PA lawmakers show bipartisan interest in standards for data centers

Gov. Josh Shapiro has been a major proponent of data center development in the commonwealth, going so far as to proclaim that Pennsylvania is “All in on AI” when Amazon announced a planned $20 billion investment to build two data centers in the commonwealth. 

In his fourth budget address on Tuesday, however, Shapiro stressed that the state needs to be selective about the projects that get built in Pennsylvania communities. 

“I know Pennsylvanians have real concerns about these data centers and the impact they could have on our communities, our utility bills, and our environment – and so do I,” the governor said. 

According to Shapiro administration officials, the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards – or GRID standards – that the administration will follow are centered on four main principles that developers must adhere to: 

• Bringing their own power generation to projects
• Committing to strict transparency standards and direct community engagement
• Hiring and training local workers
• Committing to high standards of environmental protection and water protection

“If companies adhere to these principles, they will unlock benefits from the Commonwealth, including speed and certainty in permitting and available tax credits,” Shapiro added.

Shapiro has largely embraced AI to date, implementing generative AI tools within his administration and championing AI-related investments taking place in the commonwealth.

Public and private sector officials alike have sought to position Pennsylvania as a major AI hub. At U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s inaugural summit focused on AI and energy, the state’s junior U.S. senator announced more than $90 billion of private investment in energy and AI-related projects across Pennsylvania. 

However, local communities across the commonwealth have also begun to express concerns about the potential impacts of data center development in their neighborhoods. 

Shapiro’s GRID principles seemed to generate bipartisan interest among the General Assembly’s top legislative leaders. 

House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, a Democrat, said the standards outlined by the governor during his 2026 budget address will “incentivize the right kind of data center growth – responsible data center growth.”

“Listen, data centers are coming, and let’s be honest, we need to tell people this: We’re going to need data centers. The question is, what kind of data centers?” Bradford said. 

“We need to make sure we’re responsible and respectful to local communities. These need to be environmentally right, aesthetically right,” he added. “At a time where people are getting energy bills that are too damn high, people need to make sure that it does not drive up energy costs for regular people.”

In the GOP-controlled state Senate, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman didn’t come out and endorse the entirety of Shapiro’s GRID standards, but suggested that the idea of data center developers supplying their own energy could be an area of agreement between Republicans and Democrats. 

“We’re going to have a conversation about data centers,” he said. “Not only how we handle local communities, not only how they pay their fair share, but the conversation has to be rooted in the fundamentals that affordability and availability of electricity go hand-in-hand …The notion that data centers should bring their own supply to the market seems to make a lot of sense.”