Montour County, PA — This morning following months of overwhelming public pushback, the Montour County Commissioners voted to reject Talen Energy’s request to rezone more than 800 acres of agricultural land to industrial in order to make way for data centers. If approved, the request would have also allowed for expansion of Talen’s existing fracked gas power plant.

With the move, Montour joins a growing number of communities standing up against data center development In contrast, Governor Shapiro has embraced data center buildout across the Commonwealth. According to FracTracker Alliance, developers have submitted proposals for 23 hyper-scale data centers in Pennsylvania.

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

“There is a reason why communities are pushing back on data centers, with residents showing up and speaking out in unprecedented numbers, filling township meeting rooms in united opposition — these dirty operations are a taking of our resources so Big Tech and Big Oil can profit. The Montour County decision shows why local control over the siting of data centers and power generating facilities matters.

“Data centers and associated polluting fossil fueled energy threatens to increase electricity bills even higher, lower our quality of life, destroy farmland, and have untold consequences for the environment. Montour is proof that our elected officials can protect us when people like the governor are unwilling to.”

In October, Food & Water Watch became the first national group to call for a data center moratorium. Over 250+ organizations have since joined the call — including 17 from Pennsylvania.