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New state data center map has critics as state ranks 4th in nation in facilities

(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania government has joined the challenging game of trying to display online the scope of what is one of the nation’s biggest data center booms, and some observers aren’t thrilled.

The state Department of Environmental Protection posted online for the first time on Aug. 18 a “Data Center Permit Tracker” which as of Tuesday mapped 73 “PA data centers” or “Unconfirmed PA data centers.”

At the same time, a widely-followed “Data Center Tracker” website created by private citizen showed 93 Pennsylvania projects, of which 20 had been “withdrawn” or “rejected.” A third data center mapper, run by the nonprofit FracTracker Alliance, on Tuesday showed Pennsylvania with 112 entries for data centers in various stages of conception, construction, or use. Included were 11 that had been cancelled or suspended.

A fourth, run by the market intelligence company Cleanview, showed Pennsylvania with 16 operating data centers and 245 planned – but it counted each building on a campus as an individual data center. Cleanview’s tally of the number of campuses was 57, including those that are planned, under construction, or operating.

Regardless of whose count is used, the growth in the numbers has been astonishing. Data centers are massively unpopular with the electorate and could be a factor in many races in the Nov. 3 general election.

Cleanview’s website said its count of 261 data center buildings in Pennsylvania – either operating, under construction, or planned – ranked fourth in the nation behind Virginia, Texas, and Ohio.

The state Legislature, with power divided between Democrats and Republicans, passed no significant bills to constrain the boom or modulate its rate of growth before effectively winding up its two-year session last week. A new two-year round of lawmaking will begin in January, including any new House and Senate members elected on Nov. 3.

Longtime data center- and artificial intelligence-supporter Gov. Josh Shapiro abruptly reversed his public rhetoric on data centers on Aug. 18. That day, he condemned much of the industry as speculative troublemakers, signed an executive order setting up standards for data centers, and putting in place the “Data Center Permit Tracker.”

Reaction to the new government counter among groups involved in the issue on Tuesday was lukewarm, at best.

“This is something that we should have had a long time ago,” said Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, senior organizer for Food & Water Watch, an advocacy nonprofit.

For a long time, she said, the Pennsylvania public was “in the dark” as far as official information on data center locations. The new map was posted, she said, because of growing opposition.

The advocacy group PennEnvironment expressed disappointment.

A spokesperson, Flora Cardoni, said people want to know how much air pollution will be released at a data center, how much water will be used and from what source, and how many power generators will be at the facility. The new state website, she said, presents information in a way that is “nearly indecipherable for the average person.”

PennEnvironment, she said, has made interactive maps for years and “this tool probably is not very helpful for the average Pennsylvanian.”

Karen Feridun of the Better Path Coalition said data center counts in the state appear to be “all over the place.” She said she continued to follow the privately run “Data Center Tracker” map.

Maya van Rossum, founder of the national Green Amendments for the Generations movement and an advocate for a data center moratorium, said the new state map appears to exclude some data centers that are listed by the FracTracker Alliance map. It seemed to her the state map was “trying to use semantics” to limit the scope of the challenge to communities.

Van Rossum said, “If you are really trying to assess the data center threats that your community faces, this is not the page for you.”