{"id":285321,"date":"2026-09-13T20:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285321\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T20:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:56:08","slug":"philadelphia-protest-to-call-for-data-center-moratorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285321\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia protest to call for data center moratorium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, protesters will demand that Philadelphia City Council pass a data center moratorium as <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/709772\/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">opposition to the projects grows nationwide<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/events\/rally-and-press-conference-for-data-center-moratorium\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cNo Data Centers in Philly\u201d campaign<\/a> will hold a press conference and rally on the south apron of City Hall at noon. According to a press release, two potential data center sites have been identified in the southwest and northeast portions of the city. However, Philadelphia \u201cdoes not currently have any rules governing where data centers can be built or how communities should be protected.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a recipe for disaster,\u201d Philly Thrive managing co-director Shawmar Pitts said in a release. \u201cCity Council can and must pass a moratorium and pause data center construction so leaders and Philadelphians can write strong guidelines to protect our health, affordability, and quality of life.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/shapiro-data-centers-executive-order-pennsylvania\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Last month<\/a>, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/content\/dam\/copapwp-pagov\/en\/governor\/documents\/eo2026_05_protecting%20pennsylvania%20consumers%20from%20data%20center%20impacts_final_executed.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">executive order<\/a> eliminating fast-tracked data center permit approvals and requiring developers to <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/electricity-bills-rising-philadelphia-pjm-interconnection-grid-explainer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cover the costs<\/a> of new energy infrastructure needed to power their projects. That\u2019s a shift from over a year ago, when the governor praised Amazon for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/09\/06\/nx-s1-5948148\/public-backlash-against-data-centers-is-rising-politicians-are-playing-catchup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">committing to build $20 billion worth of data centers<\/a> in the state, including <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/amazon-data-center-bucks-county-pa-gas-generators-impact\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a facility in Bucks County<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t let an industry that raises our PECO bills, pollutes air and water, and powers surveillance expand without guardrails, and that\u2019s what will happen if Council doesn\u2019t act,\u201d Pitts said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Across the region, proposed data centers have been the source of major conflict in multiple communities. Last month, the Upper Merion Township board <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/upper-merion-board-king-of-prussia-data-center\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">struck down developer Brian O\u2019Neill\u2019s plan<\/a> to build five data centers totaling more than 4.6 million square feet. The proposal called for natural gas turbines and diesel backup generators, whose emissions can exacerbate respiratory problems and other health conditions.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2116,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-285321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-data-centers","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285321","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=285321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}