Key Takeaways
The era of unreported data center energy usage may be coming to an end. Well, in Pennsylvania, at least.
The Pennsylvania House passed two bipartisan bills on April 14: House Bill 2150 would require data centers to report their annual energy and water use, which would then be published in a yearly public report. The second bill, HB 2151, would give cities in Pennsylvania something of a template for regulating data centers. Both now head to the Senate.
“If the data center industry wants to expand in Pennsylvania and avail itself of our critical resources – water, electricity, and land – the very least among many things that should be required is full transparency,” said state Rep. Kyle Mullins, who sponsored HB 2150.
Lackawanna County Is a Case Study
These bills didn’t just come out of thin air. They’re a direct result of what’s been happening in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Archbald is a small borough in Lackawanna County that has become ground zero for Pennsylvania’s data center boom. More than 50 campuses are in development statewide, with 11 concentrated in the county. Six of those are in Archbald alone.
Rep. Mullins, whose district is at the center of the build-out, described the surge as a “reckless gold rush,” warning that residents are “angry” and “overwhelmed.”
The project is expected to occupy 14% of the town, remove a trailer park, and sit right next to several residential properties.
To put that in perspective, a single hyperscale data center can draw anywhere from 20 to 100 megawatts of power and consume millions of gallons of water per day for cooling — and Archbald is looking at a 51-building hub.
A possible companion bill introduced in the Pennsylvania House is asking to go even further than HB2150 and 2151: It would require data centers using more than 100,000 gallons of water per day to report their expected usage and wastewater discharge.
But despite the scale and sheer consumption, many local communities still lack zoning ordinances or clear regulations for data center development. It’s why, on a federal level, quite a few other congressmen have joined Rep. Mullins in voicing their own concerns.
A few weeks ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced federal legislation proposing a data center development moratorium. Around the same time, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Roger Hawley also introduced a bill requiring the Energy Information Administration to collect and publish data center power usage data nationally.
Though none of these have passed (yet), it’s clear through recent news that data centers are finally starting to face the scrutiny they’ve been able to avoid for years.
