Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro plans to sign an executive order on data centers, a source confirmed with NBC10.<\/p>\n
Shapiro will deliver remarks and sign the order during a press conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 1 p.m. ET. The source did not reveal additional details on the executive order. You can watch the presser in the video embedded on top of this article.<\/p>\n
Data centers are facilities used to house computer systems and serve as infrastructure for storing and processing information. They also support the global financial system, cloud services, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n
Rising electricity costs and a strain on electric grids fueled by the growth of the AI industry have led to significant backlash to proposed data centers from communities across the country,\u00a0including towns and neighborhoods in New Jersey<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pennsylvania.<\/a> Other critics of data centers have expressed concerns about their environmental impact as well as AI\u2019s potential threat to millions of jobs.<\/p>\n In May of this year, Shapiro released the Governor\u2019s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) Standards<\/a>, which officials said established clear guardrails and accountability measures for data center development in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n