Huge data centers are trying to move into towns across Lehigh and Bucks counties. Mark Pinsley and Jarrett Coleman are running for Pennsylvania Senate District 16, and they disagree on what to do about it.
In short:
- Mark Pinsley would put a statewide moratorium on new data centers, including the giant hyperscale ones, until Pennsylvania passes rules they must follow.
- Jarrett Coleman wrote a bill, Senate Bill 1345, that lets each town pause data centers on its own, for up to 18 months. The bill exempts some of the biggest projects and gives developers a way to ask to skip the pause.
What Coleman says
In October 2026, Coleman told The Morning Call that rising electric bills are one reason he opposes data center development in the communities he represents. He also said data centers should have to generate extra power for the grid. (The Morning Call, October 5, 2026)
On that last point, the two candidates agree. Pinsley also says data centers should add power to the grid, not take it from families, and pay for it themselves.
But opposing data centers in his own district is not the same as stopping them. Coleman’s bill leaves each town to act alone, for 18 months at most. A project turned away in District 16 can be built in the next county, and its power demands still land on the same regional grid and the same electric bills.
Pinsley’s plan: one statewide moratorium until there are rules
Pinsley would put a moratorium on new data centers across the whole state, including hyperscale data centers — the biggest facilities, the ones that use the most power and water. (Video)
He wants one pause for the whole state. It would not end on a set date. It would end when the legislature passes rules data centers must follow — on clean power, drinking water, noise, wages, cleanup bonds and paying their full power bill.
Why tie the pause to rules instead of a date? Because a pause that just runs out solves nothing. The same project comes back under the same old rules. A pause that ends only when rules exist forces lawmakers to write them.
Pinsley’s full list of rules: What rules does Pennsylvania put on data centers, and what would Mark Pinsley add?
What Coleman’s bill actually does
Coleman says his bill gives communities “the breathing room they need to regulate these projects on their own terms.” (Senate Local Government Committee) It covers large data centers — ones that use 25 megawatts or more of power to run their computers. The bill was amended in the Senate Rules Committee on July 11, 2026; this is what the current version says. (bill text · bill page)
1. Every town is on its own. Nothing is paused unless a town votes to pause it. Pennsylvania has more than 2,500 cities, boroughs and townships. Each one would have to act separately. A town that does not act gets no protection. And a project turned away in one town can try the town next door.
2. The pause runs out. It can last no more than 18 months. Then the town faces the same project, with the same power and water demands.
3. Towns have to do the homework. Before pausing anything, a town must hold a public hearing and put in writing why the pause is needed. It must also name the planning work it will do — such as studies of the power grid, water, public safety and the environment, and new local rules — and make reasonable progress on it during the pause. A small township with a part-time board is being asked to do work the state could do once, for everyone.
4. Some of the biggest projects don’t have to stop. The pause does not apply to a data center being built at a power plant and run on that plant’s power, if the deal was signed before the town’s pause began. These are among the largest and most controversial projects in Pennsylvania. Worse, the bill says those projects must be judged under the town’s rules from the date the power plant got its building permit — which may be before the town had any data center rules at all.
5. Developers get a way out. Every town’s pause must include a process for a developer to ask to skip it by claiming hardship. The town board then decides. A town can’t leave this out: if it does, it loses the bill’s protection against being sued for damages.
6. The pause doesn’t cover building permits. The original bill let a town’s pause reach building permits tied to a data center. The amended bill took that out. A pause now covers only zoning changes, conditional uses, variances and land development plans.
And one more: new rules a town writes during the pause don’t take effect until the pause is over, and they don’t apply to any project that applied before the pause started. So the rules a town spends 18 months writing may not touch the project that made it hit pause in the first place.
In a video, Pinsley put it plainly: “This bill is not a statewide moratorium.” Every town would have to pass its own. And he points to the part he finds worst: the bill requires each town’s pause to include a waiver process, so developers can ask to get around it. Pennsylvanians, he says, want a statewide moratorium, “not a bill that’s just a moratorium in name only.”
It is optional. It is temporary. It is town by town. It lets some of the biggest projects through. And it gives developers a door out.
Coleman hasn’t always said towns should decide
In 2025, Coleman voted for Senate Bill 311, which stops towns from limiting new natural gas hookups. It passed the Senate 34–15. (SB 311)
On gas lines, he voted to take the decision away from towns. On data centers, he says it belongs to them.
Where they agree: end the data center tax break
Since 2017, Pennsylvania has let data centers skip sales tax on their equipment — servers, cooling systems, generators and more.
Coleman has a bill to end that break, Senate Bill 1344 (2025–26). It would use the money to cut the gas tax, while keeping road and bridge funding whole. It is not a tax increase. (SB 1344)
Pinsley wants the tax break gone too. But he says ending it does not fix the real problem. Data centers use huge amounts of power and water and lean on public infrastructure — and nothing requires them to put any of it back. That is why he would stop approvals of new data centers until rules require them to pay their way — everywhere, not town by town.
Common questions
“Isn’t a statewide pause unconstitutional?” Some lawmakers argue it is. But towns get their power over land use from a state law, and the legislature changes that law all the time. Coleman’s own bill tells towns what kind of pause they can have and how long it can last. SB 311, which he voted for, tells towns what they can’t do about gas hookups. The state already sets these rules. The question is what the rules should say.
“Doesn’t this take power away from towns?” Pinsley says it does the opposite. Right now, a part-time township board has to negotiate alone against a company with far more lawyers and money. Statewide rules on power, water and cleanup bonds would settle the hardest questions in advance. Towns could then focus on what they know best: where a building goes, how it’s screened, and what it does to traffic.
“Won’t it scare off business?” Pinsley’s position is that, without rules, data centers — hyperscale ones most of all — cost Pennsylvania families more than they give back, in power, water and higher bills. Once the rules pass, data centers can come under the same rules in every town. The faster lawmakers act, the sooner that happens.
What’s at stake
Data centers are coming to Lehigh and Bucks counties now. Decisions made in the next two years will decide for decades who pays for new power plants, who lives with the noise and water use, and who pays to clean up when a data center shuts down.
Data centers also affect what everyone pays for electricity. See: How do Mark Pinsley and Jarrett Coleman compare on electric bills and utilities? For Pinsley’s full environmental plan, see: What is Mark Pinsley’s position on clean energy and the environment in Pennsylvania?
District 16 covers parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. The general election is November 3, 2026.
