Michael Sauers
May 29, 2026
Before Pennsylvania communities caught on to the enormity and consequences of data centers, warehouses, pipelines/fracking infrastructure, over-extended nuclear plants, electric transmission lines, etc., Governor Shapiro was totally on board with all of it. He often said he was for “all of the above” when it came to energy choices but it didn’t take long to see that he was cozy with fossil fuels, especially fracking. In November, 2023, while ignoring three studies from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health and University of Pittsburg outlining negative health impacts of fracking, he entered a toothless, voluntary monitoring/reporting scheme with CNX corporation, a company that has amassed more than one thousand environmental violations. The fracking industry would be big winners in the data center game plan.
From the beginning he talked about the AI race with China and how Pennsylvania would lead the way. He was and is running for President.
Now comes Shapiro’s GRID (Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development). He has lined up a host of shills, PA Building and Construction Trades Council, PEC, Penn Future, NRDC and Clean Power PA who dutifully applaud GRID. Unfortunately, he is missing one enormous and significant group, Pennsylvania citizens/voters. Pennsylvania citizens have come out in droves to fight data centers. THEY DON’T WANT THEM! They have more than a dozen good reasons to not want them; actual need, no community voice in process, land use, electricity rates, water usage, permanent jobs, habitat destruction, property value, impact on wildlife, noise pollution, light pollution, disruption to community life.
Shapiro’s GRID is a slap in the face to Pennsylvania communities. It received significant input from DCC (Data Center Coalition), an industry trade group and Amazon. Where is the input from Pennsylvania citizens? WHE CAN WE SAY NO!
Additionally, this whole canard of streamlining the permitting process is another slap in the face to Pennsylvania communities. Industry has been crying like babies and lobbying for this for decades. They want to speed up the permitting process thereby reducing the time communities have to study/research/question proposals being shoved down their throats. If anything, the opposite is what is needed with a healthy amount of state funding for experts, lawyers and advocates. They found their man in Shapiro.
He has totally ignored grassroots environmental, community, and economic development groups from the onset of his administration. GRID is tantamount to a Hollywood facade. It looks to control communities by setting agendas not of their making. No one ask them!
The man cannot be trusted.