Pennsylvania Data Center Intel

Recent Pennsylvania data center news

• Apr 25, 2026

  How do you feel about AI’s environmental impact?

  Gannon Knight’s Roundtable asked Gannon students and staff their thoughts on AI’s environmental impact.

  • Main announcement/action: Gannon Knight surveyed Gannon University participants — including Sam Mason, Ph.D. (Director of Project NePTWNE; oversees the Center for Lake Erie Education and Research, CLEER), Zara Toomaney (senior, Environmental Engineering), and Sophia Cuzzola (junior; IBM SkillsBuild student ambassador) — on April 25, 2026. The article cites external research: University of California, Riverside (reported by The Washington Post) finding that every 100-word AI search uses roughly 519 milliliters of water, and a LinkedIn (2025) stat that 66% of leaders would not hire someone without AI literacy.

  • Details/background: Interviewees noted concrete environmental impacts — AI/data centers require large amounts of energy and water (cooling towers) which can impact nearby cities’ water pressure and quality and increase carbon emissions. They recommended using AI as a service, not a replacement, and urged cross-disciplinary action involving environmental experts, policymakers, researchers, and developers to pursue more sustainable AI practices.

• Apr 25, 2026

  Life With Liz: Develop technology to help save environment

  Liz Pinkey argues that technology should be developed to help save the environment.

  • Main announcement/action: Liz Pinkey calls for developing technology that both enables modern connectivity and protects local environments, urging caution over recent trends such as data center construction on local advisory agendas and policy moves affecting public lands.
  • Background and details: The column cites the United States Forest Service being “systemically dismantled”, steps to lift mining restrictions on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Minnesota), and concerns about back-door deals and large corporations acquiring land; she also references local reclamation projects and recent warehouse/data center development patterns.
• Apr 24, 2026

  Nation's First State Data Center Moratorium Vetoed by Maine Governor

  The Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, vetoed a bill that would have established the country’s first state moratorium on the construction of large data centers.

  • Main action:Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have instituted a moratorium of more than one year on data centers above a certain size and created a special council to help towns vet potential projects. Mills said she vetoed the bill because it lacked a carve-out for a proposed project in Jay that she said would bring needed jobs to a community hurt by a mill closure; she plans to issue an executive order to create a council to examine data center impacts.
  • Background and details: The bill had passed the Democrat-controlled Maine Legislature and was sponsored by Rep. Melanie Sachs, who said the veto was “resisting the will of a majority of Maine people.” Similar moratorium proposals have been introduced in at least a dozen states (none other than Maine had passed a chamber), and opponents cited include data center developers, chambers of commerce, tech giants, labor unions, and electric utilities. The article also notes concerns about power use and warnings about potential blackouts in the mid-Atlantic grid.
• Apr 24, 2026

  Episode for April 24, 2026

  Gov. Josh Shapiro announced two Western Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants will push back their retirement dates by at least four more years.

  • Main action: Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the two Western Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants will stay open through 2032, providing additional time to meet water pollution standards and to help satisfy rising energy demand from data centers.
  • Background and other details: The episode (April 24, 2026) also reports Ohio residents’ concerns about planned fracking in a remote natural area, coverage of native hawthorn trees Crataegus pennsylvanica and their habitat value for the scarlet tanager (an estimated 13% of its breeding population in Pennsylvania), and a farm–nonprofit partnership redirecting spoiled produce to a farm where chickens eat the food as a “salad bar” to reduce waste and fight hunger.
• Apr 24, 2026

  Data Center Permits: How Long They Take and What Speeds Approval

  The article provides guidance on data center permitting timelines and strategies for accelerating approvals.

  • Main finding: In the US, securing permits for a new-build data center typically takes 6 to 18 months, with some outliers exceeding two years; the piece recommends practical tactics such as choosing experienced jurisdictions, submitting complete plans, front‑loading environmental assessments, and phased builds (e.g., launching a simpler initial build and adding complex elements later).
  • Context and references: The article is informational (not a legal notice) and references recent policy activity including a White House directive (July 2025) to accelerate federal permitting, state-level incentives in Pennsylvania, and proposed/tabled measures in New York, Minnesota, and Maine; it also notes examples (e.g., a Loudoun County, Virginia project) and cites industry sources including DataCenterKnowledge, DataCenterDynamics, and Shovels.ai.
• Apr 23, 2026

  How Corporate Energy Buyers Are Reshaping the U.S. Grid: CEBA CEO Rich Powell on Data Centers, Nuclear, and Permitting Reform

  The Corporate Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) CEO Rich Powell described how corporate energy buyers are reshaping the U.S. grid and urged federal permitting and transmission planning reform.

  • Main announcement/action: CEBA says corporate buyers have announced 143.8 GW of clean energy deals in the U.S. since 2014 and contracted a record 27 GW in 2025 (with ~17 GW in Q1 2026 reported by S&P Global), and CEBA members are committing to cost-allocation measures (e.g., the Ratepayer Protection Pledge) to cover the costs to serve new loads while supporting grid upgrades.
  • Background and additional details: CEBA members procured about 20 GW of solar and 5 GW of nuclear in 2025; the membership is technology-agnostic (“If it’s carbon emissions free, we like it”); Powell pressed for federal permitting reform and transmission planning codified into law so permits cannot be unduly rescinded; listed technologies include restarts, license renewals, uprates, SMRs and advanced reactors (X-energy, Kairos, TerraPower, Oklo), and new deal structures collapsing physical and virtual PPAs into hybrid firm-capacity-plus-attribute arrangements.
• Apr 23, 2026 · Hensel Phelps

  Recent Project Wins: Advancing Domestic Manufacturing Across Critical Sectors

  Hensel Phelps has been selected for multiple U.S. manufacturing projects including Nammo’s rocket motor factory, Jabil’s Project Shine renovation, and SPS Technologies’ Jenkintown 2.0 redevelopment.

  • Main announcement: Hensel Phelps was selected as General Contractor for Nammo’s new rocket motor facility in Perry, Florida (scheduled to be operational by end of 2027), awarded as GC; awarded Construction Manager-at-Risk (CMAR) delivery for Jabil Project Shine in Salisbury, NC and for SPS Technologies Jenkintown 2.0 in Abington, PA. The Jenkintown rebuild covers a 20-acre site with a 335,500-square-foot facility including a central utility plant, substation, plating lines and a wastewater treatment plant.
  • Background and details:Jabil is pursuing a planned multi-year $500 million investment to expand U.S. manufacturing for cloud and AI data-center hardware (link referenced); Nammo’s expansion aims to strengthen U.S.-based solid rocket motor production and transatlantic industrial cooperation; the Jenkintown project is rebuilding after a February 2025 fire and is designed to meet at least LEED Silver certification. Delivery model timelines: Jabil & SPS use CMAR for phased execution and early cost alignment; Nammo site has clearing and groundwork underway with vertical construction to follow.
• Apr 22, 2026

  Gov. Shapiro moves to keep 2 coal-fired power plants open in Western Pa., as energy demand from data centers grows

  The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection filed a motion to enter a consent decree to keep the Keystone and Conemaugh coal-fired power plants open through 2032.

  • Consent decree filed (April 20): The DEP moved to enter a consent decree with Keystone-Conemaugh Projects, LLC allowing Keystone Generating Station (Armstrong & Indiana counties) and Conemaugh Generating Station (Indiana County) to remain operating through 2032, subject to a schedule to construct wastewater treatment systems and comply with 2020 federal wastewater limits; failure to meet the schedule carries fines of $150 to $1,500 per day. The agreement cites a Nov 2025 EPA rule proposal that permits revised compliance schedules in cases of “unexpected change” in electricity demand and was filed in Indiana County Court of Common Pleas.
  • Background and context: Keystone-Conemaugh had announced a planned 2028 coal retirement in 2021 but reversed course at the end of 2025, citing surging electricity demand from data centers; the move was praised by IBEW Local 459 and supported politically after Pennsylvania’s withdrawal from RGGI, while environmental groups (PennFuture, Sierra Club (PA)) criticized the decree and noted each plant emitted over 3 million tons of CO2 in 2024.
• Apr 22, 2026

  Energy Expert Encourages Data Centers To Connect to the Grid

  CyrusOne senior vice president Gene Alessandrini called for data centers to connect on-site power generation and transmission improvements to the grid to expand capacity, increase efficiency, and lower costs.

  • Main announcement: Alessandrini, speaking to industry representatives, said data centers should bring in their own power generation and partner with utilities so excess capacity can be sold to the grid; he framed this as a way to provide peaking capacity and improve grid reliability. Key factual points: CyrusOne (Gene Alessandrini) made these remarks at an industry event; he cited that running such assets “10% of the time” can address cost/reliability issues and referenced actions in Pennsylvania to bring old generation back online.
  • Background and details: Alessandrini argued utilities are “way behind transmission enhancements” and the market is not paying for new generation builds; he emphasized implementing a reliable transmission grid that benefits all parties and described the approach as partnership-driven rather than unilateral. He warned of geographic split resistance with the line “If 50% of the country says no, the 50% who says yes…”, indicating uneven regional uptake; no specific financing deals, timelines, or monetary amounts were announced.
• Apr 21, 2026

  Systems Emerging to Balance Data Center Environmental Impacts

  Panelists at Data Center World warned that rapid AI data center growth is widely misunderstood and creates grid, water, embodied carbon, and labor challenges.

  • Main announcement: Panelists said hyperscale AI clusters require 10–20× more power per site, shifting campuses from 50–100 megawatts toward ~1 gigawatt, colliding with grid constraints, public scrutiny over water use, and a tightening labor market. Speakers cited the Texas 2023 heatwave as an example when data center operators helped stabilize the grid, and highlighted that embodied carbon reporting is weak and construction-driven emissions are rising.
  • Background & event details: Panel at Data Center World in Washington on April 21, 2026; speakers included William Hassel (Turner Construction), Andy Masley (Effective Altruism DC), and Pingbo Tang (Carnegie Mellon University).
    • Agenda/subject: data center grid integration, demand response/load shifting, water vs power trade-offs in cooling, embodied carbon from construction, and labor/workforce integration.
    • Verifiable specifics cited: experienced floor managers can reduce about one-third of waste, and panelists estimated certain water uses as “more like one milliliter or so.”