U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan wants federal legislation designed to protect local municipalities amid the proliferation of data center proposals in small communities like the ones he represents in Northeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
The congressman on Thursday introduced legislation that would block companies from suing municipalities in federal court if their project is denied based on documented findings about public health, infrastructure, community character or similar concerns.<\/p>\n
Bresnahan\u2019s proposed \u201cLocal Control Protection Act\u201d also would force developers of approved data centers to file legally enforceable community benefit agreements and hire local labor if they seek federal incentives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should never let billion-dollar corporations supersede the voices of those who live in the community,\u201d Bresnahan said in a news release announcing his proposal. \u201cMy legislation will protect small boroughs and townships who decide against a data center from the legal wrath of billion-dollar corporations. What\u2019s best for Northeastern Pennsylvania always comes first. The people who live here, work here, and raise their families here are the ones who know what\u2019s best for our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bresnahan, a Republican from Dallas Twp., is serving his first-term representing the 8th Congressional District, which includes all of Lackawanna, Pike and Wayne counties and portions of Luzerne and Monroe counties.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s facing a reelection challenge from Scranton\u2019s Democratic Mayor Paige Cognetti, who has proposed changes to the city\u2019s zoning laws to regulate data centers, which have been proposed in various communities surrounding the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongressman Bresnahan is trying to trick us again, pretending to care about our communities when he is personally invested in data center stocks and celebrated $25 billion of data center exploitation right in our own backyard,\u201d Cognetti\u2019s campaign said. \u201cBresnahan is lying to Northeastern Pennsylvanians, just like he did when he broke his promise to protect our health care and broke his promise to ban congressional stock trading. He shows us time and time again that he will always put himself before us. Enough with the charade: we are going to fire him in November and give our community the honest leadership they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The political news website Axios first reported Bresnahan\u2019s proposal, saying \u201cmembers of Congress are scrambling to jump on the growing anti-data center fervor sweeping through local communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Archbald to Salem Twp. to Hazle Twp. and many communities in between, developers continue to propose data center campuses amid widespread community opposition. Some local municipalities have no language in their zoning ordinances dealing with data centers \u2014 or are in the process of writing them to be prepared for a proposal.<\/p>\n
Bresnahan said small municipalities oftentimes don\u2019t have the resources to fight prolonged court battles against data center developers with deep pockets.<\/p>\n
When a local planning commission or borough council votes to deny a data center, a well-resourced developer \u201ccan, and often will, sue the local municipality to override their decision,\u201d his news release stated.<\/p>\n
This leaves community leaders with \u201can impossible choice\u201d to either approve projects their constituents don\u2019t want or drain their budgets fighting a lawsuit they may not be able to sustain, the news release said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past year, we have watched developers try to strong-arm their way into our communities,\u201d Bresnahan said. \u201cThe greed of these out-of-state corporations should not dictate how people in Northeastern Pennsylvania live their lives, and I\u2019m determined to see that my constituents get to decide what is put in their backyards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan wants federal legislation designed to protect local municipalities amid the proliferation of data center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,2116,201,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,503,181],"class_list":["post-216846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-business","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-technology","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216846","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=216846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}