Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 2026-05 on Tuesday, converting what had been a voluntary certification program for AI data centers into legally binding requirements. The order makes the state’s Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) standards mandatory for any large data center — those with peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts — seeking to build in the state, and effectively gives local communities veto power over projects that fail to secure municipal approval.
The move reverses course from the voluntary approach Shapiro’s administration floated in May, after developers largely declined to opt in. Under the new order, the Department of Environmental Protection will only review a data center’s permit application once the developer has made a binding commitment to meet GRID’s standards on energy affordability, environmental protection, workforce development, transparency and community engagement — and has secured local sign-off first.
Fast-track permitting and NDAs are out
Data centers have been removed entirely from Pennsylvania’s Permit Fast Track Program, and state agencies are now barred from signing non-disclosure agreements tied to data center projects — a direct response to complaints that secretive negotiations had shut residents out of decisions affecting their electricity bills and local infrastructure. The order also directs the state’s Special Counsel for Energy Affordability to pursue new utility rules requiring data centers to cover certain grid costs themselves and to accept curtailment during emergencies unless they’ve lined up independent power supplies.
Transparency requirements round out the package: Pennsylvania will publish a public map of proposed facilities, and operating data centers will have to start reporting their annual energy and water consumption beginning in July 2027. According to the governor’s office, more than 100 data center projects have been proposed across the state, though only 20 have so far submitted formal permit applications to the DEP.
“I'm putting these developers on notice and letting them know that we will not let them bully Pennsylvanians, disregard our constitutional right to clean air and pure water, and drive up our utility bills,” Shapiro said.
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Pennsylvania joins a fast-moving state backlash
Shapiro’s order lands amid a broader wave of state pushback on data center growth. New York became the first state to formally halt new construction when Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order in July barring approval of new permits for facilities of 50 megawatts or larger, while New Jersey passed legislation on June 30 requiring data centers above that same threshold to cover their own infrastructure costs rather than shifting them onto residential ratepayers. Oklahoma and Vermont have separate moratorium bills pending that would pause large-scale data center development into 2029 and 2030, respectively, to give regulators time to study strain on water supplies, utility rates and property values.
The stakes for consumers are real: one widely cited Bloomberg analysis found that monthly power prices in some data-center-heavy areas inflated by as much as 267% between 2020 and 2025. At least 37 people have been arrested nationwide in 2026 while protesting AI data center projects, and in March, seven of the largest AI and cloud companies — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI — pledged to help fund new electricity generation to meet their own facilities’ demand, an acknowledgment that the industry’s power appetite has become politically untenable to ignore.
