Data center moratoriums spread as Philly activists push back — SkimNews
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- Shawmar Pitts, a lifelong Grays Ferry resident and managing co-director of Philly Thrive, is leading a push for a data center moratorium in Philadelphia, where officials have identified two potential sites — including one in his own neighborhood, home of the former East Coast's largest oil refinery that closed after a 2019 explosion.
- Sonya Sanders, Philly Thrive's board president, told Monday's rally that her husband died of a rare bone cancer in 2020 and blamed refinery emissions, saying: "In my eyes, they killed him… it was the pursuit of profit that killed him."
- BloombergNEF projects that by 2035, U.S. data centers will consume more natural gas than Germany and Japan combined — nearly double the firm's projection from nine months ago — and add roughly 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution daily, about 12% of current U.S. emissions.
- New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order temporarily blocking the state from approving new permits for large data center projects, declaring they "should only be built in places that want them."
- Data center moratoriums have already been approved in Denver, Indianapolis, Asheville, Charlotte, and Reno, with more than 100 people attending the kick-off rally for the "No Data Centers in Philly" campaign at City Hall on Monday.
Why it matters: BloombergNEF nearly doubled its 2035 data center gas-demand forecast in nine months, and with moratoriums now spreading from Denver to Charlotte to New York, AI infrastructure siting faces mounting local resistance that could reshape where hyperscale buildout is even permissible.
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