{"id":238787,"date":"2026-07-08T22:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T22:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238787\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T22:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T22:20:08","slug":"ai-data-center-development-sparks-debate-in-pennsylvania-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238787\/","title":{"rendered":"AI data center development sparks debate in Pennsylvania governor’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe debate over AI data center development has become a focal point in Pennsylvania\u2019s gubernatorial race, with Republican candidate Stacy Garrity advocating for a pause on new projects as she challenges Democratic incumbent Josh Shapiro. Garrity calls for a pause\u201cA pause is however long it takes. I mean, to me, you get everybody, you get all the stakeholders around the table and you say, okay, what do we need to do to protect our ratepayers, protect our communities? And so a pause is as long as we need,\u201d Garrity said during a listening session in Butler County this week. Dispute over Shapiro-backed standardsGarrity criticized Shapiro-backed legislation recently passed in the House, known as GRID standards, or the “Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development Standards.”The legislation requires developers to submit applications outlining how their projects would protect energy affordability, the environment, and support economic development. Developers granted GRID certification would qualify for tax benefits on the sale of data center equipment. \u201cDespite claiming to fight for community input and transparency, his new standards, I think it’s called GRID. They do nothing to address concerns raised by data center development or the sweetheart tax deals they’ve already received,\u201d Garrity said. The Shapiro campaign pushes backIn response, a spokesperson for Shapiro\u2019s campaign said, \u201cStacy Garrity is a desperate politician \u2013 and her long record of supporting completely unregulated data center development makes it clear that she just can\u2019t be trusted.\u201d The campaign also stated that Shapiro has worked directly with community, labor, and environmental leaders to propose \u201csome of the strongest data center regulations and standards of accountability in the entire country.\u201d Local control argumentState Rep. Aaron Bernstine of Butler County criticized Shapiro\u2019s approach, saying, \u201cWe have an issue in Harrisburg where the Democrats and Josh Shapiro think that everything is a one-size-fits-all and think that big government is the answer.\u201d Garrity added, \u201cWe absolutely have to get government out of the way and the control should absolutely remain local.\u201d The general election, where Shapiro and Garrity will face off, is scheduled for November 3.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The debate over AI data center development has become a focal point in Pennsylvania\u2019s gubernatorial race, with Republican candidate Stacy Garrity advocating for a pause on new projects as she challenges Democratic incumbent Josh Shapiro. <\/p>\n

\t\t\"the<\/p>\n

Garrity calls for a pause<\/p>\n

\u201cA pause is however long it takes. I mean, to me, you get everybody, you get all the stakeholders around the table and you say, okay, what do we need to do to protect our ratepayers, protect our communities? And so a pause is as long as we need,\u201d Garrity said during a listening session in Butler County this week. <\/p>\n

Dispute over Shapiro-backed standards<\/p>\n

Garrity criticized Shapiro-backed legislation recently passed in the House, known as GRID standards, or the “Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development Standards.”<\/p>\n

\t\t\"the<\/p>\n

\n\t\tHearst OwnedWGAL\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStacy Garrity\u00a0<\/p>\n

The legislation requires developers to submit applications outlining how their projects would protect energy affordability, the environment, and support economic development. Developers granted GRID certification would qualify for tax benefits on the sale of data center equipment. <\/p>\n

\u201cDespite claiming to fight for community input and transparency, his new standards, I think it’s called GRID. They do nothing to address concerns raised by data center development or the sweetheart tax deals they’ve already received,\u201d Garrity said. <\/p>\n

\t\t\"the<\/p>\n

The Shapiro campaign pushes back<\/p>\n

In response, a spokesperson for Shapiro\u2019s campaign said, \u201cStacy Garrity is a desperate politician \u2013 and her long record of supporting completely unregulated data center development makes it clear that she just can\u2019t be trusted.\u201d <\/p>\n

The campaign also stated that Shapiro has worked directly with community, labor, and environmental leaders to propose \u201csome of the strongest data center regulations and standards of accountability in the entire country.\u201d <\/p>\n

Local control argument<\/p>\n

State Rep. Aaron Bernstine of Butler County criticized Shapiro\u2019s approach, saying, \u201cWe have an issue in Harrisburg where the Democrats and Josh Shapiro think that everything is a one-size-fits-all and think that big government is the answer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Garrity added, \u201cWe absolutely have to get government out of the way and the control should absolutely remain local.\u201d <\/p>\n

The general election, where Shapiro and Garrity will face off, is scheduled for November 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debate over AI data center development has become a focal point in Pennsylvania\u2019s gubernatorial race, with Republican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[91744,102752,4112,524,102748,20483,12522,48231,102532,102753,91646,28,408,30,29,4527,102749,3415,98295,102750,102751],"class_list":["post-238787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-ai-data-center-development","tag-ai-datum-center-development","tag-butler-county","tag-community","tag-democratic-incumbent-josh-shapiro","tag-developer","tag-dispute","tag-garrity","tag-grid-standard","tag-new-project","tag-pause","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-governor","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-race","tag-republican-candidate-stacy-garrity","tag-shapiro","tag-shapiro-campaign","tag-shapiro-backed-legislation","tag-state-rep-aaron-bernstine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238787","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=238787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}