A Pennsylvania environmental group is calling for a moratorium on data center development until lawmakers can adopt stricter policies. Penn Future called for a pause on data center development across Pennsylvania, citing concerns like water use, electricity prices and increased pollution.

Patrick McDonnell is president and CEO of the organization. There are bills under consideration in the state legislature, like requiring developers to submit reports on expected water use or creating model laws that communities could adopt to set guidelines. The Allegheny Front’s Kara Holsopple talked with McDonnell about his group’s position.

LISTEN to the interview

https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media.alleghenyfront.org/AF032626_module_mp3.mp3

(Full audio will be available March 27)

Kara Holsopple: Your organization has drafted some proposed legislation and amendments to strengthen current bills that are under consideration in the state. What are the main differences between what you’re proposing and what has been under consideration, such as a bill that requires developers to submit reports on their water use or a bill creating a model law that communities could adopt to set guidelines for building data centers?

Patrick McDonnell: For some of those, they’re good, but not nearly enough. Establishing a model ordinance is a good idea, but it’s not enough to really deal with the issue.

There was just a bill amended [March 23] in the House, House Bill 1834, dealing with data centers. We and other organizations and other legislators had extensive conversations about that. Now we have a bill that actually includes renewable requirements, making sure they’re bringing their own energy, making sure if they’re installing backup generators, those generators are not going to be polluting and aren’t going to be run all the time, that the truly are emergency generators.

In some cases, we’re able to work with legislators on it. And in other cases, you know, rightfully, they have their own idea about how to work things through, and we’ll work with them on that. 

Kara Holsopple: What’s an example of something that you think should be a requirement that is not being considered or not being considered strongly enough, you think?

Patrick McDonnell: One of the reasons data centers want to be here is that we’re a water-rich state. There aren’t a lot of guardrails around withdrawals. You know, we have basins like Susquehanna River Basin Commission, that, that will put limits on things. But we don’t really have that across the state and in a consistent manner. So, having some real guardrails on withdrawal and the impacts of that.

One proposed data center could use 20 million gallons of water a year

Kara Holsopple: What are your recommendations based on?

Patrick McDonnell: It’s based on a number of things. Some of it’s just our own experience. With model ordinances, we had a lot of experience around distribution centers as the build-out of that started to happen a few years ago. Some of it is based on prior experience with issues like fracking and how that impacted residents across the state, and making sure we’re getting ahead of that. 

Then of course, we’re learning from neighbors. Virginia has a data center alley, as they call it, and seeing these facilities right up against baseball fields, hearing the sound that they make – imagine a conversation like you and I are having right now at that volume, droning just on and on 24 hours a day, seven days a week in your backyard. It’s important that we’re hearing, seeing the experiences of our community members and making sure those are reflected in state and local policy.

Kara Holsopple: During his budget address in February, Governor Shapiro said he supports data centers locating to Pennsylvania, but he wants requirements on them such as data centers generating their own power or paying for the additional draw on the grid and transparency and, as you said, community engagement. What do you think about these types of requirements? 

Patrick McDonnell: Honestly, the keyword there is “requirement.” Because it’s a little unclear, but it sounds like some of it’s just tied to getting faster permits or meeting those commitments in order to do that.

If the existing law is inadequate, we need to address that. 

For us, it needs to be absolutely a requirement. Some of what we’re talking about here is the bare minimum to have a data center in the state in terms of how it operates as a good neighbor. It shouldn’t just be a commitment made; it should be something that carries state law.

As we’re having these kinds of conversations, as we’re talking about these kinds of requirements, we’re seeing municipalities that have developers and others showing up saying, “Hey, we’ve submitted an application to you, and we’re just following the existing law.” If the existing law is inadequate, we need to address that. 

As Springdale council prepares to vote, residents worry how data center could impact life in town

Kara Holsopple: So PennFuture is calling for a moratorium until some of these things can be discussed more, or there can be stricter requirements. State Senators Katie Muth (D) and Rosemary Brown (R) want to enact a three-year moratorium on what they call hyperscale data center development. Is a moratorium, a pause on data center and development in the state, realistic? 

Patrick McDonnell: I think part of the answer is in the question. It’s an issue where we’re seeing people on both sides of the aisle supportive of taking some kind of pause here to really think through how we make sure our communities are not getting the worst impacts of this.

Making sure you are addressing your ordinances now, addressing those issues today, is going to be critically important in order to get ahead of this. 

Right now, in the rush to do it, part of the implicit admission here is that we don’t have adequate laws, we don’t have adequate ordinances, we don’t have adequate information. Making sure that communities have that information that they have the ability to decide what they want their communities to be – I think is critically important.

Kara Holsopple: A lot of this decision-making does seem to be happening on the local level. What do you think communities need in order to have more of a voice in these decisions? 

Patrick McDonnell: A lot of it is getting ahead of it. At the point at which you have the application and from the data center, it’s too late to act on the municipal level. Making sure you are addressing your ordinances now, addressing those issues today, is going to be critically important in order to get ahead of this. 

Kara Holsopple: So a moratorium would give people a chance to catch up.

Patrick McDonnell: It gives people a chance to catch up. It gives, frankly, the legislature a chance to pass good laws on this. That’s a primary concern in all of this. While we’re seeing some really good movement out of the House, we’re not sure what’s going to happen with that in the Senate. Making sure that pressure is kept on to make sure we’re getting these good policies, good laws in place, I think, is paramount.

Patrick McDonnell is president and CEO of Penn Future.