{"id":269865,"date":"2026-08-22T00:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269865\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T00:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:42:22","slug":"data-center-tracker-website-shows-status-of-builds-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269865\/","title":{"rendered":"Data-center tracker website shows status of builds in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday announced a new website<\/a> for Pennsylvanians to provide feedback on proposed data centers projects \u2014 just one piece of the transparency efforts and guardrails for the land developments announced this week by the commonwealth.<\/p>\n

The website launches after Shapiro signed an executive order<\/a> on Tuesday establishing rules for data center development, which the administration said were some of the \u201cstrictest standards in the nation \u2014 blocking unwanted AI data center projects and stopping greedy developers.\u201d The new website was released in tandem with a\u00a0new PA Data Center Permit Tracker<\/a>, a geographic information systems-powered map that shows the locations and environmental permit statuses of proposed data center projects.<\/p>\n

Officials said the actions follow extensive outreach to communities across Pennsylvania after an unprecedented number of data center project proposals were submitted over the past year. Nationwide, concerns<\/a> have grown about data centers and their growing demands for electricity, water and land to support infrastructure for artificial intelligence systems. According to the state\u2019s website, there are at least 100 proposed data centers in Pennsylvania, \u201cthe vast majority of which have not formally approached the Commonwealth for any discussion of permitting or taken meaningful steps toward development.\u201d There are no operational AI data centers in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The new website allows residents to comment on data center proposals, and to indicate whether a proposal meets the governor\u2019s requirements outlined in his executive order and if there is community opposition to the project.<\/p>\n

Under the new rules, data center developers must commit to paying the\u00a0full cost\u00a0of all energy needed to power their project instead of raising electricity costs on consumers; commit to transparent engagement\u00a0with local residents and leaders; hire and\u00a0train\u00a0local workers, and invest\u00a0in the local community; and meet the\u00a0highest standards\u00a0for environmental protection, including strict water conservation requirements.<\/p>\n

The order also states that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will only review data center permit applications if project developers have made a legally binding commitment to meeting these standards\u00a0and\u00a0have received\u00a0local approval. In a video<\/a> posted to social media, Shapiro thanked residents for sending in their concerns about data centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour comments, letters, and texts have led me to take a hard look at data center development in our Commonwealth. Because this is how good government is supposed to work. Constituents express concerns on an issue, and their elected leaders listen, hear them out, and take action accordingly,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve done today \u2014 and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll continue to do as your Governor, because here in Pennsylvania, we\u2019re going to respect the decisions of our local communities above all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tWritten by Keely Quinlan
\n\t\t\tKeely Quinlan reports on privacy and digital government for StateScoop. She was an investigative news reporter with Clarksville Now in Tennessee, where she resides, and her coverage included local crimes, courts, public education and public health. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Stereogum and other outlets. She earned her bachelor\u2019s in journalism and master\u2019s in social and cultural analysis from New York University.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday announced a new website for Pennsylvanians to provide feedback on proposed data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42306,5201,2116,442,28,30,29,19962,50810],"class_list":["post-269865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-ai-data-centers","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-data-centers","tag-gov-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-state-local-news","tag-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269865","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=269865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}