“First, in this environment of challenges and opportunities, I think that our local governments and our local communities are really at a position where they are yearning for communication, communication from the industry, communication from the Commonwealth, and to dispel rumors and concerns that they have.
“As we reached out in preparation for today's hearing, one of the words that we would hear in a number of contexts was anxiety.
“Not understanding what bringing large data centers to a rural community would mean for the way of life.
“We've already had those questions explored from a scientific perspective.
“Are there ways to make sure that there's adequate access to water? We've heard a lot of ways that there are.
“Are there ways that there's adequate access to energy and other resources? And again, those questions have been answered.
“But from a local perspective, I think the communities want to have a seat at the table to be able to comment on those issues, to have the opportunity to be engaged and to hear as these decisions are going through that their concerns are being met.”
Review Zoning Ordinances Now
"One of the other things that I wanted to highlight, building on the concept of the zoning and the planning process, is that now is the right time for many communities to be thinking about planning.
"When the rapid development of distribution centers [warehouses] took place around the Commonwealth, one thing our office heard again and again was that ideal pieces of property aligning interstate highways in very small communities that had not been used to having a zoning or planning process at all, were finding that major developers had purchased large tracts of land and were already in the position to move forward.
"By that time, the horse is out of the barn and it's too late to have sighting conversations and mitigation conversations.
"So if your communities think that you might be on the track for this kind of thing, now is the time to be looking at your zoning ordinance.
"Now is the time to be looking at your comprehensive plan and saying, should this opportunity come to our door? What's the right way to invite it?"
Gazsi noted, "Most of the approximately 90 data centers that have been built or are in development in Pennsylvania are located near the major population centers in the Southeast and Southwest of the State, but more recent projects and proposals are demonstrating interest in areas of the Commonwealth that are attractive for other reasons."
He said areas with energy generation facilities, water resources and large-scale fiber optic cable networks are attractive.
"One additional, and related, benefit that communities may see from data center development is conversion of brownfields, and shuttered or underutilized facilities."
Challenges For Local Governments
Gazsi said along with potential benefits, "some challenges exist for municipalities in
Pennsylvania as well – specifically, community concerns, resource needs and administrative capacity."
-- Public Concerns: "Rapid, large-scale development has the potential to draw a great deal of local attention, and potential opposition from the public – especially where local concerns are let unaddressed or are plagued by rumor in a community."
"In Luzerne County, owners of nearby farms raised concerns that conversion of
agricultural land to industrial use for the Amazon data center project would reduce the value of the farmer’s land.
"When data centers are located more closely to population centers, additional questions are often raised about noise from diesel backup generators, bright facility lighting, community aesthetics, and the draw on resources and emergency services.
-- Community Benefit Agreements: "In many ways, these concerns can be addressed and mitigated through thoughtful planning, and as other speakers have noted, land use regulation and the development approval process can play a very large role.
"However, some communities are also seeking to directly engage developers for an exchange of promises between developer and community, to bring benefits to the community as a whole, and encourage a cooperative posture by the local government throughout the approval process.
"These agreements, sometimes referred to as Community Benefit Agreements, are contract documents often utilized to mitigate impacts from other forms of industrial development like energy generation facilities, and are now being explored for data center projects.
“These agreements provide for benefits that can include infrastructure and community investments, job and wage guarantees, and operational considerations.
"Currently, Lancaster officials are in negotiations over a potential Community Benefit Agreement as part of the approval process for the CoreWeave data center project."
-- Resource Needs, Potential Burdens: "It is well known that large data centers require large amounts of electricity and cooling capacity to operate. As noted above, these operational considerations are key components to identifying valuable sites near energy availability and water access for data center development.
"However, communities and their residents need to be confident that operating these facilities will not result in unreliable electrical grid performance for other users and that water usage will not reduce availability and reliability of the groundwater table or impact the operations of public water supplies – especially where cooling involves consumptive use of potable water sources.
"Operators may be able to mitigate these impacts on communities by utilizing dedicated
energy sources and drawing water from appropriate surface water sources or utilizing so-called “purple pipe” plumbed, non-potable water sources.
-- Effective Public Participation: "Although these issues may primarily be addressed by
statewide and federal regulators such as the Public Utility Commission and Department of Environmental Protection, addressing local concerns through effective public relations and communication may be a stitch-in-time.
"As nearly every issued permit is subject to appeal by impacted third-parties, including host municipalities, public participation and public confidence may reduce the delays, risks and impacts of litigation."
-- Seeking Out Communities With Fewer Restrictions, Less Capacity For Mitigating Impacts: "In some parts of the Commonwealth, large municipalities have professionalized full-time staff supporting land use development approvals, full-time police and fire services and nearby access to emergency medical services.
“In contrast, other communities may rely more on part-time and volunteer efforts, limited access to trained planning professionals, partial local police coverage or state police only, and volunteer fire and EMS services.
"By no means am I suggesting that high density communities are preferable or a better fit
for data center development.
"In fact, developers may seek out rural areas with lower property taxes, easier access to large tracts of land and development approvals with less strict requirements for screening, noise regulation, and impact mitigation.
"However, host community officials and developers must arrive at a clear understanding of municipal capacity and other available resources to address emergency and other public service needs."
Nondisclosure Agreements With Developers
During questions, Sen. Dawn Keefer (R-York) raised the issue of developers requiring the signing of nondisclosure agreements with A.I. data center developers so energy and water use is not made public.
"Some questions I've had from some of my communities and municipalities-- "How are these communities able to actually evaluate what the impact versus benefit when they're not getting all of the information?"
"A lot of local officials in other areas where they have signed agreements for data centers to come in, they've been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, which is a little baffling.
"And then the municipalities aren't able to get what the data centers are actually using in terms of how much water, how much electricity. And that puts the municipalities at a disadvantage, and the community, because they don't know what the true impact is."
"I've been told that the data center said that this puts them at a competitive disadvantage to disclose this specific information.
"But how are elected officials going to make responsible and informed decisions without all that information?"
Click Here for a copy of Gazsi's testimony.
Click Here for a video of the August 11 hearing and other testimony. Gazsi appears at about the 2:24 mark in the video.
PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:
-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - August 9 to 15 - Illegal Disposal Of 66,780 Gallons Of Conventional Wastewater; 4 Impoundments Not Restored; 3 Conventional Wells Mined Through [PaEN]
-- DEP Issued Violations To Iron Cumberland, LLC For Illegally Disposing Of 66,780 Gallons Of Conventional Well Plugging Wastes At Coal Refuse Disposal Area In Greene County [PaEN]
-- DEP: Conventional Well Plugging Operation Contaminates Spring In Allegheny County [PaEN]
-- The Derrick: PUC Judge Suspends Rhodes Estate Water Companies Litigation Schedule On Future Ownership [Fallout Continues From Conventional Oil Well Wastewater Spill In Venango County] [PaEN]
-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - August 16 [PaEN]
-- DEP Sets Sept. 17 Public Meeting/Hearing On Air Quality Permit For The Proposed 4.5 Gigawatt Natural Gas Power Plant At The Homer City A.I. Data Center Complex In Indiana County [PaEN]
-- DEP Invites Comments On Permit For 204 Aboveground Storage Tanks Totaling 1.3 Million Gallons At Proposed Amazon A.I. Data Center In Salem Twp., Luzerne County [PaEN]
-- DEP Posted 84 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In August 16 PA Bulletin [PaEN]
Related Articles This Week:
-- In Case You Missed It -- A.I./Data Center Articles & NewClips From Last Week [PaEN]
-- Senate Hearing: To Communities Facing Rapid A.I. Data Center Development: Review Your Zoning Ordinance NOW, Before It's Too Late To Have Meaningful Siting, Mitigation Conversations [PaEN]
-- Senate Hearing: DEP Primer: Recurring Challenges Of A.I. Data Centers: Frequent Site Plan Changes, Inconsistent Zoning, Outdated Sewage Facilities, Limited Community Outreach [PaEN]
-- Senate Hearing: Susquehanna River Basin Commission - A.I. Data Centers Have A Dramatic Demand For Water, And The Potential To Be Among The Largest Water Consumers In The Basin [PaEN]
-- PJM Announces Fast-Track Stakeholder Process To Seek Solutions For Connecting Large-Load A.I. Data Centers To The Electric Grid; Aug. 18 Workshop [PaEN]
-- PJM Interconnection Issues Hot Weather Alert For Aug. 17 In Entire Service Area; 22 Hot Weather Alert Days So Far This Summer [PaEN]
-- Green Building Alliance To Provide Green Professional Operations & Maintenance Training To Pre-K To 12 School Facility Teams [PaEN]
-- Green Building Innovation Expo Set for Sept. 2 In Pittsburgh; Free Exhibit Hall [PaEN]
-- Explosion At US Steel Clairton Coke [Coal] Works Kills 2, 10 Injured; Search For Answers Beings At 109-Year-Old Plant With A History Of Fatal Fires, Air Pollution Violations [PaEN] [Compilation Of Articles]
-- Rep. Vitali: PA House Environmental Committee Examines Costs And Environmental Impacts Of Burning Waste Coal In PA
NewsClips:
-- Courier Times: Energy Transfer/Sunoco Making More Pipeline Repairs In Upper Makefield Twp. Where A Previous Leak Contaminated Water Wells; Township Says It Didn’t Know [PDF of Article]
-- Pipeline Safety Trust: Federal Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Quietly Weakens Safety Rules
-- Environmental Health Project Blog: The Health And Safety Risks Of Natural Gas, Natural Gas Liquids Pipelines
-- ABC27: Project To Upgrade Several Natural Gas Pipelines Underway
-- PUC Highlights National 8-1-1 Day To Promote Safe Excavation, Worker Safety
-- Observer-Reporter Guest Essay: PA Has A Chance To Reduce Pollution, Save Lives By Reducing Oil & Gas Facility Air Pollution - By Talor Musil, Environmental Health Project [PDF of Article]
-- Spotlight PA: More PA Government Agencies Turning To A.I. - Critics Say That’s Risky [Possible DEP Pilot For Permit Reviews]
-- WHYY: Electricity Bills Are Going Up In The Philly Region; Who’s In Charge Of The Grid, Anyway?
-- York Dispatch: Sen. Keefer (R) Wants Data Center Applicants To Show Their Energy, Water Needs: ‘Electric Bills Will Go Up Due To Supply. Why Would We Subsidize That To Lure Them In?’ [PDF of Article]
-- Scranton Times - Chris Kelly Opinion: The Pros And Con Artists Of A.I. Data Centers; 3-Hour Senate Hearing Like A 'Sales Seminar For Oceanfront Condos In Oklahoma' [PDF of Article]
-- Republican Herald - Chris Kelly: If Ya Can’t Buy ‘Em, Threaten ‘Em [A.I. Data Centers] [PDF of Article]
-- Kleinman Center For Energy Policy Blog: Americans Just Got Scammed On Their Electricity Bills; President Promised To Cut Electricity Prices By Half Within 12 Months On Campaign Trail - By Elea Castiglione, Research Assistant
-- NYT: Big Tech’s A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills For Everyone
-- Post-Gazette/WPost: Electricity Prices Are Surging, Opening Up New Line Of Attacks Against Republicans
-- PUC Hearings On Proposed Rate Increase For Wellsboro Electric (22%), Valley Energy Gas (19%), Citizen Electric (11%)
-- TribLive Letter: PJM Electricity Capacity Auction Proves Markets Work - By Glen Thomas, Fmr Chair, PUC
-- US EIA: Natural Gas Prices To Increase 34% From $3.20 to $4.30 Next Year Due To Increase In LNG Gas Exports
-- Bloomberg: BKV Corp. CEO: Increase In LNG Gas Exports Will Drive Natural Gas Prices Up
-- Utility Dive - Commentary: Why Utilities Must Rethink Natural Gas Procurement For A High-Demand Future
[Posted: August 12, 2025] PA Environment Digest
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