{"id":231412,"date":"2026-06-30T01:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/231412\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T01:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:49:07","slug":"watch-the-video-that-kicked-off-the-data-center-mess-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/231412\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch the video that kicked off the data center mess in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 5, 2025, Governor Josh Shapiro announced that Amazon was investing at least $20 billion \u201cto establish multiple high-tech cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation campuses across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.\u201d The $20 billion would go towards two data centers in Salem Township and Falls Township. <\/p>\n

Shapiro stressed that multiple additional Pennsylvania communities were under consideration as sites for a data center and that his administration would help identify sites and build local support. From the press release<\/a> that corresponded with the announcement:<\/p>\n

Our team worked closely with local leaders and Amazon to land this deal, and we continue to be actively engaged on securing additional sites in Pennsylvania \u2013 helping them secure local support, developing the infrastructure needed to support more data centers, and ensuring our permitting processes move quickly and efficiently. With this historic announcement, we\u2019re creating opportunity for our workers, generating new revenue for our local communities, and ensuring the future of AI runs right through Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it is easy to be angry at the developers and landowners seeking approval for data centers, they are essentially doing what the governor encouraged them to do. <\/p>\n

As you probably know, Shapiro recently announced during his budget address guidelines that data centers must follow if they seek the commonwealth\u2019s support, mainly tax credits. In this address<\/a>, he stated:<\/p>\n

As Pennsylvania continues to compete for major economic development projects and lead on innovation, we have a responsibility to set strict accountability standards and ensure these projects create real opportunity for our communities,\u201d said Governor Shapiro. \u201cI\u2019ve heard directly from Pennsylvanians who are concerned about the impact data center development could have on their communities, the environment, and their utility bills. That\u2019s why I am putting clear guardrails in place to hold developers accountable to protect consumers, strengthen communities, and put Pennsylvanians first. If companies want the Commonwealth\u2019s full support \u2014 they must meet strong standards on energy affordability, clean energy generation, transparency, workforce development, community impact, and environmental protection. This is about setting a higher bar for projects and ensuring development happens responsibly and in a way that benefits Pennsylvanians.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Governor \u201cGet Shit Done\u201d didn\u2019t seek out any information about the widely reported claims about the negative impact of living near data centers. The info is widely available. Those living near proposed data centers figured it out the day after they learned one was being proposed. Did Governor Shapiro speak with any experts or governors of states where completed data centers had already generated concerns? If he had, you would think he would have put \u201cguardrails\u201d in place before he set off a wave of proposals for data centers that generated deep concern from the public. <\/p>\n

This may actually surprise you. As you may know, we are happy to criticize local government officials and state-level politicians. However, in this case, the mess happening across the state in municipal-level meetings is not really their fault. They weren\u2019t provided time to prepare zoning ordinances. Shapiro opened the floodgates, and proposals for data centers were just thrust upon them. They are in a similar position to the developers. A popular governor got behind something, and then everyone figured there wasn\u2019t proper preparation. <\/p>\n

Below is the video from Governor Shapiro\u2019s announcement about Amazon. Close your eyes. He makes the same argument Brian O\u2019Neill makes about the benefit of data centers. We encourage you to watch the full video. <\/p>\n

Note \u2013 Former Governor Tom Wolf signed the Computer Data Center Equipment Incentive Program into law in 2021. The bipartisan legislation provided qualifying data centers with an exemption from the state\u2019s 6% sales and use tax on computer and server equipment. Our article focused on Shapiro\u2019s pledge to support data centers within the communities where they were proposed and a significant bump in interest following the Amazon announcement. <\/p>\n

Photo: Screengrab from WNEP\u2019s video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 5, 2025, Governor Josh Shapiro announced that Amazon was investing at least $20 billion \u201cto establish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-231412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231412","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=231412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}