Robinson said-- “Over the last year, and maybe even in the lead up, there was and has been a very decisive shift in public sentiment. I think it comes from a number of different places.
“I think there are very real concerns about the environmental impacts of these facilities that people have.
“I've been up to Archbald [Borough] in the Northeastern part of the state where there are five different data center campuses that have been discussed and proposed.
“If all of those were to be built out, there would be something like a thousand of these backup diesel generators operating potentially at the same time in a small kind of canyon community between two mountains.
“So you very much understand the concerns on the environmental side that people have and that those are real.”
Robinson acknowledged the Administration’s approach to data centers has “evolved along with public sentiment, and we've been working to develop a sort of response to make sure that Pennsylvania is getting benefit.
“If we are going to host some amount of these facilities, we want to make sure that it's being done responsibly, that Pennsylvania is benefiting, that our workforce is benefiting, that our local communities are getting benefit, and that there's transparency around all of the siting processes that are taking place.”
100 Proposals, 55 More Real, 16 Applied For Permits
“I just wanted to also note some high level numbers that I think are important. In my mind, we work down from the universe of everything that has been sort of whispered about in the night, has been talked about somewhere,” said Robinson.
"There's a crowdsourced platform that has anything anybody's talked about, has been reported in the press, no matter how real or speculative it may be.
“That universe is right around a hundred data centers that we're aware of that have been discussed in some form in Pennsylvania.
“Working down towards the more real kind of universe, we have around, I think the number's 55 data centers that have had some interaction at some level with the Department of Environmental Protection.
“That can be they came in for a very preliminary, we're kind of thinking about this thing.
“We don't have any financing, we don't have whatever. We don't even control the land, but we want to understand whether this is permittable.
“Getting towards the more real. There are 16 data centers in Pennsylvania that presently have applied for a permit and are working through that process.
“In that universe, at least in my mind, some will happen, probably some won't happen, but they've at least gotten to the point where they're applying for basic permits.
“And then there are two data centers in Pennsylvania that have basically gotten all of the permits issued at this point that they need in order to proceed with their first phase of development.”
Grid Proposal/Legislation
Robinson said their thinking on data centers evolved from the original Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) principles announced with the proposed budget in February.
“We then worked to develop the policy, took a lot of feedback in different areas, put out the policy as a sort of general statement, just describing it in late May. Read more here.
“We then introduced that as legislation in House Bill 2650. That legislation was passed by the House of Representatives with a bipartisan majority.” Read more here.
“Since then, the Senate has declined to act on it-- has not taken it up.”
“ I probably won't want to editorialize too much about the Pennsylvania Senate, but it's frustrating to us to know and that we put forward what we think are sensible solutions and they don't take action.
“The governor has said in recent days publicly that we're looking at all of our options to enforce the grid principles via executive authority.”
“So I won't get into too much of our future going plans other than to say we are really looking to make sure that these [GRID] standards are adhered to and should have more on that subject shortly.”
More Issues
In response to questions from the members of the Environmental Justice Advisory Board, Robinson addressed these other issues--
-- A Pause/Moratorium On Data Center Development: Asked about a pause or moratorium on data center development, Robinson said-- “Let me maybe just address it head on.”
“When we think about environmental permitting, when we think about business development, when we think about community impacts, when we think about all of the matrix of issues that you just described that any development project of any type has associated with it, we generally don't say, and DEP generally doesn't say, "This is the place where nothing can happen."
“What they say, what we think about in the environmental space is what are the risks of this activity and how can we address them to an acceptable level or reduce them to a point where they're possible to make the development happen?
“In some places, the sort of risks may be so significant that in order to address them to a level where we were comfortable with the development taking place, would cost too much for the project to happen.
“And generally then those developments don't move forward because the permitting-- the requirements-- become so significant that you don't site in that community.
“This is a big state. There are other parts of Pennsylvania where there is one house every square mile. And in those places, it may make sense for a facility to be sited. And nobody would care. None of the local community would be concerned.
“You've taken care of the energy demand, the costs, you're assigning those costs appropriately to the data center. There's plenty of water. There's nobody having concerns about it.
“And so we try to make rules that work for this whole Commonwealth. And people may disagree.
“We really do want to respect the local decision making that has a primary role in siting and zoning decisions.
“That is a local power that is retained and we believe should be retained here. But we don't want to say there's nowhere that this can happen.”
“We've been focused on trying to create rules that say, if it's going to happen in this type of community, you have to have local buy-in, you have to address the energy issues.
“You have to make sure that the water withdrawals are not going to impact the quality or quantity of the water sources. You have to do community benefits.
“All of these things that have been expressed as concerns, we try to make rules and say you have to do these things.”
-- Cumulative Impact Of Facilities: In response to a question about the cumulative impacts of these facilities on communities so they don’t become “sacrifice zones,” Robinson said on air quality impacts, in particular, it is “something that we’re looking at really closely.”
“We are requiring that data centers under the policy proposal the governor had in House Bill 2650, we would require that those data centers use the sort of lowest emission threshold of backup generation.
“And then we are also working over at DEP. We are working to make sure that they really have studied that question of cumulative impact.”
“I have asked specifically that DEP review their regulations on this exact question to make sure that for a community like Archbald, which I talked about earlier, that if maybe the first data center facility could be permittable, I'm not saying that that is going to happen or isn't, but if the first one's permitable, then what happens for the second one?
“Are they looking at that just in a sort of silo of its modeling? Or are they looking at that as a cumulative impact on top of the prior facility that was permitted?
“So we're looking at that closely.”
“I don't want to get out over my skis here too far, but as the governor has said publicly, we are looking at ways that we can enforce this through executive powers that the governor has.”
-- Nondisclosure Agreements: Asked if a ban on nondisclosure agreements will be included in the Governor’s executive actions, Robinson said-- “it’s something that we're looking at very closely and we'll have more to say about shortly.”
“I can say we haven't entered into an NDA since the budget address.
“No data centers have been entered into the Fast Track Program that our Office of Transformation & Opportunity administers. So this full year, no data center has been added to that list.
“And one was removed from Fast Track because they were unwilling to be as transparent as we wanted them to be with both our office and publicly. So the list has been going down, hasn't been going up, and we'll have more to say about NDAs shortly.”
-- When Local Officials Don’t Represent The Community: Asked about how to address a situation where local officials make a data center deal where the community didn’t have a say in the deal, Robinson acknowledged there may be circumstances where elected officials don’t represent the community or specific parts of the community-- “We know that happens a various places.”
He said the system relies on local decision makers “and if folks don’t like them, vote the bums out.”
“I've mentioned Archbald [Borough] a couple of times, a community that I'm very familiar with.
“In 2023, they adopted a local zoning ordinance that was very permissive to data centers.
They were trying to attract them. They wanted the economic development.
“Flash forward three years, there's nobody on that borough council that voted for that overlay. They all have been voted out and that's the process.
“And they're living with the consequences of those votes and people are very upset about it, but that is kind of the best process that we've got.
“What we're trying to do is make sure that as much information is out and in the public view so that as the local elected officials are making these decisions, which are hard, which are new to them, we're all getting up to speed on the impacts and sort of implications of data centers.
“But we are pushing to have as much of that information out there. That's through public meetings, that's through requirements that they post information about who the actual owner of the facility, who's developing it, all those things.”
“So I don't have an easy answer to that question because I don't think it's an easy question. It's one that's complicated.
“And I think the best thing that we've figured out to do is to rely on the local decisionmakers who are closest to it.”
Robinson noted one example of an extremely controversial data center development in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County where hundreds of people attended public meetings against the facility.
He said Gov. Shapiro comment on that situation was-- “Hell no!” [The complete quote was-- “This is the exact wrong way to do development here in Pennsylvania, I’m a ‘hell no.” Read more here.]
“The process is playing out through information being out there and people are showing up and voting with their feet,” said Robinson.
Conclusion
Robinson concluded his part of the meeting by saying-- “We welcome [your] thoughts and try and encompass them and balance these equities that I've talked about on this call as we're developing policy and trying to both be responsive to public sentiment, be protective of the environment, be protective of communities, and also put people to work and get economic development into the state.
“So I hope you understand. I hope this sort of brief snapshot that I'm able to share at least gives you the understanding that people of, hopefully you would think Goodwill, are thinking deeply about these issues and trying to be protective and again, balance those different equities that are involved.”
Visit DEP’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board webpage for more information on the Board and DEP’s Environmental Justice Permit Review Policy.
Questions should be directed to Fernando Treviño, Special Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, by calling 717-783-7753 or sending email to: FTrevinoMa@pa.gov.
Resource Links:
-- Gov. Shapiro Releases Full Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development Standards (GRID) For A.I. Data Centers; New Local Government Data Center Planning Toolkit [PaEN]
-- A.I. Data Center Legislative Scorecard: Pennsylvania Failed To Finalize Meaningful Legislation On Energy Affordability, To Increase Electric Generation And Give Communities The Tools They Need To Cope With A.I. Proposals [PaEN]
-- Concerned Citizens Of Montour County: Data Center Developer Wants To Make It Harder For Citizens To Appeal Zoning, Permits; DCED Secretary Explains More On How They Want New GRID Principles To Work [PaEN]
-- Montour County: What A.I. Data Center Developers Don’t Like In Zoning Ordinances: Decommissioning Safeguards For When Their Tech Becomes Obsolete; No Noise Limits On Diesel Generators; No Property Value Impact Studies [PaEN]
-- Gov. Shapiro Announces Amazon Plans To Invest $20 Billion In Pennsylvania For A.I. Data Center Infrastructure; Amazon Told PUC It Has Net-Zero Carbon Emissions Goal By 2040 [PaEN]
[Posted: August 12, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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