Michael Sauers

June 5, 2026

Governor Shapiro has dropped any semblance of wanting local communities to have the power to say NO to data centers. The power to say NO would be a stone in the shoe, a tac on the seat, a stick in the spokes for Mr. Shapiro’s full throttle support for these community altering behemoths. They would also screw up budget negotiations, piss off donors, disappoint stakeholders and weaken his presidential ambitions.

Yesterday, out came the Pennsylvania Data Center Tool Kit developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services. The Tool Kit embodies and emboldens GRID, Governor’s Responsible Industrial Development.

GRID is portrayed/marketed to local communities as something that gives them more control over something that is being forced down their throats. Big Brother (State of Pennsylvania) channels communities to well thought out planning and zoning paradigms that they have been working on behind the scenes for years. Evidence of this was obtained by Concerned Citizens of Montour County. Copies of communications received by CCMC via “Right to Know” reveal just how “hand-in-hand the State has been working with Amazon Web Services.

Fast tracking state permits, keeping affected communities out of the loop and shared effort on writing legislation are evident in the communications. Of course, corporate welfare plays a prominent role. There are major state tax exemptions and preferential tax zone programs. This is right out of Industry’s playbook and is a slap in the face to community autonomy.

The bottom line is that communities are not given avenues to say NO! Slowly but surely, all of this takes away local autonomy. Autonomy is replaced by the heavy boot of state government and industry on the throats of communities.

The answer to Governor Shapiro and all of the data center zealots, cheerleaders, unions, promoters is NO!