- EPGA.PVT
A growing political battle over the expansion of data centers is putting the future of America’s AI infrastructure under scrutiny. Pennsylvania has become the latest state to take a hard line against data center development — drawing sharp criticism from one billionaire.
“It’s very sad to see an American politician making a public display of sabotaging American progress,” billionaire Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic Games, wrote in a post on X. “Pennsylvania used to produce 50% of America’s steel; just think of how many of the rusted out hulls of those steel mills could have been renewed for the revolution in computing.”
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The comment was made in response to a post by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro detailing his new executive order that will place guardrails on data centers. The order will enforce stricter environmental and transparency requirements for any data centers looking to build in the state.
Pennsylvania takes action
On Tuesday, the Democratic governor said his administration is removing the state’s fast-track permitting program for data centers. The new order mandates data centers must first be approved by local officials and that developers must sign a legally binding agreement to commit to state guidelines. The new guidelines mandate data centers to pay for their own power, hire locally, adhere to water conservation standards and be transparent with local governments.
In a statement, Shapiro said that Pennsylvania is seeing an “unacceptable number of speculative proposals for data centers swamp our commonwealth — many of them led by developers who have no regard for local communities.”
The mandate is a shift for Shapiro, who previously backed data center development in the state. Last year, the Democrat helped secure a $20-billion investment from Amazon for two data centers.
“I don’t want developers running roughshod across our communities,” Shapiro said on CBS Morningson Wednesday. “That’s not what happened a year ago when I did work with Amazon to bring those two data centers here in Pennsylvania. But increasingly, developers see an opportunity to take advantage of Pennsylvanians. I won’t let it.”
