Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) · 2026
Signed August 18, 2026, Executive Order 2026-05 turns Pennsylvania's permitting and tax machinery into a set of conditions an AI data center must meet before the Commonwealth will help it get built. Every project is pulled out of the PA Permit Fast Track Program. The Department of Environmental Protection may not review a permit until the developer has made legally binding commitments to the state's GRID requirements, held a pre-application meeting, and entered a consent order and agreement, and no permit issues until the project has local approval. On power, developers must pay the full cost of the new electricity infrastructure they require, the Special Counsel for Energy Affordability is to work with the Public Utility Commission so that data centers lose service first when the grid is stressed, and the PUC is to charge data centers rather than ratepayers for reliability backstop auction costs. Operators must meet strict water conservation requirements and report annual water use, maximum daily demand, and energy consumption to DEP. Developers must run open community engagement, hire and train local workers, and enter community benefit agreements, and nondisclosure agreements with data center projects are prohibited. The state's Computer Data Center Equipment Exemption is conditioned on GRID compliance, so non-compliant projects lose the sales tax break. A public permit tracker map makes the pipeline visible.
Welcome the buildout, on the state's terms. Shapiro does not try to stop data centers or hand communities a veto in the abstract; he uses the levers a governor actually holds — the permit queue, the utility commission, and the sales tax exemption — to make state support conditional on a package of commitments. The design is about leverage rather than prohibition: a developer that declines the conditions is not barred from Pennsylvania, but it builds without fast-track permitting, without the tax break, and without the Commonwealth's help. Local approval as a precondition for state permits puts the community decision first in sequence without creating a new right to refuse.
Where the burden falls
In contrast
Abbott's directive came on August 3 and Shapiro's order on August 18, 2026, and they reach for the same instrument: the state's control over whether a data center gets connected and supported. Texas makes the grid connection itself the checkpoint — an audit of subsidies, power, water, community impact, and ownership before ERCOT approves the hookup, and denial for projects that fail. Pennsylvania spreads the leverage across permitting, utility rates, and the tax exemption, and adds two things Texas does not: a requirement of local approval before state permits issue, and a ban on nondisclosure agreements. A Republican and a Democratic governor, in two of the largest data center markets, arrived within weeks at the same position — build here, but on terms the state sets.
Compare with Abbott Data Center Audit→Derived from the proposal’s own policy documents
From the perspective of political opposition
Verbatim from podcast transcripts; each links to the moment it was said
“In this executive order, I'm making clear that non-disclosure agreements will not be permissible for data center projects. It is important that developers understand they need to be open on every single detail with our communities. And if they won't be, well, they are not welcome to do business in Pennsylvania.”
“Josh Shapiro, if you looked at the spectrum of the field, was probably the most overtly pro data center… and pro AI investment and all that kind of stuff. He was out really early on this stuff. And now you see him implementing really strict restrictions.”
“He did not go through the legislature on this. So for all his talk about Trump being a dictator and bypassing the norms, there is a bill in the Pennsylvania legislature which would regulate data centers. Shapiro, he's got no time for that.”
Enforcement Mechanism vs. Regulatory Scope
Prevention vs. Liability & Regulatory Authority
Innovation Priority vs. Worker Protection
Pre-deployment Obligations vs. Federal Preemption