Hazle Township, Luzerne County — Last night, amidst widespread community opposition to data centers, the Hazle Township Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a municipal curative amendment that pauses consideration of any new data center applications for six months to allow the township to update its zoning ordinances for this industrial use.

The move comes less than two weeks after a judge rebuked an effort by data center developer Northpoint to appeal the Township’s denial last fall of Project Hazelnut. If approved, the massive Amazon Web Services campus with fifteen hyperscale data centers covering 1,300 acres would be one of the largest in Pennsylvania. Project Hazelnut, a flagship in Governor Shapiro’s Fast-Track permitting program, was granted state permits to clear forests and begin construction activities, despite lacking local approvals.

In response, Food & Water Watch Eastern Pennsylvania Senior Organizer Ginny Marcille-Kerslake issued the following statement:

“Hazle Township has done what Governor Shapiro will not: stand up to Big Tech’s data centers. In the courts and at public meetings, Hazle Township supervisors have sided with their constituents over the destruction these unwanted data centers would bring.

“Across Pennsylvania, municipalities like Hazle Township are filling a void of leadership in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania needs to press pause on data centers — everywhere. Senator Muth’s data center moratorium, SB1359, is the bill to get us there.”

With today’s vote, Hazle Township joins a growing list of Pennsylvania municipalities to pause data center development with a municipal curative amendment. The move comes just over a week after Pennsylvania Senator Katie Muth filed a comprehensive bipartisan data center moratorium bill to pause industry development statewide for three years.

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