Pennsylvania real estate executive Brian O\u2019Neill\u00a0sought the help of\u00a0an attorney at the United States Department of State\u00a0to\u00a0lobby state and federal officials to waive national\u00a0federal air pollution limits on his proposed gas-fired power plants in the Philadelphia suburbs, emails obtained via a public records request show.<\/p>\n
The power plants are crucial components of O\u2019Neill\u2019s plans to construct a giant AI data center complex\u00a0spanning\u00a0the communities of\u00a0Upper Merion and Plymouth townships, in Montgomery County. Combined, the data centers would consume one-gigawatt of energy \u2014 enough to power the equivalent of about 800,000 homes.<\/p>\n
The documents<\/a>, shared by the No Conshy Data Centers community group, and published by DeSmog, open a new window into O\u2019Neill\u2019s lobbying of state officials in 2025 and early 2026, as he sought to pave the way for his company, MLP Ventures, to move ahead with the project.<\/p>\n The State Department official, Michael Tierney, worked in 2023\u00a0as legal counsel for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D). He helped O\u2019Neill coordinate his data center plans with state officials in early 2025, while working as a private attorney.<\/p>\n In March 2025, Tierney took his initial role in the Trump administration as general counsel at USAID. He remained copied on\u00a0emails<\/a>\u00a0related to O\u2019Neill\u2019s project, however, and subsequently\u00a0attended a May 2025<\/a> meeting about the project\u00a0that also included a state official and O\u2019Neill. <\/p>\n Tierney moved to the State Department as a deputy legal adviser in October 2025.<\/p>\n The Shapiro administration said in response to a request for comment that, \u201cWhen Mr. Tierney contacted the Shapiro Administration, the Administration understood him to be an outside advisor engaged by MLP Ventures \u2014 one of several attorneys and consultants working for the developer,\u201d and that every communication with Tierney \u201ccame through his private sector email address.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Tierney did not disclose his federal employment in those conversations,\u201d the Shapiro administration said.<\/p>\n On December 26, 2025, O\u2019Neill emailed<\/a>\u00a0Tierney\u00a0and asked him to help set up talks with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), federal and At this time, MLP Ventures was in the process of closing a deal with a major data center company by December 31, O\u2019Neill said, but faced a years-long wait to secure the huge amounts of power needed to run the project from the grid. O\u2019Neill\u2019s solution was to add construction of \u00a0\u201cbehind-the-meter power\u201d to his plans:\u00a0on-site power generation in the form of generators and natural gas turbines.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, O\u2019Neill\u00a0was concerned<\/a> that federal limits on air pollution could present a roadblock to his gas-fired power generation plans. Montgomery County is designated by the EPA as a \u201cnon-attainment zone\u201d, meaning that concentrations of key air pollutants exceed national air quality standards. This designation sharply reduces the emissions allowed from new sources of pollution, such as power plants. <\/p>\n O\u2019Neill was focused in particular on the annual cap of 25 tons on emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), airborne chemicals which increase the risk of asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other illnesses.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there any flexibility in that 25-ton number?\u201d O\u2019Neill asked<\/a> Tierney, one of five points he said he wished to discuss with the EPA and PUC.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cemissions reduction credits,\u201d a pollution allowance that companies can buy from other companies that have reduced emissions, were not available in the region, \u201cmaking the 25-ton limitation difficult to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n Since utilities were unable to provide the huge amount of power his project needed in \u201ca timely manner,\u201d O\u2019Neill asked<\/a> Tierney if the EPA could provide waivers to the emissions limits.<\/p>\n \u201cAre there strategies the EPA is working on, similar to what they have done with coal-firing plants, to reduce these limits?\u201d O\u2019Neill asked. \u201cCan we implement a strategy in partnership with the EPA?\u201d<\/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 In addition, O\u2019Neill wanted<\/a>\u00a0to \u201cget on the phone with someone senior\u201d at the PUC [Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission], noting that, \u201cI do not think PA or the US wants to fall behind China and other countries in the development of data centers and AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Existing air pollution standards were \u201cput in during the \u201cgreen movement\u2019\u201d and \u201cmay not be appropriate or applicable to today,\u201d O\u2019Neill added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe time urgency of this is immediate,\u201d he wrote Tierney, noting that a deal on his \u201c$10 to $20 billion of economic development\u201d was due to close within six days.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill named 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, as a potential partner in his center project, according to emails<\/a> previously reported by DeSmog.<\/p>\n Less than two weeks after O\u2019Neill reached out with his December 26, 2025 request,\u00a0Tierney was in contact with officials at the Pennsylvania\u00a0Public Utility Commission, emails<\/a> show.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing our calls, please see below email to me from MLP Ventures CEO. Thank you for helping us arrange a meeting with a senior PUC official,\u201d Tierney wrote <\/a>Matthew Wurst, chief of staff for\u00a0Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission\u00a0Chairman Stephen DeFrank, on January 5, 2026, forwarding O\u2019Neill\u2019s email about reducing emissions standards.<\/p>\n The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment or make Tierney available for comment.<\/p>\n On January 7, MLP Ventures and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission held a video call<\/a>, according to meeting records.<\/p>\n Later that day, O\u2019Neill emailed<\/a>\u00a0the CEOs of Philadelphia-area utility PECO and its Chicago-based owner Exelon with a series of requests related to securing power from the grid in tandem with on-site power generation, including \u201cconfirmation that my power from [grid operator] PJM, PECO and Exelon can be expedited if we allow you to disconnect on high demand days.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill wrote<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cI am well aware of the pressure to not raise rates on individual consumers, and I applaud those initiatives. I am therefore providing an off-grid alternative and based on that, I want to make sure that my transaction closes and moves forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Copied on the email<\/a> were officials from the Pennsylvania Office of Transformation & Opportunity, an agency that expedites large industrial projects, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), an agency that O\u2019Neill had identified to Tierney in his December email as \u201cextraordinarily cooperative.\u201d<\/p>\n The DEP said, in response to a request for comment, that it \u201cmet with MLP Ventures for routine explanations on how the state permitting process works,\u201d and that it has not received any permit applications for data center projects in Montgomery County. \u201cAny communications with potential applicants do not represent DEP approval or advocacy for a particular project or outcome or the Governor\u2019s policy opinion on a proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n On January 12,\u00a0PECO replied to an inquiry<\/a> from Matthew Wurst, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission\u00a0chief of staff, titled \u201cMLB [sic] Inquiry\/ PECO Information.\u201d The specifics of Wurst\u2019s inquiry are not clear, because the version included in the public records release is fully redacted.<\/p>\n In response to a request for comment, the PUC stated that its communications with MLP Ventures \u201cinvolved inquiries concerning power generation, environmental oversight and grid interconnection issues. Consistent with the Commission\u2019s normal practice, PUC staff worked to provide information and clarify the Commission\u2019s role and jurisdiction regarding those issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The PUC stated that it is routinely in touch with officials, businesses, government agencies and other stakeholders in utility-related projects, terming these communications \u201can important part of being a responsive regulatory agency, particularly as Pennsylvania and the broader region work through increasingly complex questions involving energy infrastructure and large new electric loads.\u201d<\/p>\n MLP Ventures, Digital Realty, PECO, Exelon, the EPA, and USAID did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n By early March,\u00a0when O\u2019Neill\u2019s MLP Ventures formally applied to build a gigawatt-scale data center complex in Upper Merion Township, state officials had been confidentially coordinating<\/a>\u00a0the project with O\u2019Neill\u00a0for more than a year.<\/p>\n The proposal has ignited opposition from local community members concerned about air pollution, sound and light impacts, falling home values, rising utility bills, and other potential harms.<\/p>\n At a May 27 public meeting\u00a0<\/a>in Upper Merion, O\u2019Neill presented his plans for on-site power generation to hundreds of local residents, addressing what he called \u201cmyths\u201d about data centers with \u201cfacts.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said that it was a perception that \u201cdata centers reduce air quality,\u201d but that it was \u201cnot true.\u201d MLP Ventures was \u201cspending billions of dollars on emissions control equipment,\u201d O\u2019Neill told local residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tierney, the State Department attorney, was nominated by President Donald Trump in April to serve as assistant secretary<\/a> of the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection at the\u00a0 Department of Veteran\u2019s Affairs. His confirmation in the U.S. Senate is pending.<\/p>\n Upper Merion officials are scheduled to vote on whether to approve or deny MLP Ventures\u2019 plans at public hearing on August 13. Hearings on whether to approve the company\u2019s plans in Plymouth Township are ongoing and expected to last several months.<\/p>\n
state agencies that handle various forms of planning and permitting for major power generation projects.<\/p>\n