State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is campaigning for the governorship this fall, is calling for a “total data center pause.”
Garrity recently released a three-minute video about Governor Josh Shapiro’s finalized guidelines (titled “Responsible Infrastructure Development”) for data centers, which he says will “empower communities” during and after development.
The new standards would require developers seeking state incentives and expedited permitting to meet requirements in four areas: Energy affordability, transparency and community engagement, workforce and economic development, and environmental protection.
The proposal would require developers to obtain a GRID Certificate before becoming eligible for Pennsylvania’s Permit Fast Track Program and certain tax benefits.
Garrity, who previously supported the sector, called the guidelines “damage control.”
“Josh Shapiro spent the last year rolling out the red carpet for massive data center development in Pennsylvania,” Garrity says in the video. “He celebrated it, he promoted it, he said he was proud of it. But now, after communities across our Commonwealth have started raising serious concerns, he wants you to believe he is suddenly the one putting up guardrails. Pennsylvania families should not have to pay the price for Josh Shapiro’s political cleanup operation, and that is why, as governor, I will pause data center development in Pennsylvania.”
Garrity made the comments Monday during a data center listening session with local leaders, emergency responders and residents in northeastern Pennsylvania. She said she believes a pause would be a more practical approach than an outright ban.
“I don’t think a full moratorium is necessary. I just think we need a pause to get it together, to make sure the zoning is updated, to make sure that nothing falls on the backs of ratepayers,” Garrity said. “Data centers coming in, they absolutely should be adding to the grid, not subtracting from the grid. And any kind of rate increases, that has to be on the data center.”
Shapiro for Pennsylvania spokesperson Manuel Bonder said in a statement:
Stacy Garrity is a desperate politician – and her long record of supporting completely unregulated data center development makes it clear that she just can’t be trusted. Governor Shapiro has worked directly with community, labor, and environmental leaders to develop and propose some of the strongest data center regulations and standards of accountability in the entire country. The Governor has made it clear that while we compete for major projects and lead on innovation, we must set strict standards and ensure these projects benefit our communities and don’t impose costs on Pennsylvanians – and that’s what he is focused on getting done.
According to Track Data Centers, a mapping tool created by Scranton native Emilia Doda, 76 new centers have been proposed in Pennsylvania (131 already exist, according to DataCenterMap.com).
In Montgomery County, six data centers already exist (four of which are in Upper Merion) and five new centers have been proposed. In April, the planning commissions of Montgomery and Chester counties released a “Data Center Ordinance Guide” to assist municipalities in developing ordinances to address the data center issue.
This guide offers the following on what zoning district is most appropriate to allow data centers:
In Southeast Pennsylvania, data centers are most appropriate in heavy industrial settings, which are typically located away from residential or other sensitive uses and may have existing power infrastructure . Depending on the scale of the data center and the distance from sensitive uses such as residences, schools, medical facilities, public places, and other institutional uses, light industrial districts could also be appropriate.
State guidance is similar. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development published a “Data Center Toolkit” for municipalities in May 2026. It states:
Heavy Industrial and technology park areas are well suited for data center development since they would be similar in scale to the types of intensive uses already contemplated for those areas. These areas are typically not adjacent to residential areas where the impact of the data center development would be a concern, and they can be more likely to have the infrastructure in place to support data center development.