As some states restrict AI data centers, critics call PA’s new standards ‘quixotically foolish’

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed an executive order Tuesday establishing strict new permitting standards for data centers, going on a press blitz blasting “greedy developers” as he joined the ranks of several other states that have moved to complicate data center development.

The order directs the state’s environmental department to only consider permitting the artificial intelligence (AI) facilities if they meet stringent requirements in what Shapiro framed as giving more power to local communities.

In July, New York became the first state to enact a one-year moratorium on large data center development, while several other states including Texas, Delaware, South Dakota, and Michigan have introduced or are considering similar restrictions as communities grapple with the proliferation of AI and its centers’ needs.

“We’re not going to let greedy developers bully their way into our communities in order to build reckless AI data centers,” Shapiro said on X on Wednesday. “If you want to build here in Pennsylvania, you’re going to need to follow the strictest standards in the nation – or you better find somewhere else.”

Opposition to AI development is aggressive, though it is in part spurred on by foreign cash and Soros-funded organizations, according to several Daily Wire reports. Local communities have voiced concerns over rising power costs, water use and job impacts.

The Trump administration has rallied around messaging that AI development is key to maintaining American dominance over China, though it has advanced a pledge to “protect ratepayers” as data center backlash has piled up across the U.S.

When asked about Shapiro’s move and similar state restrictions on AI development, the White House referred Heartlander News to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social on the New York memorandum.

“New York State has made a terrible decision,” Trump wrote on July 15. “Data Centers are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them. New York should change its Policy, IMMEDIATELY. The Radical Left Dumocrats must not be allowed to cause us to lose Data Centers, AI, and all of this incredible new Technology, to China, and other countries!”

Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and former Trump Environmental Protection Agency transition team member, told Heartlander News that AI proliferation is essential for the developing technological landscape.

“Like it or not, AI and data centers are here and necessary for the modern world. Governor Shapiro’s bid to strictly apply overly strict green rules as a way of discouraging data centers in Pennsylvania is quixotically foolish,” Milloy told Heartlander News. “America did not become the world’s lone global superpower with mindless NIMBY-ism or luddism. It won’t remain the lone global superpower with them either.”