The efforts of DEP to improve permit review times and eliminate the backlog of permit applications were praised by several members of the Appropriations Committee.
Other questions and comments at the hearing focused on the surge in A.I. data center development; the conversion of warehouses into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers; and how energy storage can add electricity capacity to the grid.
There was also a discussion of the momentum Pennsylvania now has in reducing nutrients and sediment pollution going to the Chesapeake Bay.
Click Here for DEP’s written budget testimony.
Here is a summary of key exchanges at the hearing.
-- Improvements In Permit Review Times: Sen. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster), Majority Chair of the Committee, noted “Over the last couple of years we have made significant strides in improving the permitting process in the Commonwealth,” and asked for “metrics” showing those improvements.
Secretary Shirley said, “Generally, the timelines shrink. But I would say we've seen the biggest improvements where permits have historically come in that are incomplete. So, complete permits, we've always said complete permits make the permitting process go a lot faster.”
Ramez Ziadeh, P.E., DEP Executive Deputy Secretary, said between 2017 and 2022--
-- Chapter 102 Permit review times dropped nearly 20% from 148 business days to 119;
-- General NPDES Water Quality Permit dropped over 20% from 131 to 104 days;
-- Title V Air Quality Permits dropped over 61% from 453 to 174 days; and
-- Dam Safety Permits dropped nearly 60% from 518 to 228 days.
Secretary Shirely also noted the SPEED (Streamlining Permits For Economic Expansion and Development) Permit Program, a legislative initiative, that allows applicants to choose approved private consultants to review their applications with DEP has 13 permit applications pending and so far resulted in three permits being issued by DEP since it began in June 2025.
She also noted DEP eliminated the backlog of 2,402 permits and met the PAyback decision deadlines on more than 40,000 permit applications last year.
-- The Elephant In The Room - A.I. Data Centers: Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester) asked-- “May I start with the elephant in the living room that is data centers?
“I used to call Marcella Shale the Pennsylvania Gold Rush. Well, these data centers are the new Pennsylvania gold rush, and it is all happening more quickly than anyone had imagined.
“And we're all trying to keep up and catch up with what's going on.
“And there are a lot of questions, a lot of concerns that I hear every day from my constituents and that I know we all share.
“There's legislation introduced, the governor has proposed his GRID initiative.
“Meanwhile, projects are moving through the municipal zoning and approval process in my district and across the Commonwealth. So we need to move quickly.”
“First question, what do you see as the largest energy and environmental impacts associated with data centers?”
Secretary Shirley responded by saying, “I think just to level set, the Department permits really big things every single day.
“So the activity of earth moving air permits, it's really no different than if we were to permit another site of the same size and scale.
“The thing that makes data centers particularly unique are that they require some sort of cooling technology.
“So in I would say older data centers, we saw that being water, meaning water withdrawals. There are newer technologies that use significantly less water, but still require some water usage.
“But I think the biggest thing that the governor announced in the budget address his plan that he would like to incentivize data centers who want to site in Pennsylvania to be required to bring their own energy to the site, to be able to have the state benefits that have been proposed.
“And those state benefits include not just the tax incentives, but also some of the permitting incentives that we talked about earlier, like fast track and those types of opportunities.
“So I think that the two biggest things would be water usage and electricity generation and energy needs.”
Sen. Comitta followed up by asking-- “These are all important aspects, but there's no mention of public health. And I know that in talking with constituents and reading about residents' concerns about a data center in their backyard, there are many, many concerns.
“But from the aspect of public health and personal health, the noise. There is a continuous noise.
“And as you know, I'm also always concerned about light pollution, and I have not read anything about that yet but I can imagine that that's a factor that could be handled relatively easily if it were requested. So we don't need to talk about that at the moment.
“But where does public health come in? I know we're talking about local communities and the impacts and so on, but there's no mention of public health.”
Secretary Shirley responded "Yeah, that's a tough one. So when it comes to public health, I can tell you that the majority of Pennsylvania's environmental standards are based on public health.
“So when we do our permitting, they're based on regulations that are typically based on some sort of public health criteria, particularly when it comes to air quality.
“So with environmental permitting, there is some consideration for public health.
“When it comes to noise though, that's really a local issue.
“We do not regulate anything really related to noise. It's something that we have had many conversations about in particular with regard to oil and gas development.
“But we do not have authorities related to noise.”
“So that's actually part of what the governor is getting to with his GRIDS Plan is providing some resources to local municipalities.”
“So we would like to almost create a best management practices or a menu.”
-- For A Data Center Permit Moratorium: Sen. Rosemary Brown (R-Lackawanna) offered an extended comment to Secretary Shirley on permitting A.I. data centers she said are targeting her district--
“You briefly mentioned before that we are going to treat these [data centers] the same way we treat other large-scale developments, but they're not the same.
“They're not the same. The water usage, the energy usage, we're even talking about possible power [sources]. We don't know how we're going to permit that [portable] nuclear [power plant]. We don't know...
“And those are the words [I don’t know] that I continually see here.
“And not to anybody's fault, but to the simple fact of the last year I've been trying to get answers for myself, and for the state, and for the people of my district that have proposals all across up and down the district.
‘And I haven't been able to get them definitively, consistently, accurately.
‘There's non-disclosure agreements that hold back information, which I don't think are appropriate.
“So there's a very big concern. But I believe alongside the Governor's Office of Transformation and the SPEED permitting tract, it appears that there's eight projects that have been selected for expedited review, and all but two are large scale data centers, including Project Hazelnut, which is in Lazerne County, not in my district.
“A 1,300 acre proposal is slated to utilize up to 2.8 [million] gallons of water per day.
“We're over here expediting, fast-tracking a project that we don't have all the answers for.
“We may know, we could know, we should know. I have questions about this.
“I have very serious concerns, and it's because of the lack of definitive information that I've received.
“I have now supported a [data center permit] moratorium for the simple reason we need the answers to be responsible.”
“I am the chairwoman of the Senate's Community Economic and Recreational Development Committee.
“Obviously, I know economics are very important. I understand the energy piece, I understand all of this, as do many of us. It is a priority.
“But it is not a priority over the safety and the well-being of our resources and our utilization of resources and the residents in other capacities.
“And I don't think the mentality of fast tracking on something that's moving so fast is really the smartest, and one agency within the Governor's Office, Office of Transformation, should not be the deciding factor on this.”
Secretary Shirley responded by saying, “I will agree with you that the Northeast, our Regional Office is very inundated right now.
“And that Dean Ritter, our Assistant Regional Director, is really doing a ton of work right now just managing these fast-track projects.
“I think the criteria that OTO, at least partially, looks at is the amount of economic development potential of the project. So they are large.
“They tend to be larger projects in certain areas of the state that can provide huge economic benefits to the region.
“I will just reiterate though, when it comes to siting, the department doesn't have any say in siting.
“It is in the local jurisdiction’s hands to decide whether or not they want this type of development in their backyards.
“Part of what the Governor's GRID plan would do is provide a model ordinance for municipalities that maybe don't have zoning.
“Should they use it, should they want it, they would have that available to them to make that decision.”
-- Prejudicing State Permit Decisions On Immigrant Warehouse Detention Centers For ICE: Sen. Jarrett Coleman (R-Bucks) expressed a strong concern that statements by Gov. Shapiro and a letter signed by several state agencies, including DEP, amounted to compromising the due process of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a potential permit applicant before DEP.
Sen. Coleman said, “[In] Court Prin v. Council of Monroeville, it was established that when a public official publicly prejudges an application due process is compromised.
“In that case, the decision-maker's advanced statements opposing the matter created an unconstitutional appearance of bias.
“Due process requires that decision-makers evaluate permit applications based solely on the record and established statutory criteria, not predetermined conclusions or external political pressures.
“The February 12th, 2026 letter cosigned by you in your capacity as DEP secretary asserted that the proposed DHS facilities cannot be permitted, and will violate legal requirements, and that the Commonwealth will not issue required permits.”
“How does DEP reconcile these statements with due-process obligations requiring neutral evaluations of the applications when they're submitted?”
Secretary Shirley responded by saying, “I think the letter outlines the concerns that we have about the Department of Homeland Security adding huge population increases to these very small towns almost overnight without appropriate sewage plans or safe-drinking-water plans.
“So when a new development is built anywhere in the state of Pennsylvania, we make sure that there is appropriate sewage capacity.
“I think that your region has had some significant issues with this, and that's why we have sewage planning, because planning is done before permitting.”
“I think that letter is outlining the concerns that the Department of Homeland Security needs to make sure that they are adequately planning,
“We would [also] look at the capacity of the receiving waters, and the capacity of the local municipality to be able to provide water and sewage resources to the number of beds, or number of folks that they plan to house in those facilities.
“It doesn't matter if it's DHS or if it's any other entity.”
“If the local infrastructure is not there, we would not permit it.
“So having the conversation with the Department of Homeland Security, and letting them know that the infrastructure is not there, the resources are not there, I actually think is kinder than letting them submit a permit that would then later just be denied.”
Secretary Shirley noted in a follow-up exchange with Sen. Coleman, "They're currently permitted sewage capacity for a warehouse, which is used to hold boxes, which is a lot different than 7,500 people when it comes to sewage needs.”
“We know that there is not capacity in that community to provide drinking water or sewage for an additional 7,500 people.”
-- Energy Storage Could Significantly Boost Available Electricity Supplies: In response to a question from Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) on the role of energy storage in helping to expand renewable energy and provide additional electricity capacity for the grid, David Althoff, Director of DEP’s Energy Programs Office said--
“I tend to think of energy storage as flexibility, the ability to flex our load, the ability to provide electrons into the grid when the grid is most stressed.
“And I think that's sort of the value, both of storage, but also what they call demand response.
“I think those are opportunities whereby when we have investment that is coming into the state specifically with regards to data centers or other folks who are developing energy projects in Pennsylvania, they should very much be thinking about how to then provide [them].”
Other States Are Ahead
“What we're seeing in other jurisdictions around us is that they are deploying a lot of storage and it's helping to keep prices low because they're able to sort of modulate the amount of energy that is essentially being put into the grid for when it is most stressed.
“I think a great example of this is Texas, right? Texas has over 14,000 megawatts of storage deployed right now. PJM, all of PJM only has 328 megawatts.
“I mean, we always compare ourselves to California. California has less than Texas right now. New York, just the state of New York above us has 210 megawatts of storage.
“Pennsylvania alone only has 35 [megawatt]. So we're behind in this game.”
We’re Not Running All Of Our Generation
“And I think what's interesting is that, so while we're the number one exporter of electrons, we are not running all of our assets as much as they could be run.
“We could be storing those electrons almost every day when prices are low and then redeploying them when prices are high.
“I would say to you that while we're talking about resource adequacy and in times scarcity with regards to how we're forecasting our energy demands and what we may need, we are actually not that far away from energy abundance.
“We have a lot of generation capacity in Pennsylvania that is not being used all the time.
“We're not using all of our grid all of the time.
“So imagine if we could take our total capacity factor from 50% or 60% and raise that just to 70%, we would be using our assets more, deploying more power.
“And actually those less cost electrons, so those ones in the middle of the night when we're generating less power because we're all sleeping, we should be storing.
“When we are having opportunities where it's a bright sunny day or the wind is blowing, or where we have lots of water flowing through our hydroelectric facilities, we should be storing those electrons.
“And so I think that that is part of sort of the flexibility that we need to imagine into our system.
“I think it's what potentially data centers bring to us from the standpoint of investment.
“They can not only invest in generation, they can invest in capacity, invest in capacity in our communities that wind up deploying community energy projects whereby folks then can lower their electricity bills because they're using resources that are at hand within our communities.
“Plus we're using our infrastructure, our transmission infrastructure to be able to continue to deliver on essentially the products that we've been delivering to our neighboring states for years and years and years.”
Batteries Don’t Care Where They Get Power
“Batteries don't care where the electrons come from. It can gather electrons from all the above.
“From the standpoint of new generation opportunities that we have here in Pennsylvania, whether that be geothermal or be small modular reactors or it'd be more solar and more wind, certainly we want to gather those free electrons.
“So photons from the sun and the wind and gravity, which is essentially what hydropower is, right?
“Or the heat beneath our feet, from the standpoint of geothermal.
“So I think that the electrons do not matter and the batteries don't care where they come from. I think the idea here is just to be flexible.
“And I am just now talking about sort of in front of the meter batteries.
“There's a whole different world to be tapped into regards to behind the meter batteries, the things that we're using in our homes, which can be sort of considered to be thermal batteries, your hot water heaters, the space conditioning within your homes, other batteries that may be deployed behind the meter together with somebody's solar array.
“There's an ability now with data and what data centers are bringing to us to be able to optimize our use of the grid and do it with precision.
“And that's ultimately what we're looking at from the standpoint of time of use, time of day.
“Because our energy demands change every day. They're high in the morning when folks are getting up and going to work and doing those types of things and they're high in the evening when you get home and you're doing your cooking and drying your clothes and running your washing machine.
“That happens every day. And so there's times during the day when power costs more because of demand and when power costs less.
“And certainly what really drives our power costs is those 300 hours a year whereby it's 90 degrees or more, or it's a very, very cold week-long event we just had.
“And as we add generation to the stack, it gets more and more expensive and ultimately we pay for that.”
Reducing Pollution From PA’s Part Of Chesapeake Bay Watershed: Sen. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster), Majority Chair of the Committee and a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, asked Secretary Shirley-- “What measurable outcomes can DEP share from Clean Streams fund investments to date, such as nutrient reductions, stream miles restored or acres treated, and how do those compare to Chesapeake Bay restoration targets?”
He noted-- “As a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, as you are, as well as Senator Yaw, we've all worked together to emphasize that Pennsylvania's water quality efforts benefit all citizens, not just the Chesapeake Bay.
“While the Bay is a beneficiary, our focus has always been on improving water quality statewide.
“Working also with Senator Laughlin, we successfully established the Clean Streams Fund, which has already delivered measurable improvements through programs like ACAP [Agriculture Conservation Assistance Program], helping farmers implement best management practices and strengthening stream health across the Commonwealth.”
Secretary Shirley responded by saying-- “I'm glad that you highlighted all of Pennsylvania when it comes to water quality.
“We recently released our draft Integrated Water Quality Report for 2026, which shows the state of water bodies all over Pennsylvania and, new for this year, we are actually proposing to delist the Presque Isle Bay, which you know is in Senator Laughlin's district."
"I think we're also proposing to delist the Conestoga, which is in your district."
"The Conestoga River is showing the greatest overall total nitrogen improvement in the state."
"We focus our investments to areas where we think we will get the biggest benefits instead of a scattershot approach to where we provide funding and implement projects.
“We look at the basins where we think that we will get the most value with benefits, and then we actually have a funding partners group, because we're not the only ones that have funding.
"We have federal partners, NRCS [Natural Resource Conservation Service], EPA, Fish and Boat Commission, and we get those funding partners together, and we say, here's the area that we want to focus.
“And we have this rapid delisting process where we focus on a watershed to improve that watershed.
"So specific to the [Chesapeake] Bay though, where we do have a lot of metrics and data from 2019 to 2024.
"So take that five year timeline. We reduced 10 times the amount of nitrogen that we did the previous 10 years before, which I think shows that what we're doing, the investments that we're making, the partnerships that we've created at the local level, they're really working.
Sen. Martin asked-- "Where do you see the greatest implementation challenges, whether they're in agricultural BMP adoption, stormwater planning, or abandoned mine drainage? And what strategies are being considered to overcome these barriers?
Secretary Shirley responded-- "Out of those three, definitely the stormwater planning. I think we've got some really good federal funding to handle some of the abandoned mine drainage.
“I think we've got a great funding source for agricultural BMPs [best management practices], but stormwater planning does continue, I think, to present challenges for local communities who might be looking at how they have to raise funds to implement these things.”
Click Here to watch a video of the hearing.
Click Here for DEP’s written budget testimony.
Visit the Senate Budget Hearing webpage for more information on the hearings.
Sen. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster) serves as Majority Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and can be contacted at 717-787-6535 or send email to: smartin@pasen.gov. Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted at 717-787-7112 or send email to: vincent.hughes@pasenate.com.
Resource Links:
-- DEP FY 2026-27 Legislative Budget Document
-- Major Challenges Faced By DEP’s Oil And Gas Enforcement Program In 2026
-- Quinnipiac University Poll: 68% Of Pennsylvanians Oppose Building An A.I. Data Center In Their Community
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[Posted: February 26, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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