August 18, 2026
Doral Chenoweth/USA Today via Reuters Connect
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order Tuesday to curtail AI data center development in Pennsylvania. The image above depicts a project in Ohio.
Citing widespread concern from Pennsylvania citizens and inaction from lawmakers, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order limiting data center development in the state.
As recently as last year, Shapiro (D) welcomed a $20 billion investment from Amazon to build AI innovation campuses. But in a Tuesday news conference, he slammed the "unacceptable number of speculative proposals" for data centers from developers "with no regard for local communities." Referencing ongoing opposition to these projects in Montgomery County, the governor pledged to implement new guardrails.
Some of those guardrails are the same requirements Shapiro had proposed this spring in his budget address. The Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) standards would have required developers to provide and pay for their own electricity, create a community outreach plan and community benefits agreement and obtain sustainability certification, among other conditions. Legislation codifying them passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, but died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Shapiro's executive order revives them and makes them legally enforceable by requiring developers to sign a consent order to follow the GRID standards and setting penalties if they violate them. The order also stipulates that data center projects must obtain local and municipal approval to move forward. No state agency can sign a non-disclosure agreement with a developer, and all current AI development proposals will be removed from the state's fast track permitting process, Shapiro said.
"We will not be bullied by these developers," the governor told reporters. "We will not be bulldozed by the lawyers for these Big Tech companies. That will not happen here in the Commonwealth."
Clean Power PA praised Shapiro for protecting residents "from the costs and other harms of unregulated data center growth" in a statement following the conference. Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D) likewise applauded the decision while criticizing his Republican colleagues for "fail(ing) to engage in this critical conversation."
State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is challenging Shapiro in his reelection campaign, was less impressed. Garrity (R) pinned the current strife over data centers on the governor's past support of their development and accused him of "trying to gaslight" his constituents.
"Now that public opinion has turned against him and his donors, Josh Shapiro is playing CYA, and Pennsylvania voters aren't buying it," she said in a statement. "Josh Shapiro lit the fuse on the chaos we are seeing in community-after-community across the Commonwealth because he was more concerned with his political ambitions than fighting for Pennsylvania communities."
Better Path Coalition was also critical of Shapiro's order. The environmental activist group has called for a three-year moratorium on data center projects.
"Anything less falls short of adequately protecting Pennsylvanians," the coalition said in a statement.
Recent polling from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania showed that 61% of adults are against data centers in their communities. The issue crosses party lines, with 69% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans and 53% of independents expressing opposition to these projects.
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