In the near future, I will introduce legislation to protect local communities from corporate exploitation by establishing a statewide three-year moratorium on hyperscale data center development. The moratorium would also include data center infrastructure such as new power generating facilities and utility transmission infrastructure required to power hyperscale data centers. 

Similar legislation has already been introduced by state elected officials representing both parties in Georgia, Maryland, Vermont, Virginia, Oklahoma and New York, and at least 19 different communities in Michigan have passed or proposed moratoriums on data center development. On December 8, 2025, more than 230 environmental groups, including Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace, signed an open letter to Congress for a national moratorium on the construction of new data centers.  On December 16, 2025, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders released a video statement “pushing for a national moratorium on the construction of data centers that are powering the unregulated sprint to develop and deploy AI.” And at the end of December 2025, it was reported that at least 14 states had towns or counties that have paused data center permitting and construction.

Pennsylvania municipalities are being infiltrated by multi-billion dollar corporations looking to build massive, energy intensive hyperscale data center campuses for artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced cloud computing needed to run and train generative AI models. Industry supporters, including state and federal officials on both sides of the aisle, describe hyperscale data center campuses as low-impact, warehouse-like developments that will bring in endless pots of gold to local communities and school districts. In reality, these massive industrial complexes operate around the clock producing constant noise, degrading air quality, draining our electricity supply, and depleting our local drinking water resources. A single site can use as much electricity as a small city and millions of gallons of water each day. 
 
A single hyperscale data center campus can also require dozens of large industrial diesel generators, each comparable in size to a tractor trailer, to maintain continuous operations. Consider that one Amazon permit in Virginia describes a single data center using up to ten million gallons of diesel fuel annually for 173 generators. And across Virginia, there are over 9,000 diesel generators, including over 4,700 in just Loudon County – enough to power millions of homes.

Also troubling, utility and power generation companies and even some utility regulators are proposing new gas fired power plants, large substations and new high voltage transmission lines in communities that were never meant to host this kind of industrial activity to support the for-profit goals of these big tech corporations, instead of ensuring public health and safety are not compromised. 

Data center proliferation is another boom-and-bust corporate strategy to exploit communities for profit, including passing off the costs for data center transmission infrastructure buildout onto consumers.  In 2024 alone, Pennsylvania ratepayers paid $492 million in their monthly electric bills for data center transmission infrastructure, and faced increased monthly rates in 2025 and early 2026. 

This invasion of proposals for hyperscale data center campuses across our Commonwealth is putting local governments in an impossible position. If they deny or restrict proposed industrial projects that increase the risk of harm to the community,  then they are threatened with lawsuits by big tech companies.  If they approve them, they put their communities’ health and well-being and the ecosystem in harm's way.  Further concerning is the lack of conflict of interest laws and regulations to protect local municipalities.  As more proposals are submitted, a troubling pattern of conflict has emerged over the last year, where some local governments are paying for expert and legal services to review these often complicated or even restrictive data center applications, and oftentimes, these same lawyers, engineers and consultants also have other clients that are developers and/ or contribute to political campaigns. Some communities are learning that non disclosure agreements are part of the proposed development, leaving the public with little to no information about what could be built right next to their home. 

Local elected officials need more time to evaluate risk, enact protective ordinances, update their zoning regulations, and other critical measures to ensure public safety and well-being. Right now, each individual data center proposal is being reviewed in isolation even though the impacts add up across the state.  

Currently, there are no requirements for state agency baseline studies or impact studies since state law does not require baseline analysis or cumulative impact assessments for any of the following:
  • pollutional harms and negative impacts to air, water, land, public health, and wildlife
  • noise pollution studies
  • comprehensive water quality and sustainability studies to ensure supply for human life
  • risk assessments and hazard mitigation protocols
  • emergency response modeling
  • relative location to other high-risk industrial operations (nuclear power plants and other energy infrastructure)
  • geologic analysis of increased vibrations from massive industrial generators in areas of risk for earth disturbance
  • impact studies to show the harms of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from existing and proposed transmission lines and substations
  • risk analyses and mitigation plans for harmonic distortion which is a fire hazard for residential housing in close proximity to hyperscale data centers 
  • and other important evidence-based assessments for each unique community.  

By enacting a three-year moratorium, this legislation would require Pennsylvania decision makers to take time to do meaningful research and planning that should have been done before this data center development rush began. It is a pause to require state agencies to conduct real impact studies and put clear rules in place that are based on health and safety standards, not industry standards. The moratorium would also ensure that local governments and emergency response officials have the necessary time to fully assess the impacts of data center development and to enact protections to ensure the residents all across this state are protected from corporate exploitation and industrial health harm. 

Pennsylvania cannot afford to repeat past mistakes –  approving large-scale industrial development first and confronting the consequences later. A three-year moratorium is a measured, responsible, and necessary step to protect public health, safety, fiscal stability, and environmental integrity while ensuring that future decisions are informed, coordinated, and equitable.

In his budget address, the Governor said that “we can play a leading role in winning the battle for AI supremacy -- but we have to do it in a way that puts the good people of Pennsylvania first.”  If state government officials truly want to put the people of Pennsylvania first, they will enact this moratorium to allow local governments a chance to protect their residents. The moratorium will also allow state regulators to use this thoughtful pause as an opportunity to update policies and regulations to protect our Commonwealth.

Please join me in protecting our local governments and our constituents by cosponsoring this legislation to enact a three-year moratorium on hyperscale data center development.