Speakers at the rally organized by the Better Path Coalition, No False Climate Solutions PA, and 30 partner organizations focused on some of the issues that have caused considerable public concern.
Surveillance, affordability, impacts to health and the environment, impacts to agriculture, AI’s threats to intellectual property, and the future we are leaving to our children were among the concerns addressed.
Governor Shapiro and legislators were criticized for putting polluters before people via data center deals that were brokered outside of the public’s view.
The rally concluded with speeches on the state government’s failure to enforce Pennsylvania’s Green Amendment, Article 1, Section 27.
“Pennsylvania has had a Democracy problem for a long time. It’s the one thing that connects all of the issues I have worked on for nearly two decades,” said Karen Feridun, Co-Founder of the Better Path Coalition and No False Climate Solutions PA and the rally’s emcee. “Once again, our elected officials are leaping before they look to do the bidding of an industry.
“Governor Shapiro claims to have changed his position on data centers, but his recent Executive Order implementing his GRID initiative is all about making sure data centers are built, not taking the break the public is demanding to decide what role, if any, hyperscale data centers and generative A.I. should play in Pennsylvania.
Jeff Keyser, volunteer at MarchOnHarrisburg said-- “Weak, inadequate guardrails are not in proportion to the threats we are facing. They are not close to being good enough and we refuse to pretend they are.”
“The current push for data centers across the country is just another symptom of the problem of money in politics.”
Anneke van Rossum, Advocacy and Advancement Coordinator at the Delaware Riverkeeper Network said-- “The data centers we are seeing today are just part of the continuing plague inflicted on our environment and health. Data centers are relying on, using, and proliferating fossil fuels and fossil fuel infrastructure.”
“They are another toehold industry has found to not let go and push their dirty energy agenda.
“Rather than governments and private investors put money, time, and research into responsible renewable energy projects, they continue to put it into industries like data centers to continue a false narrative of needing fossil fuels to create economic growth.
“Fossil fuels are making people sick, making our planet sick. People lose family members, friends, and neighbors everyday because of fossil fuels.
“These are real people, not just statistics in a research paper. Data Centers are simply a water wasting and polluting industry POWERED by other water wasting and polluting industries, that are both making this planet we call home a wasteland”
Teofilo Reyes, Make the Road PA Organizing Director, said-- “The same billionaires profiting off of the violent separation of families are the billionaires fueling the rapid data center expansion that is driving Pennsylvania’s affordability crisis.”
Stuart Day, Ohio Valley Allies said-- “Our legislators face a clear choice in this moment: protect working-class Pennsylvanians or allow big tech and billionaires to continue destroying our communities.”
“The rapid expansion of hyperscale data centers in Pennsylvania feels disturbingly familiar to those of us who lived through the shale-gas boom: enormous promises, tremendous pressure on rural communities, and far too little consideration of the long-term consequences for farmers, families, land, water, and local economies.
“As both a Pennsylvania farmer and an investigative journalist who has spent years examining oil and gas, petrochemicals, and now data-center development, I believe A.I. and the infrastructure supporting it represent a transformative moment in human history—and decisions of that magnitude demand deliberation, transparency, and meaningful public participation.
“This development should not be foisted upon communities and landowners without independent economic and environmental analysis, strong oversight, enforceable protections, and an honest accounting of who receives the benefits and who carries the costs.
“Rural Pennsylvania has heard promises of salvation from outside industries before; we should have learned by now that something this consequential demands caution, wisdom, and a process with real teeth.”
Campaign Of Letters
The rally launched a Fall campaign of letters from specific constituencies, articulating the issues that have caused signers to oppose data center development.
The letters will be delivered to Governor Shapiro, state legislators, and all of the winners of the upcoming election.
Josephine Gingerich, Health Advocacy Outreach Coordinator at Physicians for Social Responsibility PA, led a delegation to Shapiro’s office to deliver a letter from 80 health professionals.
Constituents are invited to sign three other letters are from faith leaders, artists and other creatives, and parents and guardians.
All of the letters are open to signatures at No Data Centers PA.
Letters from other constituencies are already being planned.
“To a person of faith, a central question becomes, ‘When we make these additions to our communities, and they take away from the pool of water and energy available to their affected areas, how does that reflect on us as stewards of God’s creation?’” said Tom Hocking, Acting Chair of the Lancaster, PA Area Chapter of Climate Hope Affiliates, a group of multigenerational residents concerned about the kind of world we are leaving behind for future generations, and signer of the faith leader letter.
“How many incidents of people being crowded out by the gargantuan water and energy consumption of hyperscale data centers need to happen before we consider these irreversible trends and their effects on God’s people?”
“Across Pennsylvania, we’re watching people who never thought of themselves as activists show up at municipal meetings, form local groups, learn how decisions are made, and organize their neighbors,” said Hilary Flint, Program Director at Center for Organizing.
“More than 40,000 people have joined the Pennsylvania Data Center Resistance Facebook group, and we’re helping turn that groundswell of concern into organized action across the state.
“People understand that projects of this scale will shape their communities for decades, and they are saying no.
“This movement is growing, it is organized, and we will keep showing up because communities deserve more than a seat at the table. They deserve the power to say no to what gets built in their own backyards,”
“Here in Pennsylvania, we have a true and enforceable RIGHT to pure water, clean air and healthy environments. More than that, our government officials have a duty to respect and protect these rights,” said Maya van Rossum, Founder of Green Amendments For The Generations and the Delaware Riverkeeper.
“We are offended when our governor, legislators or local officials throw out our environmental rights - the rights specifically respected in our state constitution’s declaration of rights – as a throwaway talking point.
“Our environmental rights are clear and enforceable here in Pennsylvania. When our governor, legislators or local officials try to ignore or evade them, we will stand up and defend them.
“Why? Because we all need a clean, safe and healthy environment, whether farmer, manufacturer, beer maker, parent, child, teacher, worker or employer.”
“People across the nation are watching Pennsylvania to decide whether it is worth the effort to pass a constitutional Green Amendment like Pennsylvania has. We are here today to prove - along with all the victories against fracking, sewage sludge and toxic contamination already achieved - that if you care about data centers it surely is!” added van Rossum.
“All they have to fight with is money,” said Sam Burleigh, President and cofounder of Concerned Citizens of Montour County. “We have collective voices, elective powers, constitutional laws, and home field advantage. Together we can beat them! Unite and fight!”
“The tides are turning and working people are uniting against data centers and the oligarchs that push them,” said Parker Studebaker, Director of The Phoenixville Liberation Center.
Questions about the event should be directed to Karen Feridun, Better Path Coalition, betterpathpa@gmail.com or Maya K. van Rossum, Green Amendments For The Generations & the Delaware Riverkeeper, maya@forthegenerations.org.
NewsClips:
-- The Center Square: Disgust, Frustration, Concern Over A.I. Data Centers Unleashed In State Capitol
-- PA Capital-Star: A Call For Gov. Shapiro And State Lawmakers To Pass An A.I. Data Center Moratorium In PA
Related Articles This Week:
-- PUC Chairman Calls For Preemption Of Local Decisions On Needed Electric Generation Facilities; A Firm Bring Your Own Power Before Data Centers Connect To The Grid; PUC Study Identifies 21 Potential Generation Sites [PaEN]
-- Evangelical Environmental Network Action Celebrates PA House Passage Of Battery Storage Legislation With Bipartisan Support [PaEN]
NewsClips:
-- Tribune-Democrat: PA House Advances Bill Requiring Battery Storage For Electric Utilities To Increase Grid Reliability [Republicans Oppose]
-- PennLive/LehighValleyLive: In Pennsylvania, Residents Turn Down $10,000/Household In Hazle Twp., Luzerne County To Back An A.I. Data Center: ‘It’s Like Bribery’
-- PennLive/LehighValleyLive: Outmaneuvered, Outmatched And Outspent: How A.I. Data Centers Are Overwhelming Small-Town America
-- PennLive/LehighValleyLive: Play This A.I. Data Center Simulator To Step Into The Role Of Decision-Maker
-- PA Capital-Star: Some State Leaders Say Changes To PM’s Electric Grid Governance Aren’t Enough
-- Asset Leadership Network: Root Cause Of Energy Unaffordability In PA - Kabuki Theater In Public Utility Ratemaking - And Bad Decision Making - By Richard C. Culbertson, Senior Fellow
[Posted: October 7, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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