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(The Center Square) – More than a hundred data center proposals have popped up like mushrooms on the Pennsylvania map, and a House committee on Wednesday attempted to validate the “real” ones by backing a plan to weed out many others believed to be speculative grabs for money.
The House Energy Committee approved a bill that would require a proposer bringing a data center concept to a municipality to also bring proof it had applied for electrical service. It also would have to include proof that it had paid the fees and costs for making that application.
“Municipalities are being overwhelmed with data center applications, some of which are serious and some that are just purely speculative,” said the prime sponsor, Democratic Rep. Kyle Donahue of Lackawanna County. “This is a simple bill designed to separate the real from the fake.”
The number of data center proposals skyrocketed from 2024 through 2026 as top political leaders of both parties – including President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, and Gov. Josh Shapiro – embraced the artificial intelligence industry that feeds on data centers. In Pennsylvania, nine of the 17 projects on Shapiro’s “fast track” state permitting list in early June were data centers.
On Aug. 18, though, the governor reversed course. He branded much of the data center industry in Pennsylvania as speculative troublemakers and said there were more than 100 publicly identified proposals.
“Most of these proposals are completely speculative” and will never be built, Shapiro said at the time. He added, “These speculators are nevertheless scaring our communities.”
On Wednesday, Donahue’s proposal he said would weed out speculators passed the committee in a unanimous vote.
There was well-defined disagreement, though, before the final vote. It came on an amendment proposed by Republican Rep. Craig Williams of Delaware County.
It called for entities proposing data centers to bring their own baseload electricity generation with them – in other words, to have their power sources already lined up – and to cover all the costs for connecting their data center to the grid.
Williams said it mirrored a proposal he introduced in a standalone bill. That bill has failed to gain traction in the House.
“Make data centers pay for their costs, including producing their own electricity,” Williams said Wednesday. He had support from the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Martin Causer of McKean County.
“This truly gets to the heart of the issue,” Causer said. “Bring your own power.”
Donahue said his bill was “a narrow one” and not the place for such a provision. Fiedler agreed, saying she was concerned the Williams language would end up limiting the potential use of renewable energy sources.
The proposed amendment failed on a party line vote, with all Democrats opposed and all Republicans in favor.