In Archbald, a borough\u00a0carved out of old anthracite country northeast of Scranton, data centers are rising on the same scarred ground that coal companies dug up and abandoned generations ago, becoming a barometer of voter sentiment as Pennsylvanians decide whom to support in November.<\/p>\n
Kelsey Pazanski Wargo, a registered nurse who lives less than a mile from a proposed 400-acre data center complex, said in a text message that she has a simple test for the politicians presiding over the buildout: \u201cWill NOT vote for anyone who hasn\u2019t come out swinging against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A hundred miles south in Skippack, health care advocate Peg Eitl \u2014 who not only voted for Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2022 but canvassed for him and says she has been registered as both a Democrat and a Republican in the past \u2014 has drawn her own line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect and appreciate many of his policies,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I will NOT vote for him unless he pushes for a moratorium,\u201d adding that she won\u2019t vote for his Republican opponent, Stacy Garrity, either.<\/p>\n
Neither woman is an outlier. A Muhlenberg College poll conducted in March\u00a0 found that\u00a064% of Pennsylvania adults<\/a>\u00a0view data centers as a crisis or a problem.\u00a0 Anger over data center projects and\u00a0skyrocketing utility bills<\/a>\u00a0has dragged the state\u2019s long-simmering fight over its energy future \u2014 natural gas versus renewables, extraction versus regulation \u2014 out of committee rooms and into the center of the governor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n Nationally, support for data centers has plunged in the last eight months. Back in December, 42% of U.S. voters said they oppose data centers being built in or near their community, according to a poll by Emerson College, but in\u00a0its latest poll<\/a>\u00a0conducted in late July, that number had increased to 63%. The bipartisan tide of opposition to data centers has included environmental concerns \u2014 such as their massive water consumption for cooling, intense electricity demands that strain local grids and air pollution from backup generators \u2014 that has become a way for people across the political spectrum to discuss contentious topics like climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();\n<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is the first year in Pennsylvania where data centers have emerged as a highly salient issue,\u201d said Chris Borick, professor of political science at Lehigh University, citing packed local meetings, protests and polling. \u201cData centers in particular have taken their place among the top tier of issues in this year\u2019s cycle,\u201d he said, fused in voters\u2019 minds with the top issue of all: affordability.<\/p>\n Shapiro and Garrity, the state\u2019s treasurer,\u00a0offer competing visions<\/a>, each claiming their plan would make energy more affordable.\u00a0<\/p>\n Garrity, speaking before the Marcellus Shale Coalition in Hershey\u00a0in June<\/a>, promised a natural-gas-first agenda: She would lift barriers to drilling, fast-track permits for pipelines and power plants and roll back renewable energy and efficiency mandates.\u00a0In a statement to Spotlight PA<\/a>\u00a0in early July, Garrity said she opposes the \u201cclean energy mandate\u201d in the state\u2019s data center legislation. \u201cWe need to be utilizing the abundant natural gas resources under our feet that currently accounts for 60% of [the] Commonwealth\u2019s electricity generation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related | Americans don\u2019t want a data center in their backyard<\/a><\/p>\n Shapiro\u2019s evolution is itself a story. He began as a data center booster \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m comforted by the fact that thanks to Amazon, the future of AI is going to run right here through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,\u201d\u00a0he said in June 2025<\/a>\u00a0upon the announcement that the tech giant would invest $20 billion to build two data center campuses in Bucks and Luzerne counties. But\u00a0he has since pivoted<\/a>, issuing proposed\u00a0 standards in June that would require data centers to power at least 32% of their operations with clean energy and sign community benefits agreements in exchange for existing tax breaks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be selective about the projects that get built here,\u201d he said in his\u00a0 February address to the General Assembly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The tap dancing has a logic. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to watch as they try to balance positions on the importance of Pennsylvania being a leader in AI,\u201d Borick said, \u201cwhile recognizing that among the electorate right now, it\u2019s a perilous issue.\u201d<\/p>\n The Stalled Bills<\/p>\n With Shapiro leading Garrity 50% to 28% in the latest\u00a0Franklin & Marshall College poll<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 well outside the margin of error \u2014 the sharper question may be what a second Shapiro term would actually deliver. The answer is sitting in the state Senate.<\/p>\n HB 1834<\/a>, which passed the House in March, would ensure the Public Utility Commission controls costs from data center connections so they aren\u2019t shifted onto ratepayers. Its prime sponsor, Democratic Rep. Robert Matzie of Beaver County,\u00a0has called it<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca data center ratepayer protection bill at its core.\u201d His legislation included a provision to appeal to skeptics: a data center could still get 90% of its electricity from fossil fuels, and the initial 10% clean energy requirement could be met with nuclear power, which already supplies 40% of Pennsylvania\u2019s mix. It didn\u2019t matter. It passed 104-95, every no vote a Republican, and has sat in a Senate committee since March 31.<\/p>\n A companion bill sponsored by Rep. Paul Friel passed 201-1 and would bar data centers from claiming public utility status \u2014 no preempting local zoning, no eminent domain.<\/p>\n Related | Data centers are on the ballot\u2014this Pennsylvania candidate won her primary keeping them top of mind<\/a><\/p>\n Katie Blume, political director of Conservation Voters of PA, said the polling consensus is striking: People may not want data centers next door, \u201cbut if they\u2019re gonna come, they want them regulated.<\/p>\n \u201cPennsylvania has an opportunity right now to do what we didn\u2019t do during fracking,\u201d she added, when the debate split into for and against \u201cbut everybody forgot about really strong regulations to protect workers, our communities and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Blume suspects Republicans in the state Senate are responding to the same polling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing people in the Senate introduce a bunch of bills to regulate data centers when a year ago they were introducing bills to welcome them with open arms and get rid of regulations,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are pissed off with wealthy corporations coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n Burned Before<\/p>\n The public backlash to data centers has scrambled the usual coalitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Construction unions, which have historically tangled with tech companies over organizing workers and been allied with Democrats, are \u201call in\u201d on data centers, Lehigh University\u2019s Borick said, \u201cwhich makes for some strange bedfellows,\u201d while MAGA voters and progressives have found rare alignment in opposing data center projects on the grounds that they allow wealthy outside interests to profit\u00a0 at local expense. A poll last fall found\u00a0about 61% of Pennsylvania adults<\/a>\u00a0think data centers are likely to create new jobs in the state, but Borick says that they\u2019re skeptical that those will be long-lasting jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere I grew up in Scranton, there\u2019s a kind of big hot spot of data centers right around the north side of the valley \u2014 old mining areas, places that have been kind of hit hard for years,\u201d Borick said. \u201cPeople are skeptical of energy interests to begin with. They\u2019ve been burned a bunch of times. There\u2019s that kind of simmering Pennsylvania skepticism about when industries come in, they take, and then they leave behind lots of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Garrity has tried to flip that script at Homer City, where a former coal plant is being converted to power data centers \u2014 proof, she has argued, that rural brownfields can benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt really is improving in the community. It\u2019s going to add housing, it\u2019s going to add jobs,\u201d\u00a0she told reporters<\/a>\u00a0at a data center listening session in Montgomery County in June, while conceding some residents are \u201cnot entirely happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The stakes extend past the governor\u2019s mansion. Pennsylvania has a divided Legislature, with Republicans in control of the Senate and Democrats in control of the House. Both chambers are in play in November, along with four congressional seats Democrats have targeted in the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives. Climate hovers over all of it, mostly unnamed \u2014 what Borick called policy made \u201cthrough stealth means.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pennsylvanians are among tens of millions of Americans across the Midwest and East Coast that earlier this summer\u00a0endured a heat wave<\/a>\u00a0scientists said would have been\u00a0\u201cvirtually impossible\u201d<\/a>\u00a0without global warming; Philadelphia hit 103 degrees and\u00a0canceled its Fourth of July parade<\/a>. Earlier this year a record number of Pennsylvania residents identified\u00a0climate change as a crisis<\/a>, with 44% of adults in Pennsylvania now saying it\u2019s a crisis, up 15 points from 2023.<\/p>\n For Blume, public anger over rising utility bills fueled by data centers aren\u2019t a distraction from climate politics \u2014 they\u2019re the way in. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to think about things like climate change when it seems so existential sometimes,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when your utility bills are going up, or you have a data center that\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna take all your water,\u2019 this makes those environmental issues much more tangible for voters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters angry about rising electricity bills have turned the fight over powering AI into the defining issue of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1609,109093,7753,1131,139,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-256369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-datacenters","tag-electricity","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256369","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=256369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260602edcbc-a.jpg\")
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