Garrity Listens To Data Center Concerns While Shapiro Flip Flops
HARRISBURG, PA – Over the past month, State Treasurer and Republican nominee for Governor Stacy Garrity (R-PA) has done what Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) has refused to do: listen to the people of Pennsylvania.
Garrity has held five data center development listening sessions across Pennsylvania – from Wilkes-Barre Twp. in Northeast Pennsylvania to New Cumberland just outside Harrisburg, Hatfield in suburban Philadelphia to Cranberry Twp. in the exurbs of Pittsburgh, and just last Friday in Reading. The contrast between Garrity’s open dialogue with local and county leaders and Shapiro Harrisburg-knows-best policies could not be more different, and neither could either candidate’s consistency on the issue driving the discourse across Pennsylvania.
Less than a year ago, Josh Shapiro trumpeted Amazon’s plans to build $20 billion in AI infrastructure, with campuses in Salem Township and Falls Township – and additional Pennsylvania communities being targeted for data center investment. At the time, Shapiro proclaimed that he was “proud” of the Amazon project for data center projects in Luzerne and Bucks counties – saying his team “worked closely” with Amazon to “land this deal."
Now Josh Shapiro is singing a different tune on data centers. City & State called it an “evolution,” but the reality is that it’s a massive flip flop and attempt to sweep his “embrace” of data center development under the rug. As recently as February of this year, Josh Shapiro said Pennsylvania would lead the way in data center development during his 2026 budget address. Now, Shapiro claims to be putting guardrails on an industry he was championing just a few short months ago.
Unsurprisingly, Shapiro’s new standards do nothing to address the concerns raised by data center development or the sweetheart tax deals they already received – like those benefiting liberal billionaire Jeff Bezos. In addition to his leadership of Amazon, Bezos owns and operates The Washington Post, the paper of record for Democrat presidential candidates inside the DC Beltway, so it should shock absolutely no one that Shapiro would try to endear himself to Bezos in the lead up to the 2028 presidential primary election.
Whether at her January speech to the Pennsylvania Press Club, her April address to the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, or today - Stacy Garrity has spoken with one voice regarding data center development. She has repeated said that there needs to be:
- Transparency and clear rules of the road need to be instituted.
- Data center development demands thoughtful planning that focuses on affordable, reliable power that ensures development goals do not infringe on the needs of local communities.
- Developers must bring their own water and energy generation.
- Community engagement agreements must be signed with developers.
- Ratepayers must be protected.
- Local communities need to be protected through responsible noise ordinances.
- Data center development restricted to industrial and brownfield sites, not residential areas, so they can provide added value to the communities that house them.
- Local communities should have the final say on any data center development project because the people who live in the community should be those who determine their own future.
Because of the confusion created by the Shapiro Administration’s “all-things-to-all-people” data center development policy, Garrity is now calling for a pause in data center development to give communities the opportunity to update zoning laws. She will continue to discuss her plans and do what Josh Shapiro doesn’t, hear directly from the community leaders about the challenges they are facing.
PAID FOR BY GARRITY FOR PA
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