{"id":105318,"date":"2026-02-04T22:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T22:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/105318\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T22:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T22:30:07","slug":"lackawanna-county-commissioners-weigh-data-center-moratorium-to-discuss-potential-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/105318\/","title":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County commissioners weigh data center moratorium to discuss potential regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lackawanna County commissioners discussed options to slow the development of data centers across the county during their bi-weekly meeting.<\/p>\n

SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Corralling data centers, that’s what Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan is asking Governor Josh Shapiro to do.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday’s commissioner’s meeting, Gaughan asked his fellow commissioners and state lawmakers to sign a letter that will be sent to Harrisburg asking the governor’s office to put a two-year moratorium on the development of data centers so that laws and regulations can be written and passed.<\/p>\n

“There’s a growing movement to slow down and regulate this industry before communities are permanently changed and damaged. This is happening all around the country,” said Comm. Bill Gaughan, (D) Lackawanna County.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the governor gave his 2026-2027 budget proposal.<\/a> One of the biggest talking points is working with and monitoring artificial intelligence and data centers.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Newswatch 16 asked Shapiro about a possible moratorium. He believes that the Commonwealth is in a good position to capitalize on data center development that will benefit all Pennsylvanians.<\/p>\n

“I think what we need to do is win the battle of AI supremacy against China, but we’ve got to do it in a way that it doesn’t harm homeowners, it doesn’t harm businesses or consumers, it doesn’t drive up the cost of power or electricity, and I believe we can accomplish that by following my grid proposal,” said Shapiro.<\/p>\n

Commissioners Welby and Chermak say they are willing to learn more about the county’s options when it comes to data centers, and if a letter needs to be sent, it will.<\/p>\n

“If we feel that it’s appropriate, we’re going to do that, but we’re not in a position to make a determination as to whether or not there should be a moratorium or not, but we’re going to talk about it for sure,” said Comm. Thom Welby, (D) Lackawanna County.<\/p>\n

“I can’t say that I’m for them. I can’t say that I’m against them, but I’m ready and willing to listen and to see what’s gonna be best for the communities where they’re proposing these things and what’s gonna be best for Lackawanna County,” said Comm. Chris Chermak, (R) Lackawanna County.<\/p>\n

Right now, there are a handful of proposed data center campuses across communities in Lackawanna County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County commissioners discussed options to slow the development of data centers across the county during their bi-weekly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-105318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}