It started with a routine open records request to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
We do this regularly — and you can, too! — to get more information and details on how government actually works.
My request, focused on communications about data center development, came back with extensive redactions. I appealed and got parts of it unredacted.
TECFusions, the company behind a data center campus that just took the place of a closing aluminum plant in Western Pennsylvania, sued to keep some parts secret. The developer is challenging the release of its full pitch deck to PA officials, arguing that it contains trade secrets or confidential proprietary information
Across the country, the rules around data centers are changing after years of competing to attract them. The records we requested in PA offer a look at decisions made at the beginning of an infrastructure boom.
Much of it is what you’d expect. A developer arrives with projections for investment, jobs, tax revenue and broader economic activity. Governments weigh those projections against other considerations and decide what support or conditions make sense.
In TECFusions’ case, the pitch was a serious undertaking. The company spent $250,000 on a slide deck for the state, according to court filings. It appears to have worked. The project subsequently received $2 million from state government.
But we don’t know what closed the deal, or which points officials prioritized over others.
Even though big developments often evolve and change as they move toward implementation, projections included in a pitch offer a reference point for holding developers accountable. Along with impact reports and public permitting data, they can help communities compare expectations with outcomes and set expectations before the first shovel hits the dirt.
Jobs and newly gained tax revenue are relatively straightforward to measure. The TECFusions data center in Western PA turned a shuttering plant into new opportunities. The local industrial development corporation credits the project with contributing to the region’s economy.
Changes to housing or quality of life can be harder to measure.
Residents across the US are increasingly opposing new data center developments for those reasons, including in the township where TECFusions is located; local leaders in May passed a moratorium on new construction.
“The cost-benefit tradeoff [of data centers] depends heavily on location and requires a detailed analysis,” said Yury Dvorkin, a member of the Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) at Johns Hopkins University. “This analysis is also likely to be much more dynamic than static, given that both the costs and benefits can change over time.”
Pennsylvania recently walked back some of its incentives by ending eligibility for sped up permitting and added new requirements, including annual energy and water reporting.
By the time new terms take effect, however, projects already approved or under development may be excused from some of the new restrictions — like TECFusions’ permits for Western PA’s Building J, which are exempt from the recent local moratorium.
3 things to know
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