For a long time, Pennsylvania looked like it was rolling out the red carpet for the massive data centers that power the modern internet and artificial intelligence boom. Governor Josh Shapiro had encouraged developers to come build in the Keystone State, promising a fast-track permitting system that would make it easier than ever to get giant projects off the ground. All of that changed recently in a bold and surprising reversal. Shapiro signed an executive order that places strict new conditions on any data center hoping to set up shop in Pennsylvania, and he didn’t mince words about why. He said he had been hearing from residents who were worried about noise, water use, air pollution, and the skyrocketing cost of electricity, and he decided those concerns could no longer be brushed aside. The new order sets four minimum standards: companies must pay for their own energy infrastructure so ratepayers aren’t stuck with the bill; they must keep noise, air pollution, and water use to a minimum; they must hire local workers; and they must give back to the community through legally binding benefit agreements negotiated with local officials. If a town doesn’t formally accept those terms, the state will stand behind the town in blocking the project entirely. On top of that, Shapiro yanked all data center proposals out of the fast-track permitting program and banned nondisclosure agreements, meaning developers can no longer hide the details of their plans from the public. It’s a dramatic shift from his earlier position, but the governor says that’s because the people of Pennsylvania made their voices heard.
The change comes at a moment when communities across the country are wrestling with the explosive growth of data centers. In western Pennsylvania, the tension is playing out in Big Beaver, a small borough where a Las Vegas developer wants to convert a sprawling 400-acre abandoned racetrack into a massive complex with three buildings and about 600,000 square feet of data center space. To the developer, it sounds like a win: turning a decaying piece of land into something modern and economically vibrant. But the people who actually live there see it differently. They worry about the constant hum of cooling fans, the enormous amounts of water needed to keep servers from overheating, the pollution from diesel backup generators, and the possibility that their monthly electric bills will climb just to feed machines located in their backyard. The borough’s planning committee is set to review the proposal from Switch Data Centers, and local towns are scrambling to write rules that will give them some control over what is being built and how. Under Shapiro’s new executive order, residents would have far more power to stop or reshape projects like this one, because developers can no longer hide behind secrecy or ignore community concerns. That’s a meaningful shift in the balance of power, and it reflects a growing mood across the United States that data centers shouldn’t be allowed to operate like uninvited guests with unlimited access to cheap power and resources.
Pennsylvania isn’t the only place where the mood has soured. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a one-year moratorium on new data center development, hitting the pause button while state officials study the impacts on the grid, the environment, and local communities. Texas Governor Greg Abbott likewise ordered a pause on data center projects pending an audit, a remarkable step in a state that usually prides itself on welcoming giant industrial development with open arms. Even as these leaders pump the brakes, however, there’s a powerful pushback from people who say the panic is overblown. President Trump has promoted what he calls the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” an agreement developers sign to cover the cost of the new power generation and transmission infrastructure needed to support their centers, so that everyday residents and businesses don’t end up subsidizing wealthy tech companies. Trump and other supporters have also touted the benefits of data centers: thousands of construction jobs, permanent maintenance jobs, increased tax revenue for local governments, and even property tax cuts for homeowners because of the new revenue streams. There’s also a national security angle that supporters emphasize constantly. America and China are in an intense race to dominate artificial intelligence, and data centers are the physical backbone of that race. If the United States slows down development, the argument goes, it risks falling behind Beijing in a competition that will shape the military, the economy, and global power for decades. Supporters also push back on environmental claims, saying that many fears are based on faulty data or exaggerated worst-case scenarios, and that modern data centers are becoming more efficient, using more renewable energy and less water than ever before.
For anyone trying to understand what data centers actually mean for a community, there’s no better example than Loudoun County, Virginia, often nicknamed “Data Center Alley.” This one county, located just outside Washington, D.C., is home to roughly 250 data centers, and it has become one of the wealthiest counties in the entire country. That might sound surprising if you only hear the complaints, but the numbers tell a remarkable story. The typical homeowner in Loudoun County receives about $5,800 a year in tax benefits because data centers have lowered the property tax rate while providing an enormous share of the county’s revenue. Data centers now supply about half of the county’s property tax revenue, and officials say that for every dollar the county spends on services for these facilities, it gets back $26 in tax dollars. The projected revenue from taxes on data center property and computer equipment is expected to hit $1.3 billion next year, which would account for four out of every ten dollars the county takes in. Those billions haven’t disappeared into some black hole, either. The money has helped build a stunning $102 million recreation center with pools and hydro-massage chairs, paid for a $22 million transformation of President James Monroe’s estate into a public park, funded the construction of two new schools with a third on the way, and expanded fire departments, emergency services, roads, bridges, and recreational facilities. The county also points to 15,000 jobs directly tied to the industry. It’s no wonder many local residents in Loudoun see data centers not as a threat, but as an engine of prosperity that has quietly made life better for everybody.
The jobs story goes even deeper, and it’s worth understanding for anyone who thinks data centers are just huge concrete boxes with no lasting value. According to an opinion piece in the New York Times, a decade ago the members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 in the Washington, D.C., region worked about 14 million hours a year. By 2025, that number had doubled to 28 million hours, and in 2026 it’s expected to climb past 33 million hours. That is real, good-paying, middle-class work that didn’t exist before the data center boom. And it’s not a one-time construction splash. Data centers are not built once and then forgotten. They are built in phases over many years, and they are constantly upgraded, expanded, reconfigured, and maintained as technology evolves. Servers become obsolete; new processors run hotter and need better cooling; artificial intelligence workloads demand more computing power and more storage. All of that means a steady stream of local, long-term employment for electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, engineers, security personnel, and many others. In Northern Virginia, the growth of data centers has effectively become an industrial policy for creating durable careers that don’t require a four-year degree. The same could happen in Pennsylvania and elsewhere if the balance can be struck between welcoming development and protecting the interests of the people who already live there. The key question is not whether data centers should exist, but how they can be made to coexist with communities instead of rolling over them.
In the end, Pennsylvania’s new approach is something of a middle ground between all-out embrace and outright refusal. Shapiro did not follow New York and Texas into a moratorium or pause, and that’s meaningful. He essentially said that data centers are welcome, but only if they behave like good neighbors and share the benefits they create. The industry will have to adapt to a world where secrecy is no longer acceptable, where community agreements are legally binding, and where the costs of new power plants and grid upgrades land on the developers, not on ordinary families. There is a legitimate debate to be had. Some of the opposition to data centers is fueled by genuine and reasonable worries, and some of it, according to industry supporters, is fueled by misinformation, with supporters even claiming that foreign adversaries have a hand in spreading confusing narratives to slow down American AI dominance. Whatever the case, the rise of data centers is one of the defining economic and political stories of this decade. They make it possible to stream a movie, use a navigation app, do online banking, hail a ride, chat with an AI assistant, and soon they will underpin breakthroughs in medicine, defense, and beyond. As of April, there were more than 3,000 operational data centers in the United States, with over 1,500 more in development, and McKinsey projects that the industry will require nearly $7 trillion in capital investment worldwide by 2030. That kind of growth can’t be ignored. The real challenge for leaders like Shapiro is to channel that enormous force in a way that brightens communities, eases energy burdens, creates rewarding work, and keeps the nation competitive, all without leaving ordinary residents behind. It won’t be easy, but Pennsylvania’s executive order may just be a blueprint for how to have that fight honestly, out in the open, with wins on both sides rather than a winner-take-all scramble.