| Submit a Comment Opposing Data Centers to the PA Public Utility Commission Comments Due 12 p.m., May 27 – Use our EZ form to comment! The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is soliciting comments on data centers and their impact on the grid. The commission recently approved a motion by PUC Chairman DeFrank calling for an En Banc hearing featuring expert testimony on a number of questions published in the notice for the hearing. The notice also announced a 30-day comment period following the hearing. The public is invited to submit comments. We have developed an EZ form that makes it easy to submit a comment. All you have to do is write short opening and closing statements and then select from lists of bullet points the ones you’d like your comment to include. We’ll format your comments as PDF files and upload them to the PUC docket. The first two bullet points on our form address topics from the En Banc hearing. Large load customer representatives who spoke at the PA PUC En Banc Hearing expressed the belief that projects that provide co-located load generation (i.e., new gas- or nuclear-generated power generation for their exclusive use) should receive priority approval with early access to impact studies and flexible tariffs. Considering the number of these projects that have been proposed, this will completely dominate the approval process, further pushing back renewable energy projects that have been delayed in the PJM queue already and rushing project approval for data centers in a rapidly changing and uncertain market. Large load customer representatives at the PA PUC hearing also expressed both interest in receiving priority approval and concern that they could be discriminated against due to their very large size. Representatives of electric distribution companies (EDCs) made it very clear that these loads are unlike what they usually deal with. The representative from Duquesne Light said even one of these projects could increase their total load by 30%, and the representative from PECO said the 3.8 GW proposed in their region by 4 projects would increase load by 40% with 8 GW more proposed. Our other points speak to issues regarding the development of data centers in Pennsylvania that the state has not addressed publicly. DeFrank opens his motion with some assumptions that we believe should be challenged. For instance, he claims that data centers “represent a tremendous opportunity for the state in terms of jobs.” That claim is not borne out by the facts. Massive, sprawling data centers employ very few permanent workers, some of whom are specialists who are not hired from the local community. Data Centers are a hot topic in other parts of our government, as well. Currently, State Reps. Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland), Kyle Mullens (D-Lackawanna) and Jamie Barton (R-Berks & Schuylkill) are circulating a co-sponsorship memo for a bill they plan to introduce that would accelerate data center permitting. We also learned that Governor Josh Shapiro convened a closed-door meeting on data centers on March 12 he called “Bolting Into Action.” The public was not made aware of the day-long meeting attended by 225 “stakeholders.” We have filed a Right-to-Know request for information about what was discussed. We should not have to do that. We will share the comments you submit with the Governor, state legislators, and regulators. We have seen the state jump feet first into what they perceived as business opportunities many times in recent memory. The state never did a single study on the potential impacts of fracking until more than 15 years after the first well was fracked. Since then, the government worked to turn Pennsylvania into a petrochemical hub to process fracked ethane, a participant in two hydrogen hubs that would support continued fracking for methane, and an exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Now the state wants to attract data centers to Pennsylvania like the proposed Homer City center that would be powered off-grid by the largest natural gas power plant in the country. Behind every one of these businesses is the fossil fuel industry that wants to continue growing even as the planet burns. We object to our government’s efforts to enable it. Please let our government know that they should look before they leap into opening the state to massive data centers! The deadline to comment is noon on May 27. Photo credit: chaddavis.photography from United States, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
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