Key points
- Shapiro's Aug. 18 order bars Pennsylvania's DEP from permitting any data center that lacks local approval.
- The state counts more than 100 proposed projects. Five hold every first-phase permit.
- A separate bill would let towns pause projects of 25 MW and up for 18 months.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 2026-05 on Aug. 18, directing the state Department of Environmental Protection not to issue a permit to any data center until that project has received all required local approvals. In the same order, DEP disclosed that it is aware of more than 100 proposed data center projects in Pennsylvania, that 58 have engaged with the agency, that 15 have applied for permits, and that five hold every permit needed to build a first phase. Developers who decline the state's new GRID standards will not have an application reviewed at all until local approval is in hand.
The order became effective immediately. DEP must now incorporate the Governor's Responsible Infrastructure Development requirements, called GRID, into its permitting process. Developers will accept those terms through a legally binding Consent Order and Agreement.
GRID requires developers to pay the entire cost of the electrical infrastructure their projects need rather than shifting the expense to Pennsylvania households and businesses. Each developer must submit a community engagement plan, hold public meetings, and consult residents early on major design choices. The standards also call for local hiring and a community benefits agreement addressing schools, infrastructure, and economic development. Projects must comply with Pennsylvania's highest environmental standards, including its requirements for conserving water.
Developers who sign get a normal review. Developers who do not will not have an application reviewed until every local approval is secured. Neither group gets a permit before local approval.
Shapiro said he had heard from residents across the state who were concerned about what data center development could mean for their communities, the environment, and their utility bills. His message to developers, he said, was that if they cannot agree to the requirements and "get the community where you want to build to say 'yes,'" they will not have the state's support. "These are some of the biggest companies in the world," he said. "They can afford to be good neighbors, follow the rules, and do this right."
Where Pennsylvania's projects stand
The executive order includes the state's current count of proposed projects at each stage:
| Stage | Projects |
|---|---|
| Appear in publicly sourced databases | More than 100 |
| Engaged with DEP at some level of formality | 58 |
| Have applied for permits | 15 |
| Hold all permits for first-phase development | 5 |
DEP is also now required to collect energy and water consumption data from operators, to review its own regulations and recommend new ones, and to maintain a publicly accessible map of proposed data center projects.
Dave Sanko, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, said land-use decisions "are best made at the local level by the officials who know their communities."
Steve DeFrank, chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, put it in cost terms. "Growth should pay for growth, while we protect the reliability and affordability that Pennsylvanians depend on every day," he said.
A separate moratorium bill is advancing
On July 12, the Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee voted 13 to 4 to advance Senate Bill 1345. The proposal comes from Sen. Jarrett Coleman, a Republican whose district includes parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. It would allow a municipality to adopt an optional 18-month moratorium on new and unapproved data center applications while revising its zoning rules. The pause would apply to facilities with a critical IT load of 25 megawatts or more. Committee amendments would let local governments impose it by resolution instead of ordinance. House Bill 2533, a companion measure, has remained in the House Local Government Committee since May 27.
Coleman said the bill "empowers local communities to push the pause button on data centers in order to regulate these projects on their own terms."
The Pennsylvania House has separately approved four related bills with support from both parties. One of them, Rep. Rob Matzie's House Bill 1834, would require the PUC to establish binding rules for data centers using more than 25 megawatts. It would set a clean-energy requirement of 10 percent, increasing to 32 percent by 2035, and prevent utilities from passing data center expenses to ratepayers. The Senate has not voted on any of the four measures. Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman has said he favors handling the issue through a single package rather than separate bills.
What is being built in Pennsylvania
The largest project in the state is the Homer City Energy Campus, a 3,200-acre redevelopment of a retired coal plant in Burrell Township, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, planned at 4.5 gigawatts and about $10 billion. GE Vernova (GEV) is supplying seven hydrogen-enabled gas turbines, with first deliveries expected in 2026 and power expected by 2027. EQT (EQT) announced an agreement in principle to supply the gas. Amazon (AMZN) confirmed in August that it is in talks to take capacity at the site, after TribLive obtained emails between the company and the developer through a Right-to-Know request, and said no deal is signed.
Three states in five weeks
New York paused state environmental permits for data centers on July 14 under Executive Order 62. That order holds Department of Environmental Conservation discretionary permits for facilities drawing 50 megawatts or more until the state finishes a generic environmental impact statement. It exempts applications already deemed complete, and it does not apply to permits from local governments. TeraWulf finished that day as the biggest decliner among the AI infrastructure names we track.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT on Aug. 3 to verify and audit every data center advancing through the interconnection process, in his words "before any additional data centers are approved to move forward." His letter puts about 474 gigawatts of connection requests in the queue, about 90 percent of them data centers, which he described as more than five times the state's record peak demand. Projects that fail the audit "must be denied connection to the Texas grid," the letter says.
Meta committed $1 billion to the towns hosting its data centers on Aug. 10, against a capex budget that runs to $145 billion this year.
Five European Central Bank economists wrote on Aug. 17 that a correction in stock market valuations is likely even in a scenario where AI delivers.
Patrick Cicero, counsel at the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, was quoted in the governor's announcement. "Our system is broken," he said. "Not only is energy unaffordable, it is increasingly scarce."
Sources
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, "Governor Shapiro Signs Executive Order on Data Center Development in PA" (August 18, 2026): Executive Order 2026-05, the local-approval condition, the GRID requirements, the project-stage counts, and the quoted statements from Shapiro, Sanko, DeFrank and Cicero.
- Broadband Breakfast, "Pennsylvania Senate Advances Bill Allowing 18-Month Data Center Moratoriums": Senate Bill 1345, the 13-4 committee vote, the 25 MW threshold and the Coleman quote.
- Spotlight PA, "The data center regulation bills on the table in PA": the four House bills and their Senate status.
- Utility Dive, "Largest US gas-fired power plant planned for data centers in Pennsylvania" (April 3, 2025): Homer City capacity, cost, acreage, location and the GE Vernova turbine order.
- Office of the Governor of Texas, directive letter to PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson and ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas (August 3, 2026): the audit order, the 474 gigawatts figure and the quoted passages.
- New York State, Executive Order 62 (July 14, 2026): the DEC permit hold, the 50 megawatt threshold, and the exemptions for completed applications and local permits.
Cover photo: State Capitol building in Harrisburg Pennsylvania by Schindlerdigital, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped from the original.
This is general market commentary, not investment advice.
