PA Environment Digest Blog: Better Path Coalition: Data Centers

In response to Gov. Shapiro's announcement June 9 Amazon was investing $20 billion in A.I. data infrastructure in Pennsylvania, the Better Path Coalition and No False Climate Solutions PA released this statement--

As the legislature considers enacting Governor Josh Shapiro’s “all-of-the-above” energy Lightning Plan, Amazon has become the latest company to announce plans to build massive data centers in Pennsylvania.

The governor shared at a press event yesterday that Amazon will invest at least $20 billion dollars to build multiple data centers across the state.

The news follows announcements in recent months from Microsoft that it will bring Three Mile Island online once again to power its data center, while developers of a data center campus in Indiana County will build the largest natural gas power plant in the country to serve it.

In Pennsylvania, “all-of-the-above” energy means fossil fuels and nuclear with a dash of renewables tossed in to give the plan a pale green veneer.

Pennsylvania still lags behind the rest of the country in renewable energy growth.The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that nearly 4% of energy used in the state came from renewable sources in 2023.

According to the International Energy Agency, “By the end of the decade, the USA will consume more electricity for data centres than for the production of aluminium, steel, cement, chemicals, and all other energy-intensive goods combined.”

Jumping on that bandwagon guarantees that emissions from the natural gas likely to power most of the plants proposed for Pennsylvania will more than cancel any ground gained in the renewables sector.

The governor held his press conference in the northeast while communities on the other side of the state continued cleaning up after floods that ravaged the region on Friday.

Climate-enhanced floods are becoming a common occurrence in a state whose government remains oblivious to climate change and its costs.

Amazon’s $20 billion investment will not go far in covering the costs of the climate impacts that will become more intense and frequent over time. But the extreme weather events associated with the climate crisis are just part of the story.

The state has never calculated the costs of fossil fuel and nuclear energy production to the environment and Pennsylvanians’ health, safety, and quality of life, nor has it attempted to predict the on-the-ground impacts of data centers.

Shortly after yesterday morning’s announcement, the House Energy Committee heard testimony on one part of Shapiro’s Lightning Plan called the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Siting and Electric Transition (RESET) board, a business and industry-heavy board that would be created to “get stuff built.” [Read more here.]

Creating a board with representatives from both the public and private (and, therefore, not accountable to the public) sectors would take approvals out of the hands of municipal governments entirely, provide almost no opportunity for the public to weigh in, and hold the state Department of Environmental Protection to approving projects within an arbitrary deadline of 90 days.

The Better Path Coalition and No False Climate Solutions PA submitted a position statement to the committee that can be viewed or downloaded here.

Resource Links:

-- Gov. Shapiro Provides Update On The Fight To Lower Energy Prices, Calls On General Assembly To Move His Commonsense Lightning Energy Plan [PaEN]

-- Rise Of The Machines: Senate, House Members Express Concern That Demand For Power To Run Computers Is Impacting The Price And Availability Of Electricity For ‘Ordinary People’ [5.12.25]

-- PUC Hearing On Data Center Growth Impacts Finds 30-40% Of Utility Demand Could Be From Data Centers; Concerns About Stranded Costs; Major Commitments To Net-Zero Carbon Emissions Energy Use [PaEN]

-- PUC House Budget Hearing: We Aren’t Going To Build Our Way Out Of Electric Generation Shortfalls On PJM Grid; We Need To Diversify Our Generation Sources [PaEN]

-- PUC Invites Stakeholder Comments On The Issue Of The Adequacy Of Electricity Supplies In Pennsylvania [Background On Issue] [PaEN]

-- 30 Stakeholder Comments Received By PUC On Adequacy Of Electricity Supplies In Pennsylvania; Increasing Natural Gas Power Plant Reliability To 90-95% Would Mean No Imminent Capacity Problem [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - June 14 [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 96 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In June 14 PA Bulletin [PaEN]