In June, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stood on the lawn of the historic Jackson Mansion in Berwick, Columbia County, to make an announcement in the works for nearly two years: Amazon, he said, would spend $20 billion to build two cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in Pennsylvania, one in Bucks County and another in Luzerne County.
For Shapiro, the announcement marked a crowning achievement in a long campaign to position Pennsylvania as an AI and data center hub. It also served as an advertisement of the state’s eagerness to attract even more data center development. In making the case, Shapiro emphasized Pennsylvania’s technology-focused universities, his administration’s fast new permitting process and — crucially — the state’s energy resources.
“Here in Pennsylvania we’ve got a winning team. We also have a unique set of strengths that put us in a position to succeed, including our abundant energy resources and Pennsylvania’s great track record of innovation that dates back centuries,” he said.
Those “abundant energy resources” are key to Pennsylvania’s value proposition for power-hungry data centers. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers currently account for approximately 2% of total electricity use in the United States. By one estimate, that percentage could grow to as much as 9% by 2030. In 2030, per the International Energy Agency, data processing could consume more electricity than that required to manufacture all energy-intensive goods combined, including aluminium, steel, cement and so-called “primary chemicals” such as ethylene, ammonia and methanol. “We’re seeing load growth on the electric grid right now unlike we’ve seen since World War II,” Jackson Morris, the director of state power sector policy, climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), tells Grid. “The lion’s share is from data centers.”
Data centers can be powered by renewables such as wind, solar and nuclear. But nuclear power plants are expensive to build and take far longer to get online than gas plants; they also pose safety and environmental risks. Wind and solar are location- and weather-dependent, presenting an issue for data centers, which need to run continuously. Given its abundance, dependability and flexibility, experts argue that natural gas is best suited to meet the industry’s demands. “In the short term, natural gas is the way to go. Many utilities consider it the most viable option for balancing the growing loads while ensuring reliability,” Karthik Subramanian, an analyst at Lux Research, told a data center industry publication.
In announcing the Amazon investment, Shapiro described himself as an “an all-of-the-above-energy governor.” But experts and advocates say development of Pennsylvania’s data center industry is likely to lead to a boom for one energy source in particular — natural gas — making it harder for the state to transition away from fossil fuels.
We’re getting into this business without even paying attention to what it’s really going to mean for the future of the planet and for our communities.”
— Karen Feridun, co-founder, Better Path Coalition
“We’re getting into this business without even paying attention to what it’s really going to mean for the future of the planet and for our communities,” says Karen Feridun, co-founder of the Better Path Coalition and No False Climate Solutions PA. “It’s just wrongheaded.”
Gas companies fully expect to cash in on Pennsylvania’s data center boom, which is why they’ve been advocating for the growth of the industry in the state for years.
Former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who sits on the leadership council of the natural gas industry group Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, argued last October that natural gas-powered electricity is the “obvious choice” to power data centers and that AI data centers offer Pennsylvania a unique opportunity. “As the second-largest natural gas production state [outdone only by Texas], Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity quickly, benefit from new job creation and investment, and power our high-tech future if we collectively embrace natural gas as part of that solution,” he wrote.
That collective embrace has already begun, driven by an alliance between tech companies, the gas industry and governments. As a result, the development of gas-powered data centers has been progressing at breakneck speed. With Shapiro’s blessing, developers in April announced plans to build a $10-billion gas-fired power plant for data centers — it will be the largest gas-fired power plant in the United States — where the Homer City, Indiana County, coal-fired power plant used to be. “We’re sitting on top of one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world, and it makes all the sense to be doing this here and utilizing the space at Homer City to best produce the energy needed to drive these AI centers,” Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, told the Pittsburgh Business Times. “We have the production. We’ve always lacked both the ability to get the gas to market and develop those markets. This does both of those.”
That same month, Liberty Energy Inc., Imperial Land Corporation and Range Resources announced plans to build a natural gas data center power plant in Washington County. “This strategic development will help to attract data centers and industrial operations to our region, bringing with it economic impacts for years to come,” said Stefani Pashman, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.
We’re sitting on top of one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world, and it makes all the sense to be doing this here … to best produce the energy needed to drive these AI centers.”
— Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition
Elected officials at the state and federal level are also part of the effort to lure data centers to Pennsylvania. In July, Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) hosted a Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which was designed to “showcase Pennsylvania’s incredible potential to power the AI revolution.” Governor Shapiro attended, and President Trump made an appearance alongside members of his cabinet. The gas industry had an outsized presence, with speakers including the head of EQT Corporation (the largest natural gas producer in the United States), the CEO of Exxon Mobil and the CEO of Bechtel (a major player in the liquefied natural gas industry).
The event was accompanied by the announcement of $90 billion in data center-related projects in the state, including huge amounts of new natural gas power generation. Blackstone committed to spend $25 billion on “digital and energy infrastructure” and announced a new venture with PPL to invest in new natural gas power generation facilities. Equinor said it’s investing $1.6 billion to enhance natural gas output and link it to data centers. Frontier Group said it will transform a former coal-fired power plant in western Pennsylvania into a new natural gas-fired plant.
“Unfortunately, many of these companies are either proposing to connect to the grid, which drives up costs for consumers, or they’re proposing to build new gas plants, which can mitigate the consumer impact, but they’re going to be adding a ton of pollution to the system and taking us in the wrong direction on climate,” says NRDC’s Morris.
Data centers have an immediate need for energy. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has an immediate need to decarbonize. (According to the Department of Environmental Protection’s 2024 Climate Action Plan Update, Pennsylvania has committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to between 50% and 52% of 2005 levels — at least — by 2030 and achieving overall net zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2050.) Is there a way to reconcile the two?
Morris says it all depends on state policy. He notes that in Georgia, now the second biggest data center market (behind Northern Virginia) in the world, “thousands and thousands of megawatts of new gas plants [are] being proposed to meet that new demand.” But Pennsylvania doesn’t necessarily have to do the same. The state, he says, could reduce the need for gas by procuring more renewables if Governor Shapiro’s Lightning Plan — introduced in April — is put into place. Parts of the legislative package are moving through the legislature but face opposition from Republicans. “If that whole package is adopted, it’s going to have a binding cap on emissions from power plants. It’s going to have an augmented renewables platform to scale up zero emissions resources,” Morris says. “You can absolutely meet demand growth in a manner that protects consumers and prevents emissions increases. But you need those policies to do so.”
Feridun is more skeptical. Pennsylvania lags far behind most of the country in renewable energy production, she says, and the emissions from natural gas-powered plants for data centers are likely to cancel any ground gained in the renewables sector. At a time when the climate crisis is intensifying, she argues, we can’t afford to make the task of decarbonization any more difficult. “We have a lot of work to do,” she says, “and it seems like the state is interested in doing everything but that work.”
This special section is a part of Every Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. The William Penn Foundation provides lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, and Philadelphia Health Partnership. To learn more about the project and view a full list of supporters, visit 
Thank you for the solid reporting on this issue.
Why not use solar and have natural gas as a backup!
Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) allows energy generated by solar and wind to be available at all times. Just across the border in W. Virginia, Form Energy is producing iron-based batteries that can discharge at full capacity for 100 hours. These batteries are being installed all across the U.S. from GA to ME to CA to MN and more. Solar is still the cheapest electricity in the U.S., and American invented and manufactured energy storage is the perfect partner to driving down emissions in PA.