Data center supporters and critics argue over future in Pittsburgh area
Data centers are being heralded as the building blocks of a new economy. However, communities in the Pittsburgh area and across the nation are saying not so fast, citing few benefits and fearing they'll result in noise, water, and air pollution, and higher electric bills.
"If we're constantly having power outages, if we're paying more for electricity bills, if our property values go down, I can't see that outweighing all of that," Matt Lang of Springdale said.
But others say the region is uniquely poised to become a national leader in artificial intelligence, and the region should welcome data center development. With Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh creating innovative technologies, southwestern Pennsylvania has the old abandoned industrial sites on which to build the centers and natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to power them.
Proponents say those sites would then generate new tax revenue, and trade unions say they'll create thousands of new construction jobs while helping transform the local economy.
"It creates a lot of jobs for western Pennsylvania, and no one's poised better than western Pennsylvania to build data centers," Ken Broadbent of Pittsburgh Steamfitters Local 449 said. "We need to get going."
Square in the middle of the debate are town councils and planning boards, which are coming to realize they can't block most data centers but are hoping to impose guardrails and restrictions.
"They're private property, and they can do what they want with it," Lew Villotti of the Beaver County Corporation for Economic Development said. "If they're going to come, let's make sure they're the best projects that we can get."
In many ways, Beaver County is ground zero for future data center development, with three major projects in various states of development.
At Shippingport, crews are converting the old coal-fired power plant to natural gas, in part, to power a data center in its shadow. In Midland, developer Chuck Betters and partners are looking to build a data center at the Allegheny Technologies mill site. Other developers want to build a data center at the old Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Big Beaver.
Villotti supports the first two for converting former industrial sites, but does not support the racetrack project.
"It would be very difficult for them to meet our standards," Villotti said.
The nonprofit economic development organization has come up with four criteria for what it sees as good data center development:
- Proper site selection, as developers should reuse former industrial sites.
- The data centers should provide their own power and not saddle local users with higher electricity rates.
- They should be closed-loop water systems that don't waste or deplete water supplies.
- The developers should give something back to the host community, like training residents for jobs in AI.
Gov. Josh Shapiro supports similar guardrails, and there's a flurry of bills in Harrisburg, but Vilotti says the state needs comprehensive legislation. However, the labor unions are hoping things move along quickly, worried delays could force developers to take their projects elsewhere.
"We need to start doing things right, have guidelines," Broadbent said. "Let's make sure the public is comfortable with this. But we need to get moving."
