With Data Centers, PA Can Reinvent Itself Again

No state built America more than Pennsylvania.

Coal from the Appalachians powered the country through the Industrial Revolution, and Pittsburgh's steel framed the skylines of every major city across the country. While many of the factories and furnaces that fueled Pennsylvania’s rise as an industrial powerhouse have shuttered, communities across the Commonwealth have a chance to revitalize the region through investments in energy and AI infrastructure – but only if local residents have a seat at the table.

Take, for example, Homer City. For decades, the Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County was the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, serving as an anchor for the local economy. When it was decommissioned in 2023, the region lost 129 jobs, a hub of local economic activity, along with a way to make a good living for many residents.

As we've seen elsewhere in the country, sales tax revenues can also benefit communities greatly – such as $50,000 bonuses for teachers in Louisiana.

Homer City should serve as an example for other communities across Pennsylvania about how to responsibly balance revitalization while attracting new investment.

Local officials, business groups, teachers, and residents alike can be active participants in the process. Indiana County’s chief planner Byron G. Stauffer Jr. said in a recent article that county commissioners there are taking proactive steps now, before any data center proposals are submitted, “to assure protection of natural resources and communities through responsible development policies.”

The developer has also committed to using local labor, another example of working with community leaders throughout the process.

The same story arc is playing out in communities big and small across the state. Pittsburgh, a city once synonymous with steel, is repositioning itself as a serious contender in the AI economy of the future.

By combining Carnegie Mellon University’s location, the region's natural gas reserves, and an aggressive public-private push through the AI Strike Team, Pittsburgh has put itself in the conversation for one of the world’s leading AI and technology hubs. The Strike Team has set a goal of attracting 100,000 tech jobs to the region with the mission of expanding statewide as part of Pennsylvania's broader push to compete for AI capital.

The storyline of converting Pennsylvania's industrial bones into the AI startups and energy investment of the future is something that can be replicated throughout the Commonwealth. But this growth is incumbent on investment and buy-in from local communities.

Data center developers must engage with communities early and often, addressing concerns about electricity costs, water use, noise pollution, and pressure on local infrastructure. Residents deserve clear, credible information about a project’s impact, and public education around data centers will be essential to an informed local conversation. Failure to do these things can result in citizen skepticism and anxiety that manifests itself in pushback against such projects. Data shows that at least a plurality is indeed skeptical of AI at large.

Penn Forest Township in Carbon County offers perhaps the most studious model to date, with local officials there advancing what may be the most restrictive data center ordinance in the state, with noise, water, and aesthetic standards. It’s proof that a community can be involved and still land a project that brings jobs and investment.

While the mines and mills may have quieted, there is a new era of industry knocking at the door, and Pennsylvania has a chance to tell its own comeback story. But before they do, communities need to ensure they have a seat at the table and engage in the process of responsible data center development, or they risk being left behind. 

Christopher Brooks is a professor of history at East Stroudsburg University.