{"id":655347,"date":"2026-08-21T03:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655347"},"modified":"2026-08-21T03:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T03:25:00","slug":"pennsylvania-dangles-permitting-carrot-for-data-centers-that-bring-their-own-power-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655347","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Dangles Permitting Carrot For Data Centers That Bring Their Own Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania Dangles Permitting Carrot For Data Centers That Bring Their Own Power<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Submitted by Ethan Howland of UtilityDive<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania will give data center projects preferential permitting treatment if they commit to a set of power supply, environmental and cost-responsibility requirements under an executive order issued Tuesday<\/a> by Gov. Josh Shapiro, D.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Environmental Protection will develop the new review process.\u00a0To receive a faster state permitting review, data center projects in Pennsylvania must source their electricity from new power supplies, including from growing amounts of firm clean power, according to the order, which\u00a0<\/em>affects proposals for projects with a peak demand of more than 25 MW.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The order \u201cshould further close the door\u201d to the idea that independent power producers like Talen Energy, Vistra and PSEG Power will be able to sell power from their existing generating assets under long-term contracts to data centers in Pennsylvania<\/strong>, Jefferies equity analysts said in a note on Wednesday. However, Talen\u2019s legacy deal to sell power from its majority-owned Susquehanna nuclear power plant to an Amazon data center appears safe, according to the note.<\/p>\n

Shapiro\u2019s executive order comes amid a wave of action by state and local governments aimed at setting limits on data center development. At least 81 cities and counties have moratoria on data center development, according to a National League of Cities database<\/a> unveiled Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the permitting framework set by the executive order, data center developers that sign a consent order and agreement requiring them to abide by the state\u2019s infrastructure development standards<\/a>\u00a0unveiled in February will receive preferential treatment compared to those that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission Chairman Steve DeFrank speaks Aug. 18, 2026, at a data center-related executive order signing ceremony. Courtesy of Pennsylvania governor\u2019s office<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

For example, applicants that execute a consent order and agreement will have their projects reviewed by DEP on a rolling basis, whereas for developers that don\u2019t sign, the state won\u2019t consider their applications until they have all local permits in hand as well as any needed water withdrawal or wastewater discharge authorizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so much speculation in Pennsylvania \u2014 like, gold rush<\/em> speculation on these data centers,\u201d\u00a0Katie Blume,\u00a0political and legislative director for Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, told Utility Dive in an interview. \u201cA lot of this [order] is going to be weeding out those bad actors because they\u2019re not going to want to spend five years in the permitting process.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dan Diorio, executive vice president for state policy and government affairs for the Data Center Coalition, sounded a note of caution in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that rules are not changed midstream impacting ongoing investment in verified and responsible data center projects,\u201d Diorio said. \u201cData centers take compliance and accountability seriously, building only where they are authorized to do so under local, state, and federal rules and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The infrastructure development standards include requiring data centers to pay for \u201call costs caused in whole or in part by the interconnection, service, or load of a [data center] project, including any costs associated with energy and ancillary services, transmission, distribution, network upgrades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides requiring data centers to be supplied by new generating resources from the same local PJM Interconnection zone where the facilities are built, they must be supplied from growing amounts of firm clean energy such as solar, advanced nuclear and battery storage, Shapiro said when he signed the executive order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The firm clean energy requirements ramp up from 10% on Jan. 1 to 14.5% three years later and 32% by Jan. 1, 2035.<\/p>\n

The executive order directs the Pennsylvania DEP to expedite permitting for clean energy and storage facilities on brownfield sites. The DEP must also facilitate the use of advanced reconductoring and other advanced transmission technologies on existing transmission rights-of-way.<\/p>\n

In prepared remarks<\/a>, Shapiro pointed to the speed of data center development in the state, which he said has \u201cseen an unacceptable number of speculative proposals … many of them led by developers who have no regard for local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

PPL Electric has about 20.7 GW of potential data center load<\/a> with electric service agreements in Pennsylvania, according to an Aug. 7 investor presentation. FirstEnergy utilities in Pennsylvania have data center contracts<\/a> totaling nearly 1 GW, the company said in a July 28 presentation.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how those data center projects will be affected by the executive order, but slowing data center development could affect utility transmission spending in the state, the Jefferies analysts noted.<\/p>\n

Exelon, FirstEnergy and PPL are \u201cmaterially increasing their transmission investment with data center demand a key driver,\u201d the analysts said. \u201cIf the pace of data center growth slows, we see downside pressure to the pace of transmission investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, data center-driven transmission costs are being shared with residential and other utility customers, they noted.<\/p>\n

Shapiro\u2019s executive order directed the state\u00a0Office of Transformation and Opportunity to remove any existing data center project from the PA Permit Fast Track Program, established in 2024, and rescinded their eligibility for the program. It also\u00a0barred state agencies from entering into confidential agreements with data center developers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 08\/20\/2026 – 23:25<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania Dangles Permitting Carrot For Data Centers That Bring Their Own Power Submitted by Ethan Howland of UtilityDive Pennsylvania will give data center projects preferential permitting treatment if they commit to a set of power supply, environmental and cost-responsibility requirements under an executive order issued Tuesday by Gov. Josh Shapiro, D. The state Department of… Continue reading Pennsylvania Dangles Permitting Carrot For Data Centers That Bring Their Own Power<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":655329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=655347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/655329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}