of former Gov. Ed Rendell. Republican “leadership” publicly opposed “Fast Eddie,” but privately and passively supported his bid for a second term by nominating a ringer — retired NFL superstar Lynn Swann.
“Swanny” was a four-time Super Bowl champion and a Hall-of-Famer for my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. He leapt tall cornerbacks in a single bound, but had zero qualifications to serve as governor. That was fine with “Rendell Republicans.” Swann was drafted to run, not win.
Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity is this cycle’s Lynn Swann. Her campaign is a theater production staged to promote the illusion of an appealing alternative. Garrity has little chance of beating Shapiro, whose only obvious vulnerability is his increasingly conspicuous disappearing act on invasive data center development.
Initially, Shapiro was lavishly “gung-ho” for bringing the data center “gold rush” to Pennsylvania, but the mushrooming opposition has noticeably dampened his enthusiasm — at least publicly.
Heat on Shapiro flared last week with the revelation of emails obtained by Concerned Citizens of Montour County via a Right to Know Law request. The emails between wealthy developers and Big Tech giants and Shapiro administration officials exposed the behind-the-scenes chumminess of voracious business leaders and starstruck government officials starved for economic investment in Pennsylvania.
In one message, a wealthy data center developer suggests requiring opponents of data centers to post multimillion-dollar bonds, denying access to court challenges to anyone who can’t buy it.
In another, an administration official assures Amazon executives that Shapiro’s “GRID Principles” — guidelines “requiring” data center developers and end-users to meet economic, environmental and energy benchmarks — are entirely voluntary and shouldn’t be interpreted as hurdles to data center development. Everything is negotiable if you invest your billions here!
A three-year statewide moratorium proposed by state Sen. Katie Muth — a Democrat who represents parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties — and co-sponsored by state Sen. Rosemary Brown — a Republican who represents parts of Lackawanna and Wayne counties and all of Monroe — has widespread public support, but as of Friday, the legislation hadn’t been introduced. Talk is cheap. In unprecedented numbers, voters are demanding urgent, accountable action.
To the extent that any movement can credibly be called “nonpartisan,” the opposition to invasive data center development is “deep purple.” Everyday Democrats, Republicans and independents are fiercely united against a hostile corporate takeover of the state.
Meanwhile, support for the invasion seems just as uniform among elected officials of both major parties. From the Trump White House to MAGA Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, alleged Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, Shapiro and state officials in both parties, the welcome mat for developers was quietly laid out long before the public was even vaguely aware of data centers.
Archbald is the canary in the data center “coal mine.” It’s no longer just a tiny town in Northeast Pennsylvania. The borough has become a national symbol of community resilience and grassroots resistance to a culture of greed and waste that threatens to devour and discard anyone or anything in its path.
No town of 7,000 can reasonably be expected to absorb 51 data centers each the size of a Walmart Supercenter and all of the accompanying infrastructure and health and economic costs. Fifty-one lemonade stands would be too many, especially if the “refreshments” offered were laced with carcinogens and cost a fortune per serving.
It’s a shame the Washington Post reporter and Gov. Shapiro weren’t present at Valley View High School for last week’s hearing on the proposed 400-megawatt natural gas power plant next to Staback Park.
In the parking lot, a small group of kids and moms lovingly staffed a lemonade stand that raised $1,200 for the Stop Archbald Data Centers legal fund.
To a billionaire, that kind of money isn’t worth counting. To me, it was priceless inspiration to load my slingshot.
CHRIS KELLY, The Times-Tribune columnist, invites Gov. Shapiro and Sens. McCormick and Fetterman to hold their next data center cheerleading event in Archbald. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.