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Proposed MLP Ventures\u2019 data center sites in Upper Merion and Plymouth townships, Montgomery County, PA. (Credit: Lena Ilse\/DeSmog)<\/p>\nFreedom Hall, packed with more than 200 people, was jammed to capacity.\u00a0Hundreds more people gathered in the lobby in stifling heat, many wearing \u201cNo Data Centers\u201d stickers on their T-shirts. Inside the meeting room, Pennsylvania real estate executive Brian O\u2019Neill was presenting plans for an enormous data center complex to the Upper Merion Township\u00a0Planning Commission. An improvised sound system piped his voice to those stuck outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make cell and gene therapies which cure genetic diseases and cancer,\u201d O\u2019Neill said, referring to his company\u2019s Discovery Labs medical research center in Upper Merion which he now wants to augment with AI data centers.<\/p>\n
As O\u2019Neill listed his project\u2019s potential benefits, including a promised 54 percent increase in local tax revenue, the crowd grew agitated. \u201cWe don\u2019t want it!\u201d somebody yelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll get on with the show,\u201d said O\u2019Neill, flipping through a PowerPoint presentation, amid booing from the crowd in the lobby. The data centers would be quiet, conserve water, and emit no air pollution, O\u2019Neill promised. \u201cLiar!\u2019\u2019 another person shouted.<\/p>\n
The crowd had converged on the Upper Merion Township Building on the evening of May 27, soon after learning about O\u2019Neill\u2019s plans to build a cluster of data centers and gas-fired power plants in the middle of their suburban community. Located in Pennsylvania\u2019s Montgomery County, about 15 miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia, Upper Merion is home to 36,000 people. The area is best known to outsiders for its huge King of Prussia Mall and the Valley Forge National Historical Park, where George Washington\u2019s Continental Army endured a brutal winter during the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n
Now, Upper Merion is part of a nationwide backlash against the artificial intelligence (AI) industry and its insatiable demand for new data centers \u2014 and the power plants and high-voltage transmission lines that supply the vast amounts of electricity needed to run them. Many Democratic and Republican politicians have endorsed the buildout \u2014 setting them at odds with affected communities heading into the 2026 midterm elections and state governor\u2019s race in November.<\/p>\n
Proposed MLP Ventures\u2019 data center sites in Upper Merion and Plymouth townships, Montgomery County, PA. (Credit: Lena Ilse\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n
The meeting\u00a0was a rare opportunity for Pennsylvania residents to come face-to-face with a major player in the digital real estate boom. With 4.6 million square feet of floor space, the Upper Merion\u00a0computing complex would be seven times larger than the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and include gas-fired power plants generating one gigawatt of electricity, which is enough to power the equivalent of about 800,000 homes.\u00a0Though O\u2019Neill didn\u2019t speak about the size of the investment, one company document<\/a> costs the data center project at $35.16 billion. In adjacent Plymouth Township, O\u2019Neill\u2019s company MLP Ventures is planning to build a smaller, two-million-square-foot data center complex, also with on-site power generation, at the site of a shuttered steel plant.<\/p>\n Since early 2025, companies have filed dozens of applications for new data centers in Pennsylvania, spurred on by support from Governor Josh Shapiro (D), who has declared the state \u201call in on AI.\u201d\u00a0Like O\u2019Neill\u2019s projects, many are accompanied by plans for new gas-fired power plants dedicated to feeding the racks of computing units storing, processing, and analyzing the ever-growing mountains of data behind AI apps like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and automated technologies ranging from self-driving cars to surveillance systems.<\/p>\n Public opposition to data centers has snowballed<\/a> in response, with residents fearing air, noise, and light pollution, climate-heating impacts<\/a>, depletion of water resources, falling home values, and the destruction of natural areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Locals are also troubled that months before data center proposals are made public, developers are secretly lobbying<\/a>\u00a0local and state officials \u2014 typically under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) \u2014 to expedite their plans, leaving communities with little time to\u00a0organize.<\/p>\n State and local officials often contend that their work with developers to review zoning codes, secure power supplies, and negotiate new data center regulations is a legally mandated part of their role \u2014 and that the use of NDAs is standard in planning large projects in the United States.<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_2_A<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_2_B<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_2_C<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_2_D<\/p>\n In the case of Upper Merion, MLP Ventures and the Shapiro administration were in frequent contact for more than a year before the company submitted its plans to township officials in March 2026, according to emails<\/a> obtained with a public records request by the No Conshy Data Centers community group, and shared with DeSmog. At the time, most local residents were unaware of the data center plans.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill appears to have been in almost daily contact\u00a0with Ben Kirshner, the chief officer of the Office of Transformation &\u00a0Opportunity, a state agency created by Gov. Shapiro in 2023 to expedite major industrial projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t remember a day where Brian [O\u2019Neill] hasn\u2019t called me multiple times regarding the data center site we\u2019ve been working on together for several months,\u201d Kirshner wrote in a July 2025 email<\/a> to officials from the Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED), a state agency.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The previous year, MLP Ventures had approached<\/a> Upper Merion Township supervisors through an attorney to ask that they classify data centers under the category \u201cwarehouses\u201d in the zoning code. The township formally granted the request in August 2025.<\/p>\n Zach Davis, chair of the Upper Merion Township Environmental Advisory Council,\u00a0which promotes environmental initiatives and makes local policy recommendations, said he heard increasing talk of data centers from area officials in the fall of 2025, but that it took several more months for O\u2019Neill\u2019s proposal to become clear. \u201cIt kind of went zero-to-60 really quickly,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n In early March this year, O\u2019Neill\u2019s company submitted plans <\/a>for its data center complex, spread across five sites. Days later, township supervisors passed a new law<\/a> that put stricter regulations on data centers, which they had been working on for over a year \u2014 increasing buffers to residences from 150 ft. to 1,000 ft., and\u00a0excluding data centers from a zone that had previously been eligible under the \u201cwarehouse\u201d definition. The new regulations would have made O\u2019Neill\u2019s project impossible to complete as planned, but Pennsylvania law requires proposals to be evaluated under the rules in place at the time of their submission, so the stricter rules wouldn\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the real kicker for us,\u201d said Patti Erickson, a member of the Hughes Park KOP [King of Prussia] Civic Association in Upper Merion.<\/p>\n \u2018We Have One Shot\u2019<\/p>\n Brian O\u2019Neill started out in real estate in the 1980s, rising from\u00a0doing factory-to-office\u00a0conversions in West Conshohocken, another Philadelphia suburb adjacent\u00a0to Upper Merion Township, to managing a billion-dollar-plus property portfolio, according to a 2006 profile in Philadelphia Magazine<\/a>. Across his career, O\u2019Neill has invested in projects ranging from luxury apartments and a Rhode Island country club to drug rehabilitation facilities and office parks,\u00a0such as the Renaissance Boulevard complex in Upper Merion where MLP Ventures is headquartered.<\/p>\n Now, in his mid-60s, O\u2019Neill is moving into the hottest market in commercial real estate \u2014 AI data centers.<\/p>\n The emails<\/a> open a window into the hand-in-glove collaboration between state officials and\u00a0his MLP Ventures\u00a0as both sides sought to clear the way for the data centers in the year before the company submitted its plans to the township.<\/p>\n In February 2025, the Office of Transformation & Opportunity\u2019s Kirshner began making arrangements<\/a> to bring together representatives of MLP Ventures and Philadelphia-based power utility PECO to discuss supplying the one gigawatt of power that the data center complex would need. At that time, there was no data center complex in the world built to consume that much electricity. (Since then, Amazon, Meta, xAI, and other companies have started construction<\/a> on gigawatt-scale data centers.)<\/p>\n \u201cProb easier for all of us to come to Philly and agree,\u201d Kirshner wrote in an email<\/a> to PECO and MLP Ventures, kicking off planning for the in-person meeting between the companies in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n On February 25, 2025, O\u2019Neill emailed<\/a> Kirshner to inform him that he wanted to bring an unnamed \u201c50 billion dollar company\u201d interested in partnering to develop the Upper Merion data center complex.<\/p>\n \u201cEssential that that meeting is flawless [\u2026] We have one shot,\u201d O\u2019Neill wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we signed the NDA,\u201d Kirshner emailed<\/a> back later that day, referring to a non-disclosure agreement. \u201cYou can be more open with me on the company name.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill then revealed<\/a> that the company was Digital Realty,\u00a0an Austin, Texas-based real estate investment trust listed on the Fortune 500 and one of the world\u2019s top data center companies.<\/p>\n Digital Realty declined to comment.<\/p>\n On March 7, 2025, staff from the Office of Transformation & Opportunity, PECO, and MLP Ventures met in Philadelphia about the data center plans, according to meeting records<\/a>. It is unclear whether Digital Realty took part.<\/p>\n Despite these efforts, securing a power contract for the project proved challenging.<\/p>\n On May 7, 2025, an MLP Ventures employee emailed<\/a> Kirshner to brief him on a planned meeting with Valley Forge, PA-based PJM, the largest electric transmission operator in the United States, which oversees the Mid-Atlantic region\u2019s power grid. Kirshner replied via email<\/a> two days later: \u201cI think Sam Robinson [Governor Josh Shapiro\u2019s deputy chief of staff] sent a note on your behalf too. Let me know if you get pushback from [PJM].\u201d<\/p>\n On July 23, 2025, in an email<\/a> with the subject \u201cQuick Update,\u201d Kirshner wrote O\u2019Neill that, \u201cwhile\u2026I have pushed [PECO] repeatedly and daily, it [the power contract] is not a document that\u2019s in control to send out. We are following up with them daily. Will keep you posted.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later, Kirshner wrote<\/a> Department of Community & Economic Development staff, informing them of Digital Realty\u2019s involvement in the Upper Merion project, and that O\u2019Neill was calling him \u201cmultiple times\u201d a day about the project. <\/p>\n \u201cIf anyone from DCED [Department of Community & Economic Development] wants to get yelled at everyday let me know, ill tag out of this :),\u201d Kirshner wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill later wrote<\/a> to Kirshner to express his gratitude.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for all the things you do for our company to expedite regulation, PECO relations, and your other sage advice,\u201d said O\u2019Neill in a September 17, 2025 email<\/a>. \u201cWe deeply appreciate your commitment to getting business done and your practical approach.\u201d<\/p>\n On October 1, 2025 Kirshner met with O\u2019Neill at Discovery Labs in Upper Merion, according to meeting records<\/a>. Minutes of the meeting\u00a0do not appear in the records.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next week, on\u00a0October 7, 2025\u00a0an MLP Ventures employee emailed<\/a>\u00a0Kirshner asking for assistance regarding a proposed draft agreement to source\u00a01.65 gigawatts of power\u00a0from PECO. \u201cCould you help push PECO in accepting\u00a0the edits and returning back to us on PECO letterhead?\u201d the employee wrote. A reply from Kirshner does not appear in the records.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next day, the employee wrote<\/a> Kirshner that MLP Ventures had received the agreement from PECO.\u00a0\u201cFYI, we received the PECO Will Serve letter last night. Thanks [sic] you,\u201d\u00a0he wrote.<\/p>\n But in the following months, MLP Ventures was unable to close a binding deal, subsequent emails<\/a> showed.<\/p>\n The Shapiro administration said that the Office of Transformation & Opportunity\u2019s role was limited to \u201canswering preliminary questions about Commonwealth [of Pennsylvania] processes and permitting \u2014 as it does for hundreds of businesses across Pennsylvania\u201d and that part of that role involved \u201cintroductions between the data center developer and stakeholders,\u201d including utility companies. \u201cOTO did not draft correspondence between the developer and PECO or negotiate on behalf of either party.\u201d <\/p>\n PECO said that, \u201cUnder Pennsylvania law, PECO is required to interconnect all customers seeking service within its service territory on a non-discriminatory basis, consistent with these safety and reliability obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n PJM said that, \u201cWhen contacted by MLP Ventures, PJM referred them to the electric distribution company who would be responsible for working with a data center developer on their request.\u201c<\/p>\n The Renaissance Boulevard office park, July 22, 2026. (Credit: Katharine Goodall\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n State Support<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill\u2019s push for help to power his data center vision was by no means the first time he had sought help from state officials.<\/p>\n In 2023, MLP Ventures had lobbied<\/a> state officials for about $240 million in project financing to help meet estimated project costs at Discovery Labs of $1.1 billion, building on previous grants<\/a> of close to $10 million. In response, Gov. Shapiro\u2019s Legislative Office, which liaises between the governor and state lawmakers, directed<\/a> state employees to examine funding options for Discovery Labs.<\/p>\n It appears that these\u00a0talks hit a dead end, however. By late 2023, more than a dozen contractors issued O\u2019Neill over $125 million in claims\u00a0for unpaid construction costs at the site, according to the\u00a0Philadelphia Business Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n MLP Ventures did not dispute the claims, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, and O\u2019Neill said that he would pay the contractors within a matter of weeks, once a complex refinancing of the site was closed.<\/p>\n \u201cConsistent with his unkept promises of the prior two plus years, [O\u2019Neill] represented that financing for this new data center project was imminent and that subcontractors would be paid once these new loans closed,\u201d\u00a0alleges a lawsuit<\/a> filed by a contractor on November 12, 2025 in Montgomery Country.\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill was also looking for other ways to shore up public funding.<\/p>\n The Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority, a county agency, had secured $1 million in state grants\u00a0in 2019\u00a0to develop the\u00a0Discovery Labs site. The grant included $500,000 dedicated to road improvements\u00a0\u2014 but by February 2025 the funds were unspent, and the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development had denied the authority\u2019s fourth request for a deadline extension.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, after the March 2025 meeting<\/a> with PECO in Philadelphia, an MLP Ventures employee wrote to Kirshner<\/a> requesting an extension of the deadline to spend the $500,000 road-improvement grant, \u201cbased on our conversation with PECO today regarding data centers\u201d and the need to facilitate access for power infrastructure upgrades.\u00a0Not long after this direct appeal, the Department of Community & Economic Development extended the grant deadline by an additional 12 months.<\/p>\n \u201cI very much appreciate your assistance, agree to a one-year extension, and understand that it is the final extension and will utilize within one year,\u201d wrote<\/a> the MLP Ventures employee to Kirshner on March 14, 2025.<\/p>\n In response to requests for comment, the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority said\u00a0that it was not aware of MLP Ventures\u2019 request to extend the grant deadline. The Shapiro administration said that the\u00a0Office of Transformation & Opportunity does not administer this type of grant.<\/p>\n MLP Ventures and O\u2019Neill did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Towards the end of the year, O\u2019Neill asked state officials to intervene<\/a> on a fee assessed on his Upper Merion properties through a loan program known as Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE).<\/p>\n PACE participants receive loans for energy efficiency upgrades to buildings and are required to repay a percentage of the loan to local governments and the state\u2019s Sustainable Energy Fund.<\/p>\n MLP Ventures\u2019 payment\u00a0to this fund was set to increase from $150,000 to $1,470,389 between 2025 and 2026, according to O\u2019Neill. \u201cCan we do something about this ??\u201d he asked Kirshner in a December 22, 2025 email<\/a>, with the word \u201coutrageous\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n Kirshner replied<\/a> that while he would be on vacation until January, \u201cmy team will run with this while I\u2019m gone.\u201d<\/p>\n The Shapiro administration said in response to questions that the Office of Transformation & Opportunity \u201cdid not set, administer, negotiate, or alter the fee, and it did not advocate that Montgomery County, the Sustainable Energy Fund, or any other decision-maker change its policies or assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n The Renaissance Boulevard office park, July 22, 2026. (Credit: Katharine Goodall\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n Risk to Neighborhoods<\/p>\n As the wait to secure power from PECO dragged on, MLP Ventures began to consider a question that data center developers entangled in complex negotiations with utility companies are increasingly asking: What if we generate our own electricity on site?<\/p>\n Known as \u201cbehind-the-meter power,\u201d this option is being adopted by tech and energy companies from Pennsylvania to Texas who are increasingly incorporating\u00a0new gas-fired power plants into their projects, raising fears over the associated climate-heating carbon dioxide and methane emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Similar proposals by MLP Ventures would put gas-fired power plants within a half-mile radius of hundreds of homes in Upper Merion and Plymouth townships, as well as\u00a0local businesses, playgrounds, sports fields, and Upper Merion Township\u2019s Gulph Elementary School, according to a DeSmog mapping analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thousands of homes in the neighboring towns of Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Norristown, and West Conshohocken fall within a one-mile radius of the proposed power plants.<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Map_02<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Map_03<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Map_04<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Map_05<\/p>\n (Credit: Lena Ilse\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n The combustion of natural gas and diesel fuel at other operating and proposed gigawatt-scale data center sites studied in Mississippi<\/a>, Virginia<\/a>, and West Virginia<\/a>\u00a0will emit toxic air pollutants that increase risks of asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, public health researchers at Harvard University have estimated,\u00a0generating tens of millions of dollars in yearly medical costs at each site.<\/p>\n On September 4, 2025, O\u2019Neill wrote<\/a> Kirshner to request fast-track environmental permitting for his plan\u00a0to build another data center complex, complete with an 800-megawatt power plant, in\u00a0Plymouth Township, across the Schuylkill River from Upper Merion.<\/p>\n Later that day, Kirshner replied<\/a> that he had forwarded the request to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).<\/p>\n Five days later, on September 9, 2025, state officials hosted a video call with MLP Ventures to discuss \u201cFast Track Treatment from DEP\u201d for the Plymouth Township data center and power complex, according to meeting records<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Shapiro administration told DeSmog that MLP Ventures was not accepted into the Office of Transformation & Opportunity\u2019s fast-track permitting program.<\/p>\n MLP Ventures\u2019 plans for Plymouth Township hit another snag in mid-November, 2025 when local officials voided its data center application on the grounds that the company had not yet signed a contract to buy the project site. (MLP Ventures has since resubmitted its proposal for further review).<\/p>\n In addition to his plans to build on-site power in Plymouth Township, O\u2019Neill was also considering a similar model for Upper Merion, emails<\/a> show.<\/p>\n In late December 2025, O\u2019Neill wrote Kirshner, who was on vacation, an email<\/a> with the subject line, \u201cHi are you back on the grid.\u201d Kirshner replied<\/a>, \u201cNot until next week\u2026 I can still help via email. What do you need?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNeed to talk about peco, pjm and excelon [sic]. We need to produce our own power and need to discuss legislation and policy to help,\u201d O\u2019Neill replied<\/a>, referring to Exelon, PECO\u2019s Chicago-based owner. \u201cDEP has been great but we need to avoid ngo\u2019s [non-governmental organizations] from holding up projects with no risk.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill also made a suggestion: Require anyone appealing a local or state data center approval to post a bond double to the value of a proposed project, such as a $4 billion bond to appeal a $2 billion project \u2014 a move that would effectively render such appeals impossible.<\/p>\n Kirshner replied<\/a> to O\u2019Neill\u2019s questions about power generation by suggesting that he meet with Jacob Finkel, Gov. Shapiro\u2019s deputy chief of staff, noting that \u201call energy policy goes through him.\u201d<\/p>\n On January 7, 2026, Kirshner emailed<\/a> Finkel to set up a call with O\u2019Neill to \u201cdiscuss [O\u2019Neill\u2019s] latest ideas for PA and the utilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Five days later, O\u2019Neill emailed<\/a> David Vahos, then the president and CEO of PECO, to share his plans for on-site power generation at the Upper Merion data center. Kirshner was copied on the email.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been working closely with our state of Pennsylvania governor\u2019s office, PUC [Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission], DEP, EPA [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency], and other federal, state, and local regulatory agencies to map a path forward for substantial behind-the-meter power,\u201d O\u2019Neill wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n Later in January,\u00a0it was Kirshner\u2019s turn to reach out to O\u2019Neill for help. The Shapiro administration was drafting new guidelines for data center development in Pennsylvania, and Kirshner asked<\/a> O\u2019Neill if he could put him in touch with contacts at Digital Realty, the Fortune 500 developer.<\/p>\n A few days later,\u00a0on February 3, 2026, O\u2019Neill wrote<\/a> to two Digital Realty senior executives with an invitation to join a group of data center developers active in Pennsylvania convened by Gov. Shapiro,\u00a0\u201cBen Kirshner, my dear friend in the Governor\u2019s office is copied on this email. The Governor would like to invite you to a small group of players in the data enter business including Google, AWS, Oracle, etc. Please respond to Ben immediately, this is a time sensitive matter.\u201d<\/p>\n The invitation appeared to be related to the Governor\u2019s Responsible Industrial Development Standards, or \u201cGRID,\u201d a new voluntary framework\u00a0announced by Gov. Shapiro in his annual budget address on February 3.<\/p>\n Shapiro stated in his address that GRID would incentivize data center developers to hire local workers, adopt strict environmental standards, and engage transparently with communities.\u00a0\u201cToo many of these projects have been shrouded in secrecy, with local communities left in the dark about who is coming in and what they\u2019re building,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n In response to questions from DeSmog, the Shapiro administration said that it had consulted stakeholders from the data center, energy, utility, labor, business, environmental, and community sectors to inform the GRID standards. \u201cMLP Ventures\/Digital Realty was given the opportunity to provide feedback early in the GRID standards development process,\u201d according to the governor\u2019s office,\u00a0\u201cbut did not respond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On March 6, 2026, following a meeting between MLP Ventures and Amazon, O\u2019Neill emailed<\/a> Kirshner\u00a0to reiterate his suggestion that anyone appealing local, state or federal approvals for data centers be required to post a bond double to the value of a proposed project.<\/p>\n \u201cIn conversations, [Amazon] have pointed out to us that they have been appealed in EVERY project at EVERY turn,\u201d wrote O\u2019Neill in the email<\/a>, which was published\u00a0in April by the Concerned Citizens of Montour County, a community group opposing data centers and gas-fired power projects in a rural area about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia, and first covered by Heatmap News<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure we are not going to get appealed frivolously by people that just want to slow us down for sport as they are currently doing to Amazon,\u201d O\u2019Neill added. <\/p>\n Colby Wesner, member of the Concerned Citizens of Montour County, described O\u2019Neill\u2019s level of access to state officials as \u201cnauseating.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI guess there\u2019s no compassion or empathy towards what people are fighting for,\u201d said Wesner. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a sport to us. We\u2019re fighting for our communities, our livelihoods, our peace of life. Trust me, it\u2019s not a fun \u2018sport\u2019 to be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon declined to comment.<\/p>\n On March 25, 2026, O\u2019Neill wrote<\/a> to Kirshner again. \u201cI need to get with [the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] on two topics,\u201d he stated, including \u201cindividual power plants for individual buildings being permitted individually.\u201d<\/p>\n Megan McDonough, Pennsylvania director of the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, said that the request reminded her of a strategy used by companies operating in Pennsylvania\u2019s Marcellus Shale gas field: breaking down polluting infrastructure such as drilling sites and compressor stations into smaller units to avoid triggering emissions regulations. The companies get infrastructure \u201cpermitted on a piecemeal basis so they don\u2019t actually have to follow the rules,\u201d McDonough said.<\/p>\n \u2018We Do Not Consent!\u2019<\/p>\n Many of the Upper Merion residents packed into\u00a0Freedom Hall on May 27, 2026\u00a0wanted to comment on MLP Ventures\u2019 data center plans, including its proposal for on-site power plants.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all we live in a great country,\u201d O\u2019Neill said, standing to face the crowd inside Freedom Hall. \u201cThe ability for all of you to come out and give us your opinion is a great, great benefit of being American [\u2026] I\u2019d like to work together to create a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said that MLP Ventures had earned the right to be trusted after 30 years of business in Upper Merion and that his\u00a0properties were always well-maintained, with walking trails open to the public. \u201cI drove through them tonight just to make sure there wasn\u2019t a blade of grass out of place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re worried and I don\u2019t blame you for being worried,\u201d O\u2019Neill added, saying that he hoped to dispel \u201cmyths\u201d about data centers by stating \u201cfacts.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said that the project would be a model data center\u00a0using a \u201cclosed-loop\u201d cooling system to save water; generate its own power by burning \u201crenewable gas\u201d; encase generators in sound-proofing equipment; and even sell electricity back to the grid.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of renewable gas,\u201d commission member Kenn Brown responded, noting the climate-heating impacts of natural gas, a fossil fuel, and saying \u201cit\u2019s getting hotter and hotter.\u201d<\/p>\n Eight days earlier, on May 19, 2026, the temperature in Philadelphia had spiked to a monthly record-setting 98 degrees Fahrenheit, 23 degrees above the average daily high.<\/p>\n As O\u2019Neill\u2019s presentation tipped past the two-hour mark, a man standing in the back of Freedom Hall grew irate. \u201cWe do not consent!\u201d he shouted in the direction of O\u2019Neill and the commissioners. As police officers stepped forward in response, three of the commission members briefly retreated through a door behind their desks until the situation calmed.<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_7_A<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_7_B<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_7_C<\/p>\n Shortly after 9:30 pm \u2014 two-and-a-half-hours into the meeting \u2014 public comments commenced.<\/p>\n Upper Merion Township tax collector Evelyn Ankers was the first of more than 35 residents to speak, telling the meeting that MLP Ventures had owed\u00a0about\u00a0$2 million in delinquent taxes between\u00a02023\u00a0and 2024 through its subsidiary Innovation 411 Fee Owner LLC. While it had finally paid\u00a0up in 2025,\u00a0the company\u00a0still owed\u00a0its 2025\u00a0school taxes. \u201cWith all due respect, I think the best way to increase\u00a0property tax revenue\u00a0in Upper Merion\u00a0is to pay the taxes,\u201d Ankers said, to rousing applause.<\/p>\n Courtney Smith said that the township had \u201cfalsely\u201d classified data centers as warehouses in 2025, citing emails and attached letters<\/a> that she had obtained via a public records request that appeared to suggest that MLP Ventures\u2019 attorney had written the opinion justifying the move. \u201cThere\u2019s no written documentation by our township officials that supports or justifies the township\u2019s conclusion,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n Upper Merion\u2019s five supervisors and zoning officer did not respond to request for comment on what procedures the township used to define data centers as warehouses in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems that in a rush to submit these proposals before our AI data center ordinance was even passed, Mr. O\u2019Neill\u2019s company is adopting the tech bro motto of \u2018Move fast and break things,\u2019\u201d said Zach Davis, the chair of the township\u2019s environmental advisory council. \u201cBut this isn\u2019t just an app or a useless piece of software. What they want to do is break our community to make a quick buck.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill\u2019s depiction of a cleanly powered data center was a \u201cfantasy,\u201d John Shanley said, a point he emphasized by describing the increase in\u00a0air pollution<\/a> created by Elon Musk\u2019s xAI data center in Memphis, Tennessee, where dozens of gas turbines run without federal air permits. \u201cWe\u2019ve all read the ongoing stream of data center horror stories for residents unfortunate enough to live near these hyperscale campuses, many of whom were kept in the dark<\/a> while years of planning took place,\u201d Shanley said.\u00a0\u201cIn plain English, these data centers are millions of square feet of gas turbine power plants.\u201d<\/p>\n Kabindra Shakya, an environmental science professor at Villanova University and Upper Merion resident, urged \u201cnot putting such a data center in a dense neighborhood like this.\u201d Shakya, who studies air pollution impacts on human health, rejected O\u2019Neill\u2019s claims of sourcing \u201crenewable gas\u201d as \u201cgreenwashing.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing called renewable gas,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Laura Rend\u00f3n-Garcia described a\u00a0\u201csense\u00a0of hopelessness\u201d\u00a0in \u201ca world with a frightening and unstable future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we see\u00a0our rivers run dry, food supplies change\u00a0and costs increase,\u00a0when we\u00a0see projects such as this quietly rush for approval while public services are on standby, I feel like everything around me is just collapsing in a way I haven\u2019t seen before,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n Other residents brought up Upper Merion\u2019s legacy of environmental contamination from four federally designated \u201cSuperfund\u201d toxic waste clean-up sites. (One of O\u2019Neill\u2019s five planned data centers would sit atop one such plot). Locals also questioned whether the data centers could be used by private surveillance companies or by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n \u201cThis brings a lot of stress to the community,\u201d said Basit Rasool. \u201cIt\u2019s unfair. It\u2019s very unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_8A<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_8B<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_8C<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_8D<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_8E<\/p>\n Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_8_F<\/p>\n By the time the meeting was adjourned at 11:32 p.m., the crowds packing the lobby outside Freedom Hall had dissipated and seats in the meeting room had cleared. The remaining few dozen people trickled out into the night.<\/p>\n The next day, O\u2019Neill wrote Kirshner an email<\/a> with the subject, \u201cHi can we talk.\u201d The Office of Transformation & Opportunity replied by scheduling<\/a> a\u00a0video call with O\u2019Neill for the following day, May 29, 2026, according to meeting records. Details of the call were not disclosed in the records.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors said in a June statement<\/a> to residents,\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0hear your concerns clearly, and your input is necessary and welcomed [\u2026]\u00a0We are asking state officials, who have greater legislative\u00a0authority, to enact a temporary moratorium and also to preserve local municipal control over\u00a0zoning for data centers, housing, and other land-use issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Approval by Tantrum\u2019<\/p>\n Two months after the highly charged meeting in Freedom Hall on May 27, 2026, O\u2019Neill brought his plans before the Upper Merion Township Planning Commission once again.<\/p>\n This time the venue was the Upper Merion Middle School auditorium \u2014 which proved big enough to accommodate the large crowd that gathered. <\/p>\n The July 22, 2026 session quickly grew contentious. \u201cThere are still a number of outstanding items that have not been addressed at any point,\u201d\u00a0commission chair Matthew Popek told O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill,\u00a0flanked by a\u00a0four-member team,\u00a0said\u00a0he took\u00a0\u201cgreat offense\u201d that township officials hadn\u2019t invited him to speak more about his project before the meeting,\u00a0and added that he would have happily emailed them more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m struggling to understand why we have to send you an email at this point when we spent four-and-half-hours in May between us and the public\u00a0bringing up a number of questions,\u201d replied Popek.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you read those transcripts [of the May 27, 2026 meeting] as I have, you\u2019re going to see that I answered every question patiently while you allowed five hours of demeaning conversation and unruly behavior in the room,\u201d O\u2019Neill countered.\u00a0<\/p>\n Power generation was a major bone of contention.\u00a0Upper Merion Township\u2019s zoning officer\u00a0had emailed a\u00a0letter<\/a> to MLP Ventures two days earlier\u00a0stating that the on-site power generation envisioned by the company didn\u2019t fit\u00a0the\u00a0\u201cwarehouse\u201d definition that the township\u00a0had originally\u00a0granted data centers\u00a0in\u00a0August 2025. O\u2019Neill told the commission that the township was\u00a0unjustly reversing its initial\u00a0agreement to zone\u00a0his\u00a0data\u00a0centers as warehouses\u00a0due to mounting public pressure. <\/p>\n The commission members weren\u2019t satisfied with O\u2019Neill\u2019s answers, noting that MLP Ventures\u2019\u00a0plans were missing key details including building heights, storm\u00a0water engineering plans, and the number of\u00a0gas-fired\u00a0generators envisaged for the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill\u00a0replied that he was being \u201cskewered,\u201d\u00a0alleging that the commission members were\u00a0\u201cdoing everything in their power to be politically correct in front of an audience versus giving me a fair hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n After two-and-a-half hours of back and forth between commission members and O\u2019Neill\u2019s team, public comments began.\u00a0One resident, Josh Stevens, spoke in support of the project. \u201cLet\u2019s not let\u00a0fear of the unknown, Ludditism, and naked immorality prevent us from doing the right thing, prevent us from accepting this data center, embracing prosperity, capitalism, and technology,\u201d he said, leading to boos from the crowd.<\/p>\n Twenty people spoke against the project, citing concerns including impacts on wildlife, noise pollution and public health. <\/p>\n Kristin Richardson, who lives in a neighborhood bordering the data center site, said that the complex would harm the health of her son, who has autism, daily seizures, and sensory processing disorders.\u00a0\u201cPlacing a data center immediately outside of our neighborhood, Hughes Park, will with its continuous humming and vibration create sensory stimulation which will increase his seizure risk,\u201d she said. \u201cThis proposal does not simply change the view from my backyard. It changes whether or not this home remains a safe place for my medically fragile child.\u201d<\/p>\n State Sen. Katie Muth (D), who represents part of Montgomery County and has introduced a bill for a three-year statewide moratorium on data centers, also spoke out against the plans.<\/p>\n \u201cThis proximity to humans is truly the problem with this project,\u201d Muth said, \u201cYou\u2019re in one of the most densely populated areas, [a] growing housing market, and you just want to slap [down] a giant industrial operation.\u201d<\/p>\n Just past 11 p.m., the planning commission voted 4-0 to advise the Upper Merion Township\u00a0Board of Supervisors to deny the site plans presented by O\u2019Neill\u00a0at its next\u00a0meeting\u00a0on August 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n The following week,\u00a0neighboring Plymouth Township issued a sharply worded reprimand to O\u2019Neill after he filed a legal challenge against conditions imposed by the council on his planned project site. <\/p>\n The council\u00a0described O\u2019Neill\u2019s move as\u00a0a blatant attempt\u00a0to demand \u201capproval by tantrum.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_3-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
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The Hughes Park neighborhood of Upper Merion Township, July 22, 2026. (Credit: Katharine Goodall\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_4-1024x768.jpeg\"\/)
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View towards the proposed River Road data center site in Upper Merion Township, July 22, 2026. (Credit: Katharine Goodall\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_6-1024x768.jpeg\"\/)
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The Hughes Park neighborhood of Upper Merion Township, July 22, 2026. (Credit: Katharine Goodall\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Donnelly-UpperMerion-Photo_10-1024x768.jpeg\"\/)
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View towards the Merrill C. Young Park in the Hughes Park neighborhood of Upper Merion Township, July 22, 2026. (Credit: Katharine Goodall\/DeSmog)<\/p>\n