Pennsylvania ups data‑centre oversight

Pennsylvania’s House passed two bills on April 13 that would force more disclosure from data centers and give municipalities a state-written zoning template to regulate them. (palegis.us 1) (palegis.us 2) House Bill 2150, sponsored by Representative Kyle Mullins, passed 133-68. It would require annual reporting of energy and water consumption by data centers and impose a penalty for noncompliance. (palegis.us) House Bill 2151, sponsored by Representative Kyle Donahue, passed 124-77. It would require the Local Government Commission to publish a model zoning ordinance for data centers within nine months of enactment. (palegis.us 1) (palegis.us 2) That model ordinance would cover height and size limits, setbacks from residential zones, water and sewage use, electric supply, noise and vibration, emergency planning, landscaping, parking and aesthetics. Municipalities could ask the commission for help adopting, amending or repealing local rules. (palegis.us) (legis.state.pa.us) The House has already moved a broader bill, House Bill 1834, that would put the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in charge of statewide data-center rules tied to grid costs and power procurement. The chamber passed that measure 104-95 on March 24, and it now sits in the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee. (palegis.us) (cityandstatepa.com) House Bill 1834 would bar utilities from shifting certain data-center-related infrastructure and reliability costs onto other customers, according to City and State Pennsylvania. It would also phase in a clean-energy requirement for commercial data centers, starting at 10 percent in 2027 and rising to 32 percent in 2035. (cityandstatepa.com) (palegis.us) The push comes as Pennsylvania lawmakers and local officials confront a fast-growing pipeline of projects tied to artificial intelligence and cloud computing. A January 2026 Joint State Government Commission report cited 101 active data centers in Pennsylvania, and City and State Pennsylvania reported another 54 proposed sites. (jsg.legis.state.pa.us) (cityandstatepa.com) Democratic lawmakers have framed the bills as a response to local complaints about electricity demand, water use and land-use conflicts. Republican Representative Craig Williams said in March that the broader House approach did not match Governor Josh Shapiro’s infrastructure principles and did too little to encourage new power generation. (wfmz.com) (cityandstatepa.com) The two April 13 bills now head to the Senate, where lawmakers will decide whether Pennsylvania’s next data-center boom comes with statewide reporting rules and a playbook for local zoning fights. (palegis.us 1) (palegis.us 2)