Mark Pinsley, the Lehigh County Controller and Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania Senate District 16, would raise Pennsylvania’s clean energy standards, build renewable power and grid upgrades with apprenticeship-trained trades workers, and make polluters, not communities, pay to clean up. He faces Republican incumbent Jarrett Coleman on November 3, 2026, in a district covering parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties.
In short:
- Raise the state’s clean energy standard. It has been stuck at 8% since 2021.
- Build renewables, battery storage and grid upgrades with apprenticeship-trained trades workers, creating jobs a computer can’t do.
- Make polluters pay, so cleanup costs don’t land on families and towns.
- Make data centers supply their own clean power, at least as much as they use, keep them off our drinking water, and put new ones on hold statewide until there are real rules.
Clean air is already a right in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s constitution says the people have “a right to clean air, pure water,” and to the preservation of the environment. (Pa. Const. art. I, § 27)
The air doesn’t live up to it:
- About 1.18 million Pennsylvania children live where the air reaches unhealthy levels. (American Lung Association, 2026)
- The Philadelphia region ranks 17th worst in the nation for year-round particle pollution. (WHYY)
- The Pittsburgh metro area failed all three of the Lung Association’s air quality measures. (American Lung Association, 2026)
Pennsylvania stopped raising its clean energy goal
Pennsylvania’s clean energy standard comes from a law passed in 2004. It topped out at 8% of the state’s electricity in 2021 and hasn’t gone up since, while neighboring states set far higher targets. (Sierra Club Pennsylvania)
Pinsley would raise it. A higher standard tells builders and utilities that Pennsylvania wants new clean power built here, along with the jobs that come with it.
Clean energy jobs are jobs AI can’t take
Building solar and wind, installing battery storage and upgrading the grid takes electricians, line workers and construction crews. Pinsley would build that work around apprenticeships, so workers earn while they learn a trade that’s in demand.
He makes the connection to artificial intelligence directly. As AI replaces some jobs, workers need somewhere to land, and skilled trades work on the energy system is one of the best answers. More: What is Mark Pinsley’s position on AI, jobs, and personal data in Pennsylvania?
Make polluters pay
When a company pollutes and leaves, the cleanup bill too often falls on the town and its taxpayers. Pinsley would make sure the polluter pays.
He applies the same principle to data centers. He would require a cleanup bond of 125% of the cost of tearing a facility down, so taxpayers never pay to remove an abandoned data center. More: What rules does Pennsylvania put on data centers, and what would Mark Pinsley add?
Data centers: the new environmental fight
Data centers use enormous amounts of power and water, and they are coming to Lehigh and Bucks counties now. Pinsley would:
- Put a statewide moratorium on new data centers, including hyperscale ones, the biggest users of power and water. (Video)
- Keep it in place until the legislature writes real rules into law.
- Require their own clean power. Each data center must bring at least as much new renewable power onto the grid as it uses, and phase out fossil fuels. Buying certificates on paper doesn’t count. (Video)
- Protect drinking water. More below.
- Set noise and vibration limits, checked by someone independent.
A first step passed the House in March 2026. House Bill 1834 would make data centers pay for their grid upgrades and get a growing share of their power from clean sources. It is now in the Republican-controlled Senate. (House Roll Call 878 · City & State Pennsylvania · GovTech)
Communities are already pushing back. In Upper Macungie Township, the zoning board rejected Air Products’ 2.6 million-square-foot data center, and the company dropped it in August 2026. (Video) More: How do Mark Pinsley and Jarrett Coleman compare on data centers?
Water: “The answer is no”
Data centers make enormous heat, and most cool it with water. That can mean a constant draw of fresh water, day and night, from the same rivers, wells and aquifers families depend on.
The chemicals add a second problem. Data centers treat cooling water to stop rust, mineral buildup and bacteria. As the water cycles through again and again, those chemicals and minerals become highly concentrated. Eventually the wastewater has to go somewhere, often to a local sewage plant that was never built to handle it. When it overwhelms that system, the community pays to fix it, not the data center.
Pinsley points out that better options already exist:
- Using seawater or greywater instead of drinking water.
- Immersion cooling, where servers sit in a non-conductive fluid instead of touching water.
- Engineered refrigerants that pull heat away more efficiently than water.
- Air-based cooling systems.
- Heat reuse, where waste heat is captured to warm buildings instead of being dumped.
Developers rarely mention these when they come to a town, because using local drinking water is cheaper. Pinsley would require data centers to use them.
His line is firm. In his video on data centers and water, he says that if companies can’t cool their servers without depleting and contaminating the water families depend on, “the answer isn’t ‘let’s negotiate.’ The answer is ‘no.'”
Jarrett Coleman’s record
- Carbon limits on power plants. In 2025, Coleman voted for Senate Bill 1068, which would undo the rules that put Pennsylvania in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI is a multistate program that limits carbon pollution from power plants. (SB 1068 · Roll Call 253)
- Gas hookups. In 2025, he voted for Senate Bill 311, which stops towns from limiting new natural gas hookups. It passed the Senate 34–15. (SB 311)
- Scorecard. The conservative group Americans for Prosperity’s scorecard shows Coleman voting its way on both bills. (AFP scorecard)
- Infrastructure. He has voted against all four capital budgets of his time in office. Capital budgets pay for infrastructure projects, including the grid. (RC 301 · RC 650 · RC 287 · RC 498)
Where they agree: Coleman told The Morning Call in October 2026 that data centers should have to generate extra power for the grid. Pinsley agrees, and would require that power to be new and clean. (The Morning Call, October 5, 2026)
Common questions
“Won’t clean energy raise my electric bill?” Data centers are already raising bills across the region. The grid’s independent watchdog has tied rising power costs to data center demand. (WHYY) Pinsley’s plan makes the biggest new users build their own new power instead of passing the cost to families. More: How do Mark Pinsley and Jarrett Coleman compare on electric bills and utilities?
“Is this a job killer?” Pinsley’s plan is a jobs plan. Renewables, battery storage and grid upgrades are built by trades workers, and he would train more of them through apprenticeships.
“Isn’t the environment a federal issue?” Pennsylvania’s own constitution guarantees clean air and pure water. Pennsylvania sets its own clean energy standard, and Pennsylvania decides where data centers go and what they owe. These are state decisions.
District 16 covers parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. The general election is November 3, 2026.
