The House also passed House Bill 2150 (Donahue-D-Lackawanna) by a vote of 133 to 68 requiring data centers in Pennsylvania to send information about their energy and water use to DEP and requires DEP to aggregate the information and create an annual report on data center impacts.
“Right now, communities across the Commonwealth lack clear standards to address the noise, size, water usage, and other impacts data centers can have on local neighborhoods,” said Rep. Kyle Donahue. “House Bill 2151 gives municipalities an optional tool they can use to ensure data centers are responsibly sited and operated while protecting residents’ quality of life. The rapid growth of data centers across our state has real impacts on the neighborhoods around them, and that growth shouldn’t come at the expense of the people who live, work, and go to school nearby.”
The bill is supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, Sierra Club of Pennsylvania, PA Environmental Council, Clean Water Action, and PennFuture.
The Food & Water Watch and other groups oppose the legislation. Eastern Pennsylvania Senior Organizer Ginny Marcille-Kerslake issued this statement--
“Even though municipalities would not be forced to adopt the model ordinance, it may be cited in zoning disputes as evidence of what is considered reasonable — and Harrisburg should not be deciding what's reasonable.
“[Governor] Shapiro’s mad dash to bring Big Tech data centers to the Commonwealth will only hurt the communities looking for good-faith guidance.
“The Senate must side with families over Big Tech and stop HB 2151. Instead, we need a data center moratorium to protect Pennsylvanians and the environment by pausing development so local government and state agencies can evaluate the impacts and update their regulations.
“Until then, any development of these energy-hungry, water-guzzling facilities is irresponsible.”
The bills now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Model Ordinances
Model ordinances regulating A.I. data centers are available now from PennFuture and Move Past Plastic.
Related Articles This Week:
-- House Energy Committee Reports Out GeoThermal Energy, Advanced Transmission Technology, Energy Financing Authority Bills [PaEN]
-- PA House Passes Bills To Develop Model Zoning Ordinance To Help Local Governments Regulate, Mitigate The Impacts Of A.I. Data Center Developments; Report Water, Energy Use [PaEN]
-- PA House Blue-Green Labor, Environmental Caucus Endorses 9-Bill Package To Expand Clean Energy Generation, Strengthen Workforce [PaEN]
-- Report: President Canceled 28.2 Gigawatts Of US Electric Generation- Funding For 13 Gigawatts Lost In Pennsylvania- In Face Of Unprecedented A.I. Data Center Demand, Grid Reliability Concerns [PaEN]
-- Penn State Extension Hosts Anaerobic Digestion On The Farm Conference, June 9-11 [PaEN]
[Posted: April 14, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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