What changed
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an order, effective immediately, removing data centers from the state's Fast Track permitting program and barring state agencies from signing nondisclosure agreements with developers. The order also emphasizes environmental, ratepayer, transparency, and local-approval safeguards.
Why it matters
AI infrastructure schedules now face a clearer state-level governance constraint: speed, electricity and water impact, community consent, and public disclosure cannot be collapsed into one project milestone.
What to do
For every Pennsylvania data-center plan, separate site control, local approval, environmental permits, grid studies, power contracts, construction, energization, hardware installation, and service availability; remove Fast Track assumptions from schedules and risk registers.
Caveat
The new order is verified through same-day independent reporting; the full order was not yet indexed on the governor's public site during this review. Existing GRID standards provide official background, but project-level effects will depend on agency implementation, permits, and local decisions.