This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Plans to build more than 50 data centers in Pennsylvania face opposition from a growing network of community groups, environmental activists and state lawmakers from both major parties.Driven by concerns about the industry’s huge electricity demands, heavy water consumption, use of polluting diesel generators for backup power and industrialization of rural areas, an increasing number of grassroots groups are mobilizing in an attempt to stop or at least delay the massive buildout.The opponents say the popular outcry against data centers is stronger than previous community campaigns against the resource-rich state’s extractive industries, which include coal and natural gas.“It’s been unbelievable,” said Karen Feridun, co-founder of Better Path Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy and protests against data centers and other sources of climate pollution. “Having done this for 19 years, and worked on fracking, I have never seen the kind of response where everybody is opposed.”Feridun said the growing number of critics has been driven in part by a public perception that the government is encouraging the industry to move into the state while paying little attention to the impact on people who live near the planned data centers. A Facebook group she set up Jan. 9 to help Pennsylvanians organizing against data centers quickly topped 500 members.“These people are seeing firsthand what happens when government comes in and makes deals with these big companies and really not consult the public to find out if they are really OK with it, or to find out what they would need to see happen for them to be OK with it,” Feridun said. “It’s just been sort of dumped on everybody.”According to Data Center Proposal Tracker, a website that tracks public plans for data centers, 52 projects are in the early planning stages, officially proposed or under construction throughout the state. They include an Amazon Web Services data center in Salem Township, for which the company would pay $18 billion to Talen Energy to supply up to 1.92 gigawatts of nuclear power from an adjacent plant through 2042; a plan to construct 22 buildings on two campuses covering more than 470 acres at Archbald borough in northeast Pennsylvania; and the Aliquippa Data Center Campus in western Pennsylvania’s Beaver County on the site of a former steel mill.Neither the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, nor Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, a developer of large data centers, responded to requests for comment about local pushback. Industry supporters have said that the growth brings jobs and significant tax revenue.Data center opponents scored a notable victory in February when commissioners in Montour County in central Pennsylvania denied a proposed rezoning that would have allowed construction of a data center.Sam Burleigh, a resident who helped to lead public opposition to the plan, attributed the commission’s ruling to the strength of that opposition. Although his pressure group, Concerned Citizens of Montour County, started in August 2025 with only four members, it soon gathered hundreds of supporters across the county.Four days after the group formed, its first town hall meeting drew some 120 people, Burleigh said. A petition to commissioners the group organized was signed by about 3,000 people, or about twice the total population of the township where the land in question is located.How lawmakers are respondingDemocratic state Sen. Katie Muth said in a February memo to fellow senators that she will soon propose a three-year moratorium on data center construction to give local governments—which make land-use decisions—time to evaluate risk, enact protective ordinances and update zoning.“A three-year moratorium is a measured, responsible and necessary step to protect public health, safety, fiscal stability and environmental integrity while ensuring that future decisions are informed, coordinated and equitable,” Muth’s memo said.Across the aisle, state Rep. Jamie Walsh, a Republican representing parts of Luzerne County, said he too will soon introduce a package of bills to regulate the development of data centers. “These proposals are not anti-technology,” Walsh wrote in a memo. “They are pro-community and pro-taxpayers, grounded in the simple idea that long-term development must serve the public interest and provide real benefits to local communities.”Pennsylvania’s House Energy Committee on Monday narrowly approved a bill that would direct state officials to write a model ordinance for municipalities faced with data center applications. HB 2151, which passed 14-12 and is supported by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, was also amended to clarify that towns would not be required to use the ordinance if the measure becomes law.