Harrisburg, Pa. − August 18, 2026 − Senator Maria Collett (D-12 Montgomery, Caucus Chair) released the following statement in response to Governor Josh Shapiro’s Executive Order restricting data center development in Pennsylvania:
“This is what it looks like when everyday people take on some of the wealthiest companies in the world to protect their neighborhoods.
For over a year, residents in Plymouth Township have organized against a hyperscale data center at 900 Conshohocken Road. They went to zoning hearings. They collected signatures. They asked hard questions while companies with billions in market value treated their neighborhood as a line item. Today, Governor Shapiro’s executive order proves they’re on the right side of this fight.
Data centers will now have to generate their own power instead of shifting the cost onto Pennsylvania families’ electric bills. They will have to give communities real notice before decisions get made, not after the fact. No state agency will be allowed to sign away the public’s right to know on their behalf.
These developers had every advantage in this fight. Money. Lawyers. Access. What they did not have was a community willing to back down. Pennsylvania’s constitution guarantees us clean air, pure water, and the preservation of our environment, and today the Governor used that guarantee to stand with residents over developers.
I am proud to represent a community that did not wait to be asked before they organized. That is how this fight gets won, in Plymouth Township and everywhere else in Pennsylvania facing the same fight.”
###