Center for Coalfield Justice

A new national poll found that 63% of voters, across party lines, support halting Ai data center construction.

Pennsylvania is one of the only states with an Environmental Rights Amendment written into our Constitution. It makes the Commonwealth the trustee of our air, water, and natural resources for EVERY Pennsylvanian. Our Supreme Court has made it clear that this duty demands prudence before allowing irreversible harm.

We already know that the impacts of these massive hyperscale data center facilities don’t stop at municipal borders. The electricity they consume strains the regional grid. The water they use affects neighboring communities. The impacts ripple far beyond the municipalities where they are built.

Yet instead of meeting that constitutional responsibility, Harrisburg has largely left individual communities to fend for themselves against billion-dollar corporations while applications continue moving forward across the Commonwealth.

If some lawmakers insist they lack authority for a statewide moratorium, they should explain why they’re willing to offload the burden onto local governments while simultaneously advancing patchwork legislation filled with soft standards, optional compliance language, and enforcement gaps that industry will continue to bypass. It’s a strategy that furthers Pennsylvania's legacy of allowing industry to benefit from our natural resources and infrastructure, while leaving the people that live here to deal with the impacts and clean up the mess.

The people are speaking loud and clear. Pennsylvanians understand that we only get one chance to protect our water, our communities, and our future. Harrisburg should start acting like it.

Check out archival footage and photos from decades of community gatherings at Ryerson before you meet us in the park for 20th Annual DRYerson Festival this Saturday from 1-4PM!