Shapiro’s pivot: Where Pennsylvania’s major data center projects stand now

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Growing voter opposition prompts policy shift, but none of the once-expedited data centers have signed onto new standards

By Katie Malone, Technical.ly

This story is part of a series produced by NewsWorks Lab and Technical.ly exploring data centers’ weight in Pennsylvania’s November 2026 elections. The series is supported by the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.

Gov. Josh Shapiro says he’s reining in Pennsylvania’s data center development after previously promising to speed it up.

His Aug. 18 executive order removed data centers from the state’s Permit Fast Track Program and put new conditions on how developers can move forward.

It was a marked shift for a governor who had once celebrated the industry as an economic development win. As recently as June 2025, Shapiro was touting Amazon’s planned $20 billion investment in Pennsylvania cloud computing and AI campuses, promising jobs and new opportunities for local communities.

The Fast Track permit program aimed to help accelerate that growth: Data centers accounted for more than half of the projects approved for expedited permitting.

Data center development has since become a campaign issue. Shapiro, a Democrat, faces Republican Stacy Garrity in the Nov. 3 election. Shapiro’s office declined to comment on the record for this story; Garrity did not respond to requests for comment.

Public sentiment has shifted significantly since Fast Track launched in November 2024. Two-thirds of likely PA voters now oppose data center construction, according to an August poll conducted by The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times and Siena University. Nearly 74% of Pennsylvanians would oppose an AI data center in their community.

The nine projects formerly listed in Fast Track show a mixed record. State officials credited their assistance with speeding an Amazon permit review. At least two projects, however, received no state environmental permits during their time in the program, according to Technical.ly and NewsWorks Lab’s review.

Fast Track’s stated goal was to give businesses in Pennsylvania clearer timelines and greater certainty of obtaining permits necessary for construction and operations. By March of this year, data centers accounted for more than half of the projects listed on its dashboard, the Pittsburgh Media Partnership reported.

The program didn’t guarantee approval or let developers bypass environmental laws and required local approvals. It did assign project managers to help speed the process.

“What Fast Track did was put a coordinator in the room to keep agencies moving,” Kate Cooper, a lawyer at Pittsburgh-based law firm Babst Calland, told Technical.ly and NewsWorks Lab. “But in terms of a data center project, getting a state permit decision faster doesn’t mean that a project got delivered faster.”

For Amazon’s Falls Township project in Bucks County, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) processed an air permit in under four months, compared with the typical six-month review, PA Secretary Jessica Shirley boasted at an August 2025 event.

Removing a data center from Fast Track doesn’t cancel its permits

The nine data center projects are at different stages, from planning and permit reviews to construction. Their progress also depends on local decisions that Fast Track could not make for them.

“One question I get a lot is: ‘Is removal from Fast Track like a revocation of permits?’ and that’s not the case,” said Cooper, of Babst Calland. “The difference is if they’re going to work with you before or after you get your local approval.”

For projects that already have local approval, the new sequence of steps may make little difference, said Michael Helbing, staff attorney at Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy. Those still seeking local permission face an additional hurdle.

A state permit count alone cannot show how close a project is to opening, he noted. Other approvals come from local governments and regional water agencies.

“It would likely be difficult for the commonwealth to compile and post that information on a timely basis,” Helbing said.

Residents can follow state environmental permit decisions on the state’s Data Center Permit Tracker, created under Shapiro’s August executive order.

The order also tied permitting to the administration’s GRID standards for energy costs, environmental protection, local jobs and community engagement. For large projects applying under the new rules, local approval comes before a final state permit. Developers who sign a binding agreement to follow GRID can get their applications reviewed while they work on local approvals.

As of Oct. 27, no data center developer had yet signed, a spokesperson from the DEP told NewsWorks Lab and Technical.ly.

For some, the standards don’t go far enough. Advocates have called for Shapiro to enact mandatory moratoriums, do extensive studies on the developments and enforce stricter energy guidelines.

Where the former Fast Track data center projects stand

Among Fast Track data centers, Amazon’s Falls Township Data Center Development appears closest to opening. Phase 1 at the Keystone Trade Center in Bucks County went online in April 2026 and Phase 2 is projected to go live any day now, waiting on one final DEP air quality permit for its nearly 300 gas-powered backup generators.

Amazon told Technical.ly and NewsWorks Lab its data center projects comply with federal, state and local environmental regulations. It did not confirm its position on Pennsylvania’s new rules or whether its projects in Falls, Kline and Salem townships would sign agreements committing to the standards.

That final DEP permit it needs in Falls Township has been met with loud local opposition. Over the summer, town halls, public comments and zoning disputes dominated the conversation. So much so that the influence trickled to nearby towns — Morrisville Borough, about 20 minutes away, adopted a six-month moratorium.

Pennsylvania Digital 1 (PAX-1), near Carlisle in Cumberland County, received final township approval in September. A judge allowed construction to continue on Oct. 5 while scheduling a Nov. 13 hearing on opponents’ request to halt work, ABC27 reported.

Local resistance had already stalled other projects before Shapiro’s new rules took shape.

Project Hazelnut remains on pause after months of public outcry and legal disputes, even after its developer tried offering $10,000 per resident to proceed. That project now needs to garner public support as it works toward four more DEP permits.

Keel Infrastructure, the developer behind the Sharon Data Center Project, told Technical.ly it endorsed Shapiro’s standards when they were announced, saying GRID largely reflects its long-held approach to responsible development and community engagement.

Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, NorthPoint, International Electric Power, Aligned Data Centers and QTS Data Centers did not respond to Technical.ly’s request for comment.

Hannah Frances Johansson contributed reporting.

This article first appeared on NewsWorks Lab and is republished here under a NewsworkLabs License.