​Dec. 31, 2025: Map shows growing number of data centers growing across Pennsylvania (Spotlight PA)

Various articles

MSRKA-produced pieces on data centers

SRBC: Data centers can require a lot more water than people realize and where that resource comes from, who it impacts is key variable toward success (Sept. 8, 2025)

Price of AI series by Chesapeake Bay Journal

​Special series (The Price of AI) of stories doing a deep dive into data centers from the Chesapeake Bay Journal:  Data centers don’t produce forever chemicals, but they are baked into much of the hardware due to their water-repellant and heat-resistant properties. Two specific carcinogenic forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, are banned in manufacturing so they shouldn’t be in new technology. But thousands of other PFAS, which range in durability and toxicity, are legal to use.
In data centers, these chemicals are used in two main ways: in semiconductors in computer servers and in cooling systems reserved for especially large data centers, like those that process artificial intelligence.Each data center is equipped with sometimes dozens, sometimes hundreds of tractor trailer-sized generators largely running on diesel or natural gas. Burning these fossil fuels for power emits pollutants such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and carbon dioxide. Some of these pose risks to human health while others degrade air quality in general, affecting the environment and the water where pollutants eventually flow.
Computer servers running nonstop inside these warehouse-like data centers generate heat. To keep them cool and running efficiently, most data centers use evaporative cooling systems. The systems use water to transport the heat out of the buildings into cooling towers. One researcher compared the process to the way sweat is emitted to help cool the human body.
While evaporative systems are the most common, air cooling (essentially air conditioning) is an option that uses less water but more electricity. Synthetic liquid cooling is also used at some specialized data centers. And, in Loudoun County, VA, some data centers use reclaimed water for cooling purposes.
​Electrical energy may seem like an unlimited resource in the United States, where grid operators are federally mandated to ensure the lights stay on. But the insatiable appetite of artificial intelligence has begun to strain that power system in a way that is also threatening environmental goals. 

Environmental concerns

A rash of data centers planned for western Pennsylvania has residents and environmentalists on edge. The sprawling complexes will be powered by plants that burn fracked natural gas, whose production has caused air and water pollution in the region and has known health risks. The number of wells fracked in Pennsylvania has started to increase as a spike in demand for power has translated into higher natural gas prices. Through Monday, fracking companies had started drilling 428 wells thus far in 2025 — a 50% increase over the same period in 2024, data from the Department of Environmental Protections shows. Most of the uptick came in the second and third quarters as demand for power surged. In the first quarter of the year, natural gas drillers started 94 horizontal wells, six fewer than they had in the same period in 2024, according to the state Independent Fiscal Office. A single data center can evaporate up to five million gallons of water per day — or roughly equal to the use of a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people — according to the nonprofit Environmental and Energy Study Institute. The bulk of that use goes toward cooling the heat generated by computer servers and other equipment.  Families in Granbury, TX, who are experiencing heart palpitations and chest pain, migraines, tinnitus, and hearing loss thanks to the exhaust fans of Bitcoin’s data center air-cooling system that runs 24/7.

Fracking-based stories

The increase in data centers and the energy required to run them is expected to cause a new spike in fracking across the state. More than a decade after fracking first started in PA, an increasing number of stories related to spills and concerns have been reported, including the following:
Pennsylvania is still cleaning up decades’ worth of coal mining pollution. Now it must also contend with millions of tons of fracking waste, some of it radioactive. Former government officials say the state isn’t doing enough to regulate fracking waste, even as new research shows it’s far more radioactive than previously known. More than a decade after regulators promised to improve reporting standards for this waste, an Inside Climate News investigation found huge discrepancies in state records. The fracking industry says its operators strictly adhere to regulations, and it has “no greater priority” than ensuring worker and community safety. Grove City residents are concerned that the landfill will accept oil and gas waste and further pollute nearby waterways. As production of natural gas soared, so has the fracking industry’s production of toxic and often radioactive waste. An EPA investigation confirmed residents’ worst fears about operations at an industrial landfill. What happens next is all too uncertain. Researchers detected increased radioactivity in mussels downstream of oil and gas wastewater discharge points, raising concerns about effects up the food chain. 

Economic concerns

​Record capital expenditures and data-center planning run up against the ground truths of physical infrastructure
Artificial intelligence may change the world, but the data centers that power AI are likely to be economically insignificant for Pennsylvania

Additional local stories

Below are local stories concerning data centers that don't necessarily fit into the other categories on this page. If you are looking for stories related specifically to the Montour County rezoning situation connected to Talen Energy, go here.

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