Bucks County is the newest frontier in the growing data center boom that is threatening our environment and causing massive spikes in home energy prices. Amazon announced in June that it would be spending billions to build a complex at the Keystone Trade Center in Fairless Hills.
But before Pennsylvania’s elected officials rush to embrace data centers, Harrisburg must implement protections designed to rein in skyrocketing electricity costs and mitigate the impact of these behemoth structures on the environment and local communities.
A single data center could require as much as 200MW of electricity — that’s the energy usage of a small city.
And larger “hyperscaling” facilities that power AI programs like ChatGPT could use as much as 5GW of energy — the equivalent of 3.65 million homes.
By 2028, data centers are projected to account for more than 10% of total U.S. energy consumption..
Bucks County isn’t the only part of Pennsylvania that is feeling the strain. Even more data centers are being proposed in Northeastern Pennsylvania outside Scranton and Southwestern Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh.
This massive new demand for electric power is already driving costs up for working families and local businesses as our utility companies struggle to meet projected demand.
That problem will only continue to grow as more data centers are brought online, worsening our affordability crisis even as big tech companies like Amazon and Meta chase higher and higher profit margins.
We know that clean energy sources like solar and wind are the best solution to rising energy prices caused by the data center boom.
They are cheaper than dirty fossil fuel plants and can be brought online more quickly. While it takes up to six years to bring a new natural gas plant online, a utility-scale solar project can begin providing power to the grid within a year — offsetting the increased demand sparked by the tech boom.
Yet amidst this energy affordability crisis, Governor Shapiro and legislative Democrats agreed to give away their most powerful tool to lower electricity costs by acquiescing to Republican demands to remove Pennsylvania from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
READ: Not Everyone Is Sold on the Benefits of Amazon’s Data Center Coming to Falls Township
This multi-state program would have provided Pennsylvania with more than $1 billion annually to invest in clean energy projects that could be quickly brought online.
With RGGI out of the picture, it is more important than ever that Governor Shapiro and the state legislature work to enact policies that will bring more clean energy online and tackle our affordability crisis.
This includes legislation that would prevent data center energy demand from overwhelming our electricity grid:
First, data centers should be required to supply their own clean electricity before coming online. This will prevent data centers from driving costs higher for working families and local businesses while also protecting the air we breathe from dirty fossil fuels.
At the same time, data centers should be required to cover the costs of new infrastructure upgrades — like new substations and battery storage — required to meet their needs. Otherwise, working families and Main Street businesses will be forced to pay to hook data centers up to the grid.
These are common sense solutions that make multi-billion dollar companies like Amazon and Meta pay their fair share.
We also know that rising electricity costs and climate change aren’t the only environmental challenges posed by these facilities.
READ: Pennsylvania Community Groups Urge Officials to Restrict Data Center Development
Data centers use a tremendous amount of water to cool their servers. To prevent damage to our rivers and streams, they should be required to use the latest technologies to reduce water usage.
And because data centers produce a lot of noise, they should be required to adhere to mandatory setbacks to preserve neighbors’ quality of life.
We’re working with environmental champions in the legislature to introduce legislation to address these priorities, but we need Governor Shapiro’s leadership to get them through the legislative process in 2026. We believe that we can, and must, find a path forward to pursue this growing industry responsibly and in a way that protects working families who are already struggling with higher energy costs.
