Amazon Web Services is the newly identified end user for Project Hazelnut, the proposed hyperscale data center campus in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
For people in the area who tried to learn who would occupy the site, that disclosure is likely to deepen concerns about the project’s size and the secrecy surrounding it.<\/p>\n
Here’s what to know<\/p>\n
Public records emails reviewed by LehighValleyLive.com<\/a> showed that Amazon Web Services would operate Project Hazelnut if local officials approved it.<\/p>\n The governor’s office released the records Jan. 22.<\/p>\n The correspondence, sent between February and October 2025, includes messages involving Pennsylvania community and economic development secretary Rick Siger and Amazon Web Services economic development manager Rebecca Ford.<\/p>\n In one of those exchanges, Siger said he wanted to disclose Amazon’s role, but Ford responded that “contractual issues” would determine when any public announcement could be made.<\/p>\n The proposal includes 15 buildings and its own power substation, creating a major new demand source on the PJM Interconnection grid at a time when high capacity costs are already driving up utility bills across Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n “We’re sort of in the epicenter of Amazon Web Services activity,” Sugarloaf Township resident Annie Vinatieri, told LehighValleyLive.<\/p>\n More background<\/p>\n Amazon announced in June 2025 that it planned to invest $20 billion in Pennsylvania data center development and has openly talked about its other projects in the region.<\/p>\n Even so, it had not publicly acknowledged its ties to Project Hazelnut while residents, officials, and advocacy groups pressed for answers.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said it will not permit nondisclosure agreements tied to data center developments, a significant change from the state’s earlier fast-track posture toward hyperscale projects.<\/p>\n Opponents in the community have warned about possible effects on property values, views, noise, water demand, and electricity consumption if such a large industrial complex is built near homes.<\/p>\n The developer has already cleared 1,200 wooded acres at the proposed site. More trees were cut along a 12-mile corridor for a 500-kilovolt transmission line connecting Hazelnut to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n What’s being done?<\/p>\n Hazle Township supervisors rejected Project Hazelnut in November after prolonged local opposition.<\/p>\n The township is under a six-month pause on data center development while officials prepare a curative amendment that would add data center rules to a zoning ordinance.<\/p>\n NorthPoint Development has sought to strengthen support by emphasizing financial benefits. In 2024, the governor’s office promoted Hazelnut as a “transformative technology campus” expected to produce more than 900 jobs. An email from Siger said Amazon and Hazle Township had negotiated a $5 million community benefits agreement, though it has not been released publicly.<\/p>\n NorthPoint answered the rejection with a $165 million community benefits agreement that promises $10,000 for every township household. It is unclear whether the company will submit a revised plan and ask supervisors to reconsider.<\/p>\n With the end user identified, the debate over zoning, permits, and utility impacts now focuses on who will benefit from the additional energy demand and who will absorb the costs.<\/p>\n “What we’re all facing is truly dystopian in my opinion,” Vinatieri said. “… I think at this point the only way to right the ship is drastic measures, not just empty words or vague promises.”<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazon Web Services is the newly identified end user for Project Hazelnut, the proposed hyperscale data center campus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1896,59723,115338,115341,4434,28,30,29,115339,115340,115342],"class_list":["post-274416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-web-services","tag-hazelnut","tag-hazelnut-as-a-transformative","tag-hazle-township","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-project-hazelnut","tag-siger","tag-vinatieri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274416","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=274416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}