As data center proposals continue to emerge both locally and statewide, the state House of Representatives passed two data center bills from local legislators this month as part of a larger package aimed at regulating the controversial industry.
State representatives voted Monday to adopt both state Rep. Kyle Mullins’ House Bill 2150 requiring data centers to provide annual reports on water and energy consumption, as well as state Rep. Kyle Donahue’s House Bill 2151, which would establish an optional model data center zoning ordinance for municipalities to use for guidance. Mullins, D-112, Blakely, and Donahue, D-113, Scranton, co-sponsored each other’s bills. State Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp., also co-sponsored both bills.
Although the House bills still have to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate, both Mullins and Donahue discussed their legislation in the context of a legislative package intended to govern the industry rapidly expanding in their districts while reducing impacts on constituents.
The legislation comes as Lackawanna County communities navigate at least 13 proposed data center projects across Archbald, Clifton and Covington townships, Dickson City, Jessup, Newton Twp., Olyphant and Ransom Twp., though each proposal is at varying stages in the application and approval processes, with many of the campuses tied up in court and zoning. A data center developer also proposes at least three power plants in Dickson City and one in Archbald.
‘Reckless gold rush’
In remarks on the House floor Monday, Mullins described the inundation of data center campuses in the Midvalley, with nine proposals in his district, including six in Archbald alone.
“This is not some well thought out zoning, planning and economic development process,” Mullins said on the floor. “This is a reckless gold rush, and people are angry, overwhelmed, and they are watching.”
Mullins reiterated those remarks in an interview Friday.
“I’m painfully aware that our county, and my district in particular, is ground zero for this reckless gold rush that has been speculative data center exploration,” he said. “I think most people would agree with me that there are appropriate places for industry, but the number and density of potential projects in our hometowns is out of control and unacceptable.”
Seeing the proliferation of the industry, House Democrats quickly compiled a list of ideas to address data centers, leading to their legislative package, he said.
“That ultimately made it into legislative bill form that gained the input and support of nearly ever major environmental and conservation advocacy group,” Mullins said.
The legislative package was opposed by the Data Center Coalition, Mullins said. The coalition describes itself online as the voice of the data center industry, with members including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, OpenAI and Visa.
“You know you’re doing something right on behalf of residents and our environment and our resources when environmental advocates support something, and the industry opposes it,” Mullins said.
Known as the “Data Center Energy and Water Reporting Act,” H.B. 2150 establishes annual reporting guidelines for data centers and instructs state agencies to produce their own annual report.
According to the bill, starting July 1, 2027, and every July 1 thereafter, data centers would have to provide reports documenting:
• The name and address of the facility, including its nature or purpose.
• Total energy consumption for the previous calendar year, specified by month and energy source consumed.
• Estimated average energy usage per hour during peak load, measured in kilowatt-hours.
• Total water consumption for the previous calendar year, along with maximum daily demand specified by month, water source and whether the consumption was for cooling or other purposes.
• Measures undertaken to improve energy or water efficiency and reduce consumption.
• Measures undertaken to protect the environment and public from polluted water.
• Measures undertaken to generate electricity on or off site to reduce carbon emissions or impacts on the grid, specifying the energy source and any other potential future measures.
• Measures undertaken to recover waste heat.
• An estimation of projected water and energy demands for the following year.
If a data center fails to comply with the reporting requirements, it will be penalized $10,000 per day. The fines will go into a low-income electric customer assistance program.
As part of the bill, the state Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will publish their own annual report on water and energy consumption trends for data centers in the state, including environmental impacts and recommendations to address identified issues.
In addition to House Bills 2150 and 2151, state representatives voted March 24 to pass House Bill 1834cq comment=”cq” directing the PUC to establish a regulatory framework for data centers operating in the state, according to a House Democratic Committee bill analysis. Notably, it would prohibit electric distribution companies from using customers to pay for costs associated with the interconnection, service and load of data centers.Those include costs directly attributed to data centers’ electric service, or costs that otherwise would not have been incurred without a data center’s electricity demands, according to the analysis.
It also requires data centers with an annual peak load of at least 25 megawatts to contribute to a Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program account, paying $40,000 per megawatt of annual peak load. By comparison, 14-data-center Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus in Archbald proposes to use 1,600 megawatts. Local sponsors of the bill included Mullins, Donahue and state Rep. Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp.
Representatives also introduced House Bill 2359 on April 6, which would prohibit local and state governmental agencies from entering into nondisclosure agreements with data centers. Mullins, Donahue and Haddock are among the co-sponsors.
Though it has yet to be introduced, Mullins and Donahue are co-sponsoring a bill to give municipalities the option to enact a 180-day moratorium on all data center applications while they develop the proper ordinances and protections for their community, according to a sponsorship memo from state Rep. Paul Friel, D-26, Chester County.
The state Senate is also considering a statewide three-year moratorium on data centers. State Sen. Katie Muth, D-44, Berks/Chester/Montgomery counties, is sponsoring that legislation, which has yet to be introduced. State Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-40, Middle Smithfield Twp., announced her support of the moratorium as a co-sponsor in February.‘Best protection’
Municipalities in Pennsylvania must allow for every type of lawful land use somewhere within their borders, from power plants to landfills to data centers, and failing to do so exposes them to legal challenges over exclusionary zoning. Zoning ordinances are intended to encompass all uses, but when a new use arises, like data centers, local governments must amend their land-use legislation to regulate the new use. Otherwise, developers can challenge the zoning ordinance for excluding that use, seeking what’s known as a curative amendment to “cure” the defective zoning. By filing a curative amendment, landowners propose their own zoning amendment to accommodate the excluded use, effectively shifting a degree of control away from local government to the developer.
As data center proposals began to proliferate, local governments in Lackawanna County scrambled to update their zoning.
H.B. 2151 aims to give towns an optional model ordinance.
Discussions on the bill started around late summer or early fall as the data center industry really started to explode, Donahue said.
“Right now, the best protection that municipalities have, and residents have, is zoning to protect against the craziness of the data center explosion,” he said. “What we found is that a lot of municipalities don’t have either the expertise, and/or the resources, to really do a good zoning ordinance and to plan it the right way.”
The intent was to get the model ordinance out as quickly as possible to mitigate some of the impacts of data centers, he said. Donahue said he’s aware of municipalities in Pennsylvania spending $200,000-plus on attorneys and planning consultants to address data centers. With some towns having budgets of only a couple hundred thousand dollars, Donahue said they just don’t have the resources.
Although the bill does not have specific standards, it outlines provisions often incorporated in local data center zoning ordinances. Those include:
• Dimensional standards, including height and size limits.
• Placement standards based on compatible uses, including setback distances and residential zoning districts.
• Landscape buffers and screening.
• Documentation of water use, sewage use and the means of receiving electric supply service.
• A required water feasibility study demonstrating it will not adversely affect the quantity or quality of groundwater and surface water.
• Documentation of permitting for a data center’s water supply.
• Certification from an electric utility that it will serve the data center, and that it has the necessary electric capacity.
• Noise and vibration limits.
• A community benefits agreement that promotes local workforce participation in the site preparation and construction, including using registered apprenticeship programs and skilled construction labor.
The Local Government Commission will develop and publish the ordinance, soliciting input from the DEP, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Center for Local Government Services, environmental and natural resource conservation stakeholder groups, and representatives on behalf of municipalities, counties or authorities.
The ordinance would be updated annually. The Local Government Commission would be available to offer technical assistance upon request to municipalities, according to the bill. The commission is a bipartisan legislative service agency composed of five state senators and five state representatives, according to its website.
Some data center opponents, including the leadership of the Stop Archbald Data Center movement, raised concerns about the potential of the ordinance taking away local control by superseding municipal zoning.
Donahue said that was never the intention of the bill, but to tamp down those concerns, they added a paragraph to the legislation explaining, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to require municipalities or counties to adopt the model zoning ordinance in whole or in part.”
Legislators also shifted the creation of the ordinance from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to the Local Government Commission. Donahue acknowledged concerns from constituents over the ordinance being written by an economic development agency.
“My intent with this legislation was just to give municipalities what they needed,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure that they have resources that are useful and continue to be updated when they’re looking at the zoning considerations.”
‘Too dangerous’
Archbald resident Tamara Misewicz-Healey has become a face of data center opposition in her town, speaking out against developments at monthly meetings and cross-examining data center developers during public hearings. The mother of three founded Stop Archbald Data Centers with her husband, Justin, in October, with the group growing to more than 9,400 members on Facebook as of Friday.
The group raised more than $41,000 through an ongoing GoFundMe campaign to fund their legal fees, and Misewicz-Healey most recently presented the borough with a petition signed by 820 Archbald residents calling for the resignation or removal of multiple borough officials, accusing them of violating public trust over their dealings with data centers.
Facing the looming petition, three Archbald council members resigned Wednesday.
She lauded H.B. 2150’s reporting requirements.
“It’s a great bill,” she said. “Requiring reporting is an absolute must for sustainability and responsible planning and management.”
As data centers expand throughout the state, it is critical to monitor their consumption, she said. Misewicz-Healey also commended the bill’s inclusion of language on recovering waste heat.
By requiring data centers to report any measures to reduce water and electricity consumption, the state could provide incentives to reward data centers for implementing newer technology to reduce water and electric use, she said.
However, Misewicz-Healey remained wary over H.B. 2051. From early on, her group contacted legislators with two concerns: Who is writing the bill, and where would the legislation be housed?
The bill was originally supposed to be added to the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, which provides the legal framework for municipal zoning. If the bill became law and ended up in the MPC, Misewicz-Healey pointed to concerns it would supersede local zoning. The bill is now slated to amend Pennsylvania’s Title 53, known as the “General Local Government Code” governing municipalities.
“It’s the legal framework in authority for municipalities,” she said. “It’s not the place that optional resources go.”
She feared it could someday become mandatory, rather than optional. She also worried whether data centers could use the model ordinance as ammunition in court to challenge local zoning.
“A model ordinance could be a great thing, and I’m in support of one that is done responsibly and with the proper parties and input,” she said. “However, putting it within state raw statute is too dangerous.”
With their bills passing the House, Donahue and Mullins hope they have the same success when the Senate considers the legislation.
“I was pleased and surprised to receive a number of House Republican votes for both 2150 and 2151,” Mullins said. “Data centers are a growing concern in districts both red and blue, and I would urge Senate Republican majority leadership to be cognizant of the concerns in my community and their own.”
