THROOP — Addressing a crowd of nearly 200 impassioned local data center opponents on Thursday, state Sen. Katie Muth credited Northeast Pennsylvania’s growing resistance movement with giving her courage.
“You’ve set the stage and the standard for the whole commonwealth on how to fight the fight, become unified, use facts and science and truth to lead the way,” said Muth, D-44, who has become a central figure in Pennsylvania’s data center opposition movement with her support for a three-year statewide moratorium on the industry. “You’re here locally. You’re fighting tooth and nail for what you deserve, which is a safe and healthy place to live, grow up, retire — all phases of life.”
Although her district is in Southeast Pennsylvania, representing parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties, Muth traveled to the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop on Thursday for a “countywide community conversation” on data centers, rallying a crowd of at least 175 residents from across Northeast Pennsylvania who are fighting the developments in their communities.
Residents opposed to data centers are seated in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop to participate in a countywide conversation about data centers Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A resident holds up a sign that reads “BOYCOTT AI” during the data center town hall in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Residents listen to the data center discussion in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Residents opposed to data centers are seated in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop to participate in a countywide conversation about data centers Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“There is a negotiation happening, and we aren’t at the table,” Muth said. “And that’s OK — we already built our own table, and we’re fighting back.”
She credited the local opposition movement for inspiring her.
“Thank you for giving me courage,” Muth said, telling the crowd she follows what they’re doing. “On the days where I think this is a lost cause, I remind myself that you are all up here fighting the fight, so I better keep fighting the fight.”
Throop native Heather Luklanchuk, a mother of three and a former teacher in the Mid Valley School District, organized the community conversation with NEPA Stands Up and other grassroots organizers, aiming to use the hour-and-a-half event to assemble, encourage and inform residents challenging data centers.
Co-organizer of the countywide data center town hall Heather Luklanchuk speaks during the event at the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“You don’t need to be an expert to show up. You don’t need to be an expert to speak at meetings. All you need is concern for your fellow neighbors and a motivation to want better, because you all deserve better,” Luklanchuk said. “Your town council members, the planning commission, they’re there to protect you and to represent you, not to pave the way for developers with no guardrails.
“These developers don’t want to see us come out in droves,” Luklanchuk continued. “They prefer to quietly sneak in the back door like a teenager past curfew and completely change your life as you know it.”
Residents from Archbald, Dickson City, Jessup, Olyphant, Throop, Scott Twp., Old Forge and Ransom Twp. attended from Lackawanna County, with others traveling from Wayne and Luzerne counties. At the end of the meeting, residents broke down into groups based on municipality to discuss the state of industrial developments in their towns.
Archbald residents have a group discussion during the data center town hall in the auditorium of Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Archbald residents have a group discussion during the data center town hall in the auditorium of Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Archbald residents have a group discussion during the data center town hall in the auditorium of Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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‘It’s criminal’
Northeast Pennsylvania has experienced a proliferation of data center and related power plant proposals since early 2025. Lackawanna County alone is navigating about 90 proposed data centers across more than a dozen projects, in addition to at least six proposed natural gas power plants, totaling 3.25 gigawatts, or 3,250 megawatts, of new generation.
Nothing else in Pennsylvania compares to the total number of proposals in Lackawanna County, Muth said after the meeting.
“It’s criminal. It is absolute like criminal level of greed,” she said. “It’s the county that’s the biggest. It is insane.”
Joining Muth on Thursday, Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, one of the county’s most vocal data center opponents, spoke about the cumulative impacts of proposed data centers and power plants and provided an update on a countywide cumulative health impact study currently underway, which he anticipates will be ready in the first week of January. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, who is running against Republican Rob Bresnahan for the U.S. 8th Congressional District next month, also addressed PPL Electric Utility’s plans to upgrade transmission lines from a substation in Luzerne County to the Summit substation in Scranton’s West Mountain. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will now hold a hearing on those lines Nov. 20 at Lackawanna College, Cognetti said.
Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti speaks during the data center town hall in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
State Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-40, Middle Smithfield Twp., who co-sponsored Muth’s moratorium, also attended Thursday. Brown faces Archbald Democrat Brian Wrightson for the 40th District seat next month.
Although Muth’s moratorium, Senate Bill 1359, has remained in the Local Government Committee since June, she announced plans Thursday to try to push through a data center moratorium next week as an amendment to other legislation.
“In the absence of passing (a moratorium), people are making a decision whether they realize it or not,” Muth said. “Let people know where you stand, right? Vote it down if you don’t agree with it.”
‘Absolute insanity’
Residents are worried about their homes, their electric bills, their air and their water, Gaughan said, displaying a map of proposed data center and power plants across Lackawanna County.
“You have to wonder then, when you look at a map … why we, as a county and as a region, would ever want to become the engine of the machine that could potentially contribute to our own demise?” he said. “It makes absolutely zero sense to me, and no one — not a developer, not any of their attorneys or their experts — has been able to honestly explain how any of this is a good idea.”
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan speaks during the data center town hall in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER0
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan speaks during the data center town hall in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER0
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Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan speaks during the data center town hall in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER0
Developers propose projects near neighborhoods, schools, parks and homes, he said.
“This is absolute insanity,” Gaughan said. “They want us to examine one data center and one power plant at a time, one transmission line someplace else, and never ask what happens when you put them all together.”
Last month, county commissioners awarded Massachusetts-based EmPower Analytics Group a $165,000 contract to quantify the potential cumulative impacts of data centers, power plants and related infrastructure proposed in Lackawanna County on air quality and public health. EmPower conducted a similar study analyzing the potential impacts of the proposed 14-building Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus in Archbald and its 588 backup diesel generators.
“We, as a county, because of all of you, are going to be the leader in the state of Pennsylvania and in the United States of America with the first of its kind, as far as I know, comprehensive public health impact analysis on all of the development, not just one proposal,” Gaughan said.
‘Advocacy isn’t just a hobby’
Following Gaughan, Moosic resident Derek Sutcliffe, a member of Stop Archbald Data Centers, further rallied the crowd.
Frequently attending data center and power plant meetings throughout Northeast Pennsylvania to work with opposition groups, Sutcliffe emphasized the importance of advocacy.
“Northeast PA has a long and great history,” he said. “We know what it means to build a community, and we know exactly what it takes to protect one.”
Moosic resident and member of the Stop Archbald Data Centers group Derek Sutcliffe speaks during the data center town hall in the auditorium of the Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop Thursday, October 15, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The region isn’t opposed to progress, but it is opposed to “unchecked irresponsible development that threatens our quality of life,” he said.
“Advocacy isn’t just a hobby. Right now, it’s our primary line of defense,” Sutcliffe said. “Real change starts in municipal halls, community parks and local living rooms. It starts when everyday people decide that their voices matter.”
A physical presence at meetings is a visual reminder to local leaders that the community is watching their every vote, he said.
“We must be the most informed people in the room. When we attend municipal meetings, we must speak with hard facts about energy infrastructure, water tables and environmental noise,” he said. “When we know the data better than the developers do, they can’t dismiss us.”
Sutcliffe stressed that environmental impacts don’t end at municipal boundaries.
This is a defining moment for Northeast Pennsylvania, he said.
“The decisions made over the next few years will shape the landscape, the economy and the environment of this valley for generations to come. When our children look back at this moment, let them say that we didn’t sit idly by while our resources were signed away. Let them say that neighbors and leaders stood shoulder to shoulder to protect this place that we call home,” Sutcliffe said. “This valley belongs to us all.”