Shapiro finally put brakes after Amazon deals and local rage over rising bills.
Stossel pretends the power pain and community fights are just hysteria.
Main players are Shapiro the developers and regular Pennsylvanians stuck with higher rates.
Governor Josh Shapiro signed an Executive Order (EO) directing the Department of Environmental Protection to only review permit applications if developers have made a legally binding commitment to meet the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) Requirements and have received local approval.
The GRID Requirements demand developers meet strict standards on energy affordability, environmental protection, workforce and economic development, transparency, and community engagement.
The Executive Order removes all AI data center proposals from the Fast Track permitting process and prohibits the use of nondisclosure agreements for data center projects.
Read the full Executive Order here(opens in a new tab).
Texas froze every new data-center power hookup in early August while they run a full audit.
New Jersey towns are already in court. Builders sued them last week over local bans and call the opposition “public hysteria.”
Local groups blocked or delayed $130 billion in projects in just the first three months of 2026. Michigan alone has more than 50 towns pushing freezes.
Virginia just forced the utilities to dump extra grid costs straight onto the data centers and added a new power tax that will bring in $600 million a year.