When neither candidate supports a moratorium on data centers<\/p>\n
Pennycuick said she doesn\u2019t want to see agricultural land converted to data center use. But she said that some communities may welcome them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would not support a moratorium statewide because there are areas in our state that want them, that actively seek them out, and I don\u2019t want to deny a community that opportunity if that\u2019s what they want,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Instead, Pennycuick said, she now supports \u201cserious regulatory oversight,\u201d including the ability for local authorities to reject a proposal, along with protections on water usage, provisions to prevent additional electricity costs to be borne by ratepayers, no foreign ownership, and a ban on nondisclosure agreements between data center developers and elected officials.<\/p>\n
Pennycuick won the district by 4 percentage points in 2022. The 24th District supported Trump by only about 2 points in 2024.<\/p>\n
A recent poll found Democratic challenger Chris Thomas leading Pennycuick<\/a> 46% to 44%, with Green Party candidate Michael Schonewolf receiving 3% and 7% undecided. The poll\u2019s 4-point margin of error means the race remains effectively tied.<\/p>\n Like Pennycuick, Thomas also opposes a data center moratorium.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of the moratorium is to give time to allow some breathing room,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe already know the guardrails that we need to put in place: stopping Big Tech from jacking up our utility bills, demanding accountability from utility providers, ending backroom deals, not treating public land like a corporate giveaway, stopping big tech from polluting our air, water, and land.\u201d<\/p>\n Pennycuick has launched ads questioning Thomas\u2019 commitment to opposing data centers. She points to the support he\u2019s received from the building trades unions.<\/p>\n \u201cHe took money from the trades, and those trades want the data center developer money, they want to get these data centers,\u201d said Pennycuick. \u201cIt\u2019s good construction jobs and [the building trades] don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n Pennycuick has also tried to tie Thomas to a data center developer but the connection is tenuous \u2014 Thomas said he was hired by a company that had previously done work on a site that later became the proposed Amazon data center in Falls Township.<\/p>\n Thomas referred to the ads linking him to data centers as a \u201cblatant lying and smear campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas supports Gov. Shapiro\u2019s GRID plan to regulate data centers<\/a>. Shapiro himself shifted gears after touting data center development in his February budget address<\/a>. In August, the governor signed an executive order implementing the plan<\/a> after opposition to AI data centers grew, and he pivoted away from voluntary compliance.<\/p>\n