The Data on Data Centers
By Bob Small
While on our first getaway in a decade we spent a weekend in Jim Thorpe in Carbon County earlier this month.
As everywhere, I picked up some local papers. As everywhere, the headlines screamed DATA Centers!
One concerned a town hall attended by about 20 including one Suzanne Northropp, who opined “I don’t know who thought this was a good idea.”
This seemed to be the general consensus.
Meanwhile, in my previous city of residence, Mayor Parker is in the process of signing “an executive order to create a task force to establish guardrails for any potential data centers in the city.”
According to this Axios article there are already eight operating data centers in Philly. There are also two proposed sites, one in the neighborhood of my misspent youth, the NE Philly Airport.
There is enough opposition that it requires another article to give them full justice. The campaign is called No Data Centers in Philly, though it may need to be retitled No more Data Centers in Philly.
Now, where is our incumbent Governor on this. Well, Josh Shapiro has been all over the place.
In June of 2025, he said, in Berwick. “I’m here to announce that Pennsylvania has landed the largest private sector investment in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” Since then, he’s caught the zeitgeist of the moment, but, as Jael Holzman says, “ I have not seen any example where a politician is adequately, …..capturing the sheer anxiety and angst around AI data center development.”
Just recently, the Governor is catching up to the previously stated position of his GOP opponent.
On Aug. 18, signed this order restricting data centers.
One thing it does it prohibits any state agency from signing an non-disclosure agreement related to a Data Center project.
Also, according to this article, 76 percent of registered Pennsylvania voters would oppose a data center in their community.
See also Where Shapiro and Garrity stand on Pennsylvania data …
