In the near future, I will introduce legislation that would prohibit data centers from obtaining a Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) and thus becoming a public utility in Pennsylvania.  This legislation would update the definition of public utility in Title 66 (Public Utilities) to specifically indicate that the term does not include a data center. 

Over the past several months, residents and local governments have been fighting back against massive, energy-intensive, hyperscale data center proposals in their communities. And recently, many of those same communities have earned victories when their local elected leaders voted down applications. Proponents of putting big business over everything else have become frustrated with the grassroots movement against data centers and have now turned their sights on a way to make it easier to site and develop data centers – by granting data centers public utility status. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, stated in a recent interview that “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.” Recent statements such as these by tech industry giants have perpetuated the misleading narrative that AI data centers are a public utility.

Current law does indicate that the term public utility does not include “any person or corporation, not otherwise a public utility, who or which furnishes service only to himself or itself.” However, because of billionaire tech bros invading our Commonwealth with hyperscale AI data center proposals that include onsite methane gas power plants, enabled by our government fast-tracking permit approvals, the law must be more specific to ensure data centers are prohibited from obtaining the legal rights of a public utility. If data centers were deemed a public utility, local government authority regarding the zoning and siting of data centers and onsite power generation would be eliminated. Public utilities are granted the authority of eminent domain – the government's power to take private property for a project that benefits the public. This would enable data center developers to acquire development rights, rights-of-way and property for building, maintaining, or expanding infrastructure for data center projects that only benefit private, for-profit corporations.

I urge you to support this legislation to protect Pennsylvanians by ensuring that data centers are prohibited from obtaining public utility status.