Climate watch: Support for power permitting reform
The column supports federal power-permitting reform while examining Pennsylvania's efforts to expand electricity capacity, including power generation for data centers. It also discusses environmental concerns about natural-gas development and notes that the Pennsylvania House approved legislation intended to prevent data centers from bypassing local zoning rules, though the bill faces unlikely passage in the State Senate.
A federal permitting reform bill before the U.S. Senate, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, has been endorsed by Citizens’ Climate Lobby and supported in a Resources for the Future report. Advocates say faster permitting would expand electric transmission and connect more clean energy to the grid. In Pennsylvania, officials are studying 21 former power plant sites, including one in Milesburg, for possible redevelopment with technologies such as renewables, battery storage or small modular reactors.
The article links rising Pennsylvania natural-gas capacity and drilling activity to growing data center electricity demand, while environmental advocates warn that gas development could increase emissions and threaten nearby communities and water sources. A coalition recently rallied for larger protective buffers around gas wells. The Pennsylvania House also approved a bill that would prevent data centers from obtaining public-utility status and preempting local zoning ordinances, but the measure is not expected to pass the Republican-controlled State Senate during the current session.