By Bill Vitale, host of Building Green on BCTV
In early August, Bill Vitale, host of Building Green on BCTV, talked with Flora Cardoni, Deputy Director at Penn Environment, a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization, about data centers — what they are, why they’re being proposed now at the scale and frequency we’re seeing, who benefits, and why they’re worrisome — and about PennEnvironment’s work on this issue. What follows is a distillation of the two-part interview, which can be viewed on BCTV’s YouTube channel (linked below).
Data centers, or more precisely what has come to be known as hyperscaled data centers, are now all over the news. They’re being proposed at a mind-boggling scale and at an alarming rate. State and local governments are scrambling to figure out how to deal with these centers that require acres and acres of land as well as huge amounts of electricity and water to operate. Publicity campaigns are in place promoting how great they are, politicians are taking sides, a wide array of policy prescriptions are being proposed, and public opposition is growing.
Quoting Dan Howells, Green America Climate Campaigns Director, “The boom in data center construction isn’t happening without help. Private investments and state tax incentives are fueling development while the current (Trump) administration has asserted its desire to prioritize facilitating the rapid and efficient buildout of data center infrastructure by easing Federal regulatory burdens.”
Donald Trump has just signed executive orders to accelerate federal permitting and repurpose federally owned and public lands for large artificial intelligence and tech data centers, aiming to bypass slow environmental reviews that were put in place to protect us and our natural resources. His administration has advanced projects on federal sites — including a massive Department of Energy campus in Kentucky and Bureau of Land Management property in Nevada — while launching a voluntary “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” to shield consumers from surging electricity costs. Meanwhile, it can be a confusing mess for anyone not steeped in the issue.
Bill V: I’d like to set the stage by quoting from a recent posting by Food and Water Watch, one of the organizations working on this issue. I think it’s a good summary of where we are. “The rapid expansion of data centers across the United States, driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto booms, presents one of the biggest environmental, economic, and social challenges of our generation. Before the AI boom, fossil fuels were warming our climate and threatening our food, water, and public health. This frenzy is exponentially increasing demand for energy, expanding dirty energy and its pollution. It’s also straining our water resources and raising our electricity bills. The exploding demand is driving families’ power bills to new heights and entrenching dirty energy. The Trump administration is extending the lives of dying coal plants for data centers. Meta recently announced jaw-dropping deals to buy nuclear power amid the AI boom. Elon Musk set up dozens of gas turbines to fuel his AI data center, spewing pollution into a predominantly Black neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee.”
“Data centers are also straining precious water supplies that we depend on for drinking. As of 2023, nearly 80% of the water consumed by Google’s U.S. AI data centers came from drinking water sources. Data centers demand a lot of water for cooling — and yet, companies are building them in already water-stressed areas.”
Add to this information from a variety of news sources: Between 4,000 and 5,000 data centers are actively humming in the U.S. right now. At least 3,000 more data centers are under construction or planned, prompting a diverse grassroots mobilization against their construction. Electricity near major data center hubs costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago, and data centers alone consume 4% to 5% of all U.S. electricity. In Virginia, where about 14% of the world’s data centers operate, the electricity share already exceeds 25%. (from Washington Post, In These Times, Quartz, and Penn Live).
Bill V: Flora, what does PennEnvironment do and what is your role at the organization? What is Penn Environment’s overall take and position with regard to data centers and hyper data centers?
Flora C: PennEnvironment is a statewide, citizen-based, environmental advocacy non-profit. We work to make sure everyone has clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, protected public lands to enjoy, and a safe climate powered by clean, renewable energy to call home. In short, we have one mission: to protect the natural world. At PennEnvironment, we’re concerned about data centers from a few angles. Data centers are huge energy hogs that suck up a ton of water and pollute our air and climate.
One of the biggest threats we see is that increasing energy demand, which data centers will only worsen, will likely be met with dirty, polluting fossil fuels like coal and gas. We’ll all suffer if we keep dirty coal plants online or rush to build new, polluting gas plants for uncertain data center demand. It’s bad for our health, and it’s bad for our planet. Instead of overinvestment in fossil fuels, policymakers should prioritize no-regrets strategies like energy efficiency and renewable energy to meet rising energy demand in Pennsylvania and around the country.
At the same time, we need to consider how much of this data center growth is actually necessary in the first place. And that piece is critical. Lawmakers should be asking, “How many data centers does Pennsylvania really need? How can we ensure to not overbuild?”
Given these concerns and challenges, PennEnvironment is in favor of a data center moratorium until environmental and consumer concerns are figured out.
To help make sure Pennsylvanians know about the environmental risks associated with data centers, the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center has released a series of reports and studies to help inform the public. Viewers will be able to see those on BCTV.org and at PennEnvironment.org.
Bill V: What are data centers?
Flora C: Large buildings that house computer servers, data storage systems, and other tech. They can be used for a variety of purposes: storing data (ie., the cloud, backing up servers), training AI, and the backbone of the internet: streaming Netflix, sending emails, and big data analytics.
Bill V: What about hyperscale?
Flora C: Most new, large data centers could be called “hyperscalers” because they are so much bigger than older data centers. It’s not a strict definition, but pretty much anything over 100 MW capacity. I would say that the environmental/health concerns of data centers, which we’ll get into today, do apply to the smaller ones too, but it’s just that these large ones really amplify those problems.
Bill V: Why do they exist? Why the push to build these? To feed AI? For consumers like you and me? Why are Meta, Google, and Amazon so determined to build these facilities?
Flora C: As we get further into the digital age, we rely more and more on data storage: emails, storing photos on the cloud, Google Drive, streaming services, and social media sites. All of this is driving demand for more data storage. But in the last few years, the crypto boom and then the corporate race around training and launching AI tools are both major pieces of the sudden rush to build out these huge hyperscale data centers. Meta, Google, and Amazon are all examples of this AI race fueling hyperscale data center proposals around the Commonwealth and country.
Bill V: What I learned from reading the PennEnvironment studies is that the growing use of EV’s and industrial electrification are also driving the demand. What’s more, military and surveillance uses, including for use of lethal weapons deployed in Gaza and Iran, are drivers too, adding an additional cause for concern.
Bill V: When did data centers first appear on the scene? Why the (recent) uptick in Pennsylvania?
Flora C: Data centers have been around for a long time. In fact, what is often called the first data center (called a “mainframe”) was built in 1945 to house the first computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), at the University of Pennsylvania. As the U.S. ushered in the internet age and cloud services got more popular, data centers expanded and started to get bigger. They started to cause impacts to nearby communities, but the issue wasn’t gaining national attention. But with increased cloud storage demand and training AI, the need has significantly increased in recent years — leading to a plethora of data center proposals here in Pennsylvania and around the country. So, now it’s more on people’s radar.
Bill V: Where are they being proposed and built?
Flora C: There are around 70 data centers in PA right now, but none are hyperscale. Some are quite small — one room or one building in the middle of a city block — you might not even notice. However, given the rise in data demand, there are currently 67 active proposals in PA right now that are waiting approval, 13 of them hyperscale (geographically mixed — in western Pennsylvania around Pittsburgh, in northeastern Pennsylvania, with a smattering around Harrisburg, the Reading area, and southeastern Pennsylvania). There are also five data centers currently under construction (all hyperscale!). At the moment, the closest proposals to Reading are two in Lancaster.
One active proposal I am concerned about is a proposal at Homer City outside of Pittsburgh where a coal plant was retired a couple of years ago, meaning cleaner air for the community. But now, the site is converting to a 4.5 GW gas plant to power data centers. That gas plant will generate enough electricity to power more than 3 million homes — that’s almost twice the population of the Pittsburgh metro area. The new gas plant could emit over 17 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually — more than triple the highest emissions of any polluting facility in Pennsylvania. This would be a disaster for our planet. And that’s just one gas plant at one site to fuel data centers. Imagine what it would mean for our environment and climate to have projects like this popping up all over the state. If you’re interested in tracking these proposals, check out trackdatacenters.com/state/pennsylvania.
Bill V: Why are they in the news?
Flora C: Data center proposals popping up all over the country are shining new light on the harms that data centers can cause to our environment, health, and wallets. We’re also seeing local community members showing up in force and fighting back across the state and country, forcing this issue to stay in the spotlight. Part of the concerns being raised are energy demand — likely met with dirty, polluting fossil fuels that are bad for our health and planet, water consumption, noise pollution, and more.
So let’s get into the environmental and other concerns:
• Energy use/growing demand: Rising computing demand is already delaying America’s transition to clean energy, with new fossil fuel-powered plants being built, and with existing fossil fuel plants remaining online longer, with retirement dates for coal plants already getting extended. Many data centers require more than 1 GW capacity, about as much electricity as all the homes in a mid-sized city. Though projections vary wildly, future electricity demand from data centers is projected to grow significantly through 2030 — by as little as 29% by 2030 from 2023 levels, or a potentially massive 166% increase.
The plan is to meet some of the demand with coal, but much of the new demand from data centers will likely be met with natural gas, which is harmful to the environment and public health from extraction to combustion. This could mean gas plants running more or staying online longer. It could also mean new gas plants with additional methane emissions and threats to the health of those who live by fracking wells and gas plants. These emissions and more fossil fuel generation in general will result in more greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change and more air pollution threatening community health.
You can see more at environmentamerica.org/pennsylvania/center/resources/fossil-fuel-power-plants-are-staying-online-longer.
Generation isn’t the only issue. Diesel generators are being used as backup power for data centers, and they’re being turned on even in instances that aren’t true emergencies. Running these backup generators can lead to more air pollution in our communities. And we’re already seeing this happen. During a recent heatwave, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved a proposal from regional grid operator PJM to relax air pollution standards and allow data centers to switch to backup power sources. It’s absurd to power the technology of tomorrow with the dirty and dangerous energy sources of yesterday.
You can see more about that at environmentamerica.org/pennsylvania/resources/false-emergencies-real-pollution.
• Data centers consume millions of gallons of water: Not only are data centers energy hogs, but they also consume millions of gallons of water every day, both on-site for cooling and off-site for electricity generation. Just one data center can consume as much as 5 million gallons of water daily — that’s comparable to a small city. We’re already seeing strains on our water system as a result of this buildout. Largely due to the growth in data centers, Google and Microsoft’s data center water usage increased by 20% and 34%, respectively, in just one year from 2021 to 2022. And because data centers are regionally concentrated, the water resources required can have a big local impact. In The Dalles, OR, where Google’s data centers now consume more than a quarter of the city’s water, the company’s water use nearly tripled in the five years prior to 2022.
One thing to note is that much of this water being used for cooling can’t just be discharged as wastewater. It evaporates, so less of it is making it back into our local rivers and streams. Additionally, evaporative cooling can leave behind high concentrations of salts and other contaminants. This can create water quality issues and have ecological consequences.
It can also be a problem for nearby residents. All over the country, there are stories emerging about low water pressure in communities around data centers, and there are mounting concerns about what that will mean for water bills. We expect that will only worsen as more data centers come online.
• Data centers create noise pollution: Exposure to noise can cause health problems. Residents living near cryptocurrency mines have reported noise as high as 91 decibels, which is nearly as loud as a chainsaw. Ever since a loud cryptocurrency mine was built near residents in Granbury, TX, citizens have reported a variety of ailments — from hearing loss and migraines to vertigo and nausea.
• Data centers could increase prices for utility customers: The cost of investments in new generating capacity could be passed off to taxpayers and utility customers, especially if demand for electricity is overestimated. Concerns among regulators and utility customers are well-founded: Data centers have been cited as a root cause of an expected 20% increase in utility prices in 2025 in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Bill V: What about loss of farmland? An article about the impact of data centers even showed up in the publication Route 422 Business Advisor, of all places. “Data center developers are increasingly targeting agricultural land for new projects and residents in affected communities are mounting opposition, concerned about the industrialization of farmland. Because farmland is cleared, flat, and available, it is attractive to developers. The concern is that once farmland is converted to industrial use, it is rarely returned to farmland.”
Flora C: It makes sense that rural communities feel especially vulnerable because there is more space for these big projects than there is in cities. But we’re seeing proposals in cities and suburbs too. And we’re seeing opposition in all types of places. Air pollution doesn’t discriminate.
And yet another problem with these projects is a lack of transparency. We need more reporting on water and electricity use, as well as energy sources, so we can plan appropriately.
Bill V: Are these centers necessary?
Flora C: Much of the increased demand for energy from data centers is attributable to new energy-intensive computing practices such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency mining. Some of this demand may be unnecessary. Bitcoin, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, is mined by using computing power to solve cryptographic puzzles. Globally, Bitcoin consumed 121.13 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2023, which is more than the entire state of Michigan produced that year.
Not all uses of computing are beneficial, and some applications are very harmful. We need to consider the societal value provided by AI, cryptocurrency, and other forms of energy-intensive computing to ensure that the value they provide exceeds the costs they impose on the environment, consumers, and communities. This larger problem of societal harms vs benefits is something that needs to be taken into account. Why are we polluting our air and climate and making people sick, just so kids can cheat on tests or so more AI slop memes can take over the internet? It’s absurd.
Yes, there can be some benefits to AI and other tech advancements, and yes, we need some data centers in the digital age. But we need to make sure we are not investing in technology that does more harm than good, and we need to make sure that we’re not overbuilding. After all, we’ve been living in a digital age for years without this hyper-scale buildout. And then, we need to make sure that the data centers we are building are powered with renewable energy, and take full advantage of opportunities to improve energy efficiency. That they are transparent regarding energy and water use and that there are strong safeguards in place to protect our natural resources like water. And that they limit noise and light pollution to protect residents.
Bill V: What are the benefits? It seems that especially in western PA the situation is similar to Fracking, offering the promise of economic development and jobs, with intense support from public and private sector interests and boosters and the building and construction trades. Here’s a quote from a PennLive article in the 7.20.2026 Reading Eagle: “If you listen to a Pittsburgh Pirates game on the radio, nearly every other ad is a local trade union looking to recruit apprentices for what could be a decades-long, once-in-a-generation buildout — tens of thousands of building trades jobs with a family-sustaining wage.”
Flora C: I think we need to be careful about overstating the benefits and understating the risks. When I hear about these proposals, I just think about what more pollution will mean for Pennsylvania communities and our planet.
Bill V: What about the promise of jobs: how real? Compared to other investments? According to Food and Water Watch, an organization that opposes these hyperscale projects, while data centers may promise new jobs, they’re in fact a paltry source of employment, especially considering the investment needed to create these jobs. We found that in Virginia, a data center job created in the last five years took $54 million of investment. That’s 168 times more than the average job in the state.
Flora C: I’m not an expert on job projections. But we have a long history in Pennsylvania of extractive industries coming in, promising a lot of jobs, under-delivering in permanent employment, and instead bringing loads of air and water pollution that’s making Pennsylvanians sick and contributing to climate change. The Shell Cracker Plant is one example that comes to mind. Our constitution states that “the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” To me, clean air and pure water are priceless. We should not let hyper-scale data centers, or the fossil fuel industry, threaten those things no matter what they come in promising.
Bill V: Let’s take a minute to review some of the growing opposition. A July 23, 2026 article from Waging Nonviolence, an online publication about social movements around the world, begins with the headline: The Data Center Fight is Going Global. “As local communities around the world unite around a shared enemy — AI data centers — a powerful new direction for climate action is emerging. Earlier this year, Gallup asked a national sample of Americans whether they would support an AI data center being built in their local area. 71% opposed it. Republicans, Democrats, and independents all rejected data centers. Asked why, respondents most often pointed to environmental concerns: water, energy, land use, noise and air pollution, and the lack of community consent. Seattle became the largest American city to adopt a moratorium after residents generated more than 96,000 emails to the city council.”
Flora C: Opposition to data centers is everywhere- in red, blue, and purple parts of the state and country; in rural communities, suburbs, and cities; and across generations. People are turning out to public meetings by the hundreds, and it is clear that the political tide is already turning as a result. So, I encourage everyone to keep showing up and making their voices heard.
Bill V: Before we look at what local and state governments in Pennsylvania are doing, I want to turn to Penn Environment’s Policy Proposals. Can you walk us through the list, one at a time?
Flora C: Given all of the environmental and health risks that data centers pose, PennEnvironment has a two-part solution we’re advocating for: The most urgent solution is pushing the pause button and implementing a moratorium on data centers. The second step is working to make sure that data centers that have already been approved and are in construction in Pennsylvania have to meet the strongest public health and environmental standards possible. In that vein, here are some things we’d want to see:
• Governments should require data centers to power operations with virtually all renewable energy. Investments in new fossil fuel power plants may delay the transition to clean, renewable energy; nuclear power also poses unacceptable risks to the public and the environment.
• Public utility commissions should insist that utilities take steps to reduce the impacts of data center energy use, such as implementing demand-response programs and directing utilities to avoid investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure to meet new demand.
• Local and state governments should require data centers to report on energy and water use and meet comprehensive energy efficiency standards. Additional transparency measures will help communities understand when permits are applied for and approved, who is leasing the land, and what their plans are.
• Public utility commissions should enact ratepayer protections such as requiring long-term service agreements for data centers, charging exit fees for reduced or terminated service, and requiring data centers to pay for the full cost of service.
• Decision-makers should accelerate clean renewable energy production and reduce interconnection queues.
• Policymakers should consider limits on computing activities that are unnecessarily damaging or wasteful. States should consider moratoria or limits on particularly energy-intensive practices such as “proof of work” crypto mining, which uses huge amounts of energy to solve cryptographic puzzles and verify crypto transactions.
But again, without strong safeguards for our environment and communities in place, and without a clear plan to prevent overbuilding data centers, we are in support of a moratorium.
Bill V: What’s being done by local and state government in PA? Let’s start with the local level. Reading City Council has unanimously approved a six-month moratorium on new data center proposals, invoking a little-used provision of state law and buying time to write zoning regulations before the fast-growing industry can gain a foothold in the city (Reading Eagle 7.22.26).
The effort is a proactive step to ensure safeguards are in place before any applications reach the city — to protect our air, our water, and residents. Jurisdictions can apply the brakes, but it can’t prohibit.
Flora C: Exclusionary zoning is illegal in Pennsylvania, so communities can’t ban a data center outright. However, municipalities can place zoning ordinances in place to set standards that would protect the environment and nearby residents. Home. Doing this now, before a specific project comes in, will help communities have the best chance of protecting their health and environment. There are model ordinances you can find from partner groups online that are a good starting place.
Bill V: How would you characterize the current situation at the state level in Pennsylvania? Any prospect for a moratorium?
Flora C: Data centers are a hot topic in the Pennsylvania state legislature. There have been a lot of bills moving in the legislature to address this issue, ranging from things like stopping data centers from being able to sign NDAs with local officials, setting standards for energy and water, increasing transparency, and even establishing a six-month moratorium to give communities time to zone. That last one I mentioned is HB2496, and it passed the state house 201 to 1. That is huge bipartisan support for putting a pause on these facilities until proper protections can be put in place. A lot of these bills have passed the state House with bipartisan support, but none have passed the state Senate or been signed into law. We think the state Senate should move quickly to get these to the finish line. Rather than go into specifics, I’ll just say that if you want to make your voice heard, you can call your state officials and let them know you’re concerned about data centers and want them to do more to protect Pennsylvanians and our environment.
Bill V: The Shapiro administration seems to be pursuing two, possibly mutually exclusive, priorities that will be difficult to balance: Attracting data center investment while protecting our environment, water and farmland. What’s your take on Shapiro’s GRID proposal?
Flora C: Governor Shapiro’s GRID proposal (Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) standards) is putting forth a batch of standards. They acknowledge a lot of the environmental and consumer concerns about data centers and encourage data centers to protect energy affordability, promote transparency and community engagement, support the workforce and economic development, and protect the environment. However, this program is a carrot, not a stick. That is to say, if a data center meets these requirements, they can enter into programs to get fast-tracked permitting and certain tax exemptions. While those benefits are attractive, there is no guarantee data center developers will opt into that program, and there isn’t a floor that all data centers must meet. I personally am not sure if companies will decide that doing the right thing is worth it for the incentives. We need more protective policies. As such, the Governor is calling on the state legislature to pass policies that will put more protections into law.
Addendum note:
Flora: Since this interview was recorded, Governor Shapiro issued an executive order on data centers, which is a step in the right direction since the executive order stipulates that data center permitting will no longer be fast-tracked and that data center developers will be required to either abide by his GRID standards or get all of their local permits approved. But it is hard to know how it will end up playing out for future proposals, and it remains to be seen what this will mean for data centers that are currently in process. Ultimately, we still need a statewide moratorium to make sure that any proposals in the Commonwealth are held to the strictest possible environmental and community standards. And legislative action is necessary to ensure that that’s the case.
Bill V: Does “both sides” approach of Shapiro make sense?
Flora C: In Pennsylvania, labor has a lot of power, so it makes political sense. But if enough bipartisan Pennsylvanians keep making their voices heard, that can shift the scales of power and embolden him to be even more bullish with environmental protections.
Bill V: And the Trump Administration? Any hope there?
It doesn’t look good to me. For starters, President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to accelerate federal permitting and repurpose federally owned and public lands for large artificial intelligence and tech data centers, aiming to bypass slow environmental reviews. His administration has advanced projects on federal sites — including a massive Department of Energy campus in Kentucky and Bureau of Land Management property in Nevada — while launching a voluntary “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” from developers to shield consumers from surging electricity costs.
Flora C: I’d say our best bet is local ordinances and state action.
Bill V: How should we, your average folk, be responding to all of this? What should we be doing?
Flora C: At the state level: contact your legislator in support of policies to protect Pennsylvanians’ health, climate, and wallets from data centers. At the local level: work to pass local zoning to protect the environment and community health and wallets. In the near term, we support a moratorium until this is all figured out. This is already happening in other states. I believe that the communities coming together and making our voices heard can tip the scales here.
For another excellent conversation on this subject, go to Centering On Peace at BCTV.org. John Hoskyns Abrahall interviews Karen Feridun, founder of Berks Gas Truth and co-founder of Better Path Coalition, about data centers and the dangers they pose.
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