{"id":271904,"date":"2026-08-25T12:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271904\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:36:07","slug":"data-center-developers-are-pushing-pa-government-officials-to-sign-secrecy-agreements-at-least-some-are-saying-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271904\/","title":{"rendered":"Data center developers are pushing Pa. government officials to sign secrecy agreements. At least some are saying yes."},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA<\/a> is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG \u2014 When Talen Energy reached out to Anthony Township Supervisor Craig High about rezoning, he was surprised.<\/p>\n

In his role, he\u2019s occasionally contacted by companies planning to build in the township. But Montour County, where the small rural community is located, is responsible for major zoning decisions, not Anthony.<\/p>\n

Still, High and the other supervisors were open to hearing more about what Talen planned to do in their district.<\/p>\n

But once a date was set, Talen gave High and his colleagues another surprise: The company said the supervisors would need to sign a nondisclosure agreement to hold the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the surface, it seemed as though it\u2019s all legitimate. But on the other hand \u2026 we\u2019re elected public officials here,\u201d High said. \u201cThe premise of saying, \u2018Will you not tell your constituents what you\u2019re about to do?\u2019 left a major bad taste in my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

High refused to sign the agreement and did not meet with Talen in the end. But months after that interaction, he found out why the company had reached out: It was building a data center.<\/p>\n

High isn\u2019t the only elected official data center developers have approached with a nondisclosure agreement. Public records requests filed by Spotlight PA found at least eight NDAs signed by township, county and Shapiro administration officials for data center projects. Why they signed and whether the NDA shaped an eventual deal isn\u2019t always clear. Only two lawmakers who signed such agreements responded to the newsroom\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Officials in Lehigh Valley town signed confidentiality agreements with company at center of data center dispute, records show<\/a><\/p>\n

Data center developers across the<\/a> United States have increasingly turned to this tactic. They have secured NDAs with elected officials<\/a> and economic development advisors<\/a>, limiting what information about planned data centers can be shared with communities.<\/p>\n

First Amendment scholars and lawyers who spoke with Spotlight PA said the practice runs counter to lawmakers\u2019 obligations to constituents, especially when elected officials are deciding on zoning and permitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time a private company tries to limit what a public official can say about public business, that\u2019s a red flag,\u201d said Melissa Melewsky, an attorney with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, of which Spotlight PA is a member. \u201cIt is limiting the free flow of information from public officials about public business. It\u2019s not a private transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania lawmakers have taken notice, introducing bills that would prohibit or disincentivize the use of NDAs by data center developers. At least one such bill has passed the state House, but has yet to be considered by the Senate.<\/p>\n

While tech titan Microsoft has pledged to stop using<\/a> NDAs with local governments, other data center and business developers say these agreements are common in their industries.<\/p>\n

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, told Spotlight PA he \u201cunderstands the potential need for regulation here,\u201d but noted that many large business projects, from restaurants to big box retailers, use NDAs to protect \u201ccompetitive interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your competitors know you\u2019re looking at a particular site, or others know that a certain company is looking at a site, it can affect land prices. It can affect development processes,\u201d Diorio said. \u201cIt just gives an insight into ultimately what is your business plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

But High argued NDAs indicate a business \u201cis not in the interest of the community.\u201d He views them as an effort to \u201ctry to build an artificial momentum\u201d with as little attention on the project as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time the people that care about [the project] find out, there will be such momentum and so many things will have taken place that it\u2019s essentially too late to stop it,\u201d High said.<\/p>\n

In Anthony Township, Talen pushed on with its plans but was met with fierce local resistance. Over the past year<\/a>, county officials have repeatedly voted against rezoning the land for a data center.<\/p>\n

Chilling effect<\/p>\n

As data center plans have popped up across<\/a> the<\/a> state<\/a> over the last year, Pennsylvanians have voiced growing resistance. A recent Quinnipiac poll<\/a> found that nearly three-quarters of Pennsylvanians would oppose building data centers in their community.<\/p>\n

One major concern for many residents is the secrecy surrounding the projects \u2014 they don\u2019t know who will use the data centers planned for their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

That was the case when Larry Padora, chair of the Schuylkill County Board of Commissioners, was asked to sign an NDA.<\/p>\n

Like High, Padora was asked to sign the document before meeting with the company. He agreed to it because his county solicitor told him and the company that the agreement would not be enforceable because the state\u2019s transparency laws would make it public.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur solicitor advised them that the NDAs are subject to Right-to-Know requests. So, like, it\u2019s pointless for having us sign it,\u201d Padora said.<\/p>\n

He described the meeting as \u201ca general introduction\u201d intended to provide basic information about the project planned in Kline Township. The only confidential information he learned at the meeting, he said, was the planned end user for the data center \u2014 Amazon.<\/p>\n

Padora wasn\u2019t the only county commissioner to sign the NDA. Both Barron Hetherington and Gary Hess, the county\u2019s other two commissioners, also signed the NDA. Neither responded to inquiries from Spotlight PA.<\/p>\n

Padora defended his decision to sign the NDA, saying the confidentiality didn\u2019t affect his interactions with constituents. He spoke regularly about the proposal, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t change [my behavior] at all. We were talking about [the project,]\u201d Pandora said. \u201cOnce they purchased the property and the deed was recorded, everybody knew it was Amazon anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he noted he didn\u2019t disclose Amazon\u2019s role in the project until after the announcement.<\/p>\n

As of mid-August, the project was under consideration by the township\u2019s planning commission, but it has faced backlash from residents<\/a>. If the plan is recommended by the commission, Kline Township supervisors will vote to approve or deny Amazon\u2019s land development plan.<\/p>\n

Deanna Noel, a deputy director at consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, argued that while NDA use can be \u201ccommon practice\u201d in some industries, public officials agreeing to sign them creates ethical concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a corporation demands that elected officials sign these nondisclosure agreements as a condition of just learning what is being proposed in their community, it has inverted that relationship entirely,\u201d Noel told Spotlight PA. \u201cThe official is suddenly accountable to the corporation and not to the voters and their constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the use of NDAs is not new, she added, due to the rapid development of data centers and lack of state or federal regulations for them, such agreements allow deals to be pushed through without public input.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the use of NDAs really become an abuse of the NDA with the amount of really transformative data center deals that are getting negotiated behind closed doors with elected officials,\u201d No\u00ebl said.<\/p>\n

Dave Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, added that the popularization of NDAs could have a chilling effect on future projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you know it, we have local and state governments who are making really important decisions for the public on behalf of the public, without including the public, and that\u2019s when bad things happen,\u201d Cuillier told Spotlight PA.<\/p>\n

Through public records requests, Spotlight PA found that township supervisors, county commissioners and a state Cabinet secretary had signed NDAs with developers such as Amazon Web Services, Vantage Data Centers Management Co. and Quality Technology Services.<\/p>\n

The NDAs barred officials from sharing \u201cproprietary\u201d and \u201cconfidential\u201d information, but most did not specify what exactly fell under that category.<\/p>\n

In an NDA signed between Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger and Amazon, \u201cconfidential information\u201d refers to anything that is \u201cclearly marked on its face as \u2018confidential,\u2019 \u201d or \u201creasonably should be considered as confidential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nebulous language, Melewsky said, \u201cmakes compliance difficult,\u201d as lawmakers may not know what information they\u2019re agreeing to withhold.<\/p>\n

She added that while the state\u2019s open records law presumes that documents are public, NDAs are not the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more of a cover-all-your-bases type of concept. Like nothing is public unless we tell you it\u2019s OK,\u201d Melewsky said.<\/p>\n

Legislative efforts<\/p>\n

Two lawmakers have proposed bills that would discourage or bar the use of NDAs for data center projects.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Montgomery, proposed banning public agencies<\/a> from signing NDAs with data center developers. A representative for a data center in her district has been \u201chiding behind the NDA,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Limerick Township, which she represents, a proposed 1.4 million-square-foot data center has been going through the rezoning process. However, the lawyer representing the project, Ed Campbell, has told township supervisors that he is \u201cnot at liberty to disclose\u201d the potential end users of the facility.<\/p>\n

Campbell told Spotlight PA it\u2019s \u201cnot uncommon\u201d for a landowner or developer to finalize zoning before revealing the end user.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are multiple end users who have interest in this site. And if we\u2019re fortunate enough to get through conditional use, we\u2019ll be partnering with one of them and move forward,\u201d Campbell told the township supervisors at a public meeting<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

Campbell has not said if an NDA is what makes him unable to disclose that information, and did not reply to Spotlight PA outreach asking him to comment on Pennycuick\u2019s allegation.<\/p>\n

Pennycuick said that as a lawmaker, she finds this use of NDAs alarming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a good actor, why wouldn\u2019t you want to say \u2018I\u2019m with Amazon,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m with Truist Bank,\u2019 \u201d Pennycuick told Spotlight PA. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why that would need to be kept secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signing an NDA is \u201ctotally counterintuitive to being a public servant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCategorically I would never sign an NDA. It\u2019s just dumb. You\u2019re totally bypassing the biggest part of your job,\u201d Pennycuick said.<\/p>\n

Diorio, with the data center trade group, called a \u201cblanket prohibition\u201d of NDAs a \u201cslippery slope.\u201d He proposed changes like limiting the duration of the agreements, or focusing them on specific topics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are good conversations to be had about how we structure this in a way that allows for protection of proprietary, really confidential information, while also just being more upfront about like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve decided to move forward with this process,\u2019 \u201d Diorio told Spotlight PA.<\/p>\n

Pennycuick\u2019s bill is with the state Senate Communications and Technology Committee, which she chairs. It has not been brought up for a vote, but she hopes to advance it in September, when lawmakers return to Harrisburg.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, represents parts of the same area and noticed the same problem. He introduced a bill that would amend<\/a> a tax exemption to only apply to data centers that pledge not to use NDAs.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers in the state House voted to repeal that tax exemption and amend it in other ways<\/a> during budget negotiations this summer, but nothing has made it through the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m pushing for is not saying you can\u2019t build these facilities,\u201d Ciresi said. \u201cIt is that the community is to decide whether you\u2019re going to build it, and the community is going to have all the information that they can have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciresi\u2019s bill was passed by the state House with huge bipartisan support, 171- 31<\/a>. Now it\u2019s with the Senate Finance Committee.<\/p>\n

Both Ciresi and Pennycuick told Spotlight PA they are willing to collaborate or amend their legislation to get the bill to the governor\u2019s desk. They hope the Legislature will pass the measure when it reconvenes this fall.<\/p>\n

Diorio said the Data Center Coalition does not have an official position on either bill, but cautioned that a \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d approach to NDAs would harm development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want to make sure that policies are crafted tight enough so that there aren\u2019t bad actors out there, but flexible enough so that whether it be local governments or others have the ability to tailor things appropriately,\u201d Diorio said.<\/p>\n

Back in Anthony Township, Supervisor High said he wasn\u2019t sure if state government involvement is for the best. Lawmakers should \u201clet the local voter decide what is and is not appropriate,\u201d High said, and \u201cget the state out of giving incentives for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he cautioned against lawmakers signing NDA agreements. Lawmakers who break an NDA could face civil action. At the same time, they\u2019re legally responsible to divulge the information they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou basically put yourself in a corner where you can get sued on either side,\u201d High said.<\/p>\n

Following the publication of this story, DCED provided the following statement to Spotlight PA:<\/p>\n

\u201cRecognizing the unique challenges posed by speculative data center development projects, Governor Shapiro issued an Executive Order<\/a> requiring data center projects to comply with his GRID (Governor\u2019s Responsible Infrastructure Development) principles. That Executive Order prohibits the use of NDAs for data center projects moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026 If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you<\/a> who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3069,139,28,30,29,1478,432],"class_list":["post-271904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-data-center","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-spotlight-pa","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271904","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=271904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}