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Data Center Water Usage Study Act (SB1459, PA)
Requires proposed data center projects to submit analysis regarding water usage, quality, and supply sustainability by an independent third-party expert to municipality before submitting development application. Must be publicly available on request.
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Secure Data Center Facilities Act (SB1442, PA)
Prohibits data centers from operating if they are at least 25% controlled by an organization or person from a country on a federal registry of countries determined to have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom.
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A resolution directing the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct a study on data center decommissioning in Pennsylvania and provide recommendations. (HR630, PA)
Directs Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct study on data center decommissioning including costs, current ordinances in PA and elsewhere about data centers and other facilities, cases of other entities having to cover costs, and expected decommissioning dates in PA. Findings and recommendations due in six months from adoption.
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About the Right-to-Know Law
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records answers common questions about the state's Right-to-Know Law, covering how to file a request, what fees agencies can charge and which records are public or exempt. It also explains appeal rights when a request is denied and how the law applies to volunteer fire companies, universities and other edge…
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CROW Pamphlet about Homer City
This is a fact sheet from Concerned Residents of Western PA, a grassroots group opposing a proposed fracked-gas power plant and AI data center in Homer City, Indiana County. It shows how the project brings few permanent jobs while raising residents' costs and health risks. It cites data centers averaging around 27 permanent jobs, a…
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Guide for Pennsylvania Data Centers from PA Green Amendment
This guide from the Pennsylvania Green Amendment campaign shows residents how to invoke their constitutional environmental rights when a data center seeks a zoning approval, change or exception. It includes advocacy tools for drafting public comments at each step.
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Data Centers in PA, resources by Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania (PSR PA)
This resource Page and fact sheet from Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania lays out the health and environmental case against data center buildout across the state, covering noise pollution and heavy water use at the facilities themselves alongside the air and water pollution tied to the fracked gas plants built to power them. It closes…
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Commercial Data Center Water Protection Act (HB 2760, PA)
Requires data centers that pollute or diminish public or private water supplies to restore or replace the affected supply with an alternate source of water. Must meet prior quality standards or Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water Act standards. Impacted parties can initiate Department of Environmental Protection investigation. Cases of contamination to be made public.
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How Big Tech Is Manufacturing Demand for Its Data Centers – Center for Coalfield Justice
This post from CCJ argues that Big Tech is manufacturing its own data center boom, with chipmakers, cloud providers and AI firms funding and hyping each other's growth through circular deals. The piece traces heavy debt financing it likens to pre-2008 mortgage risk, U.S. grid demand nearly tripling by 2030, and costs (water, land and…
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A Right to Clean Air and Pure Water: A Survey of Local Zoning Requirements for Oil and Gas in Pennsylvania
The Environmental Integrity Project surveys zoning ordinances in 31 Pennsylvania municipalities across five counties, tracking how each regulates oil and gas wells, compressor stations and pipelines like Shell's Falcon and Sunoco's Mariner East II. The report traces Act 13, the 2012 law that stripped local zoning power, to the state Supreme Court ruling that restored…
Exposing AI Data Center Threats and Harms