As developers eye Southwestern Pennsylvania as a hub for data centers, residents want to know what role Allegheny County will take in managing the industry’s potential impacts.
During a recent public meeting on Allegheny County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), community members cited concerns about data centers’ effects on air quality and property values, their heavy water and electricity use and carbon emissions, as well as potentially inflated estimates of the jobs they would create.
“The data centers are an issue,” said Tamisha Singletary, a member of the Taylor Park Orchard Tenders, a volunteer organization in Wilkinsburg. “The way the climate action plan is constructed is specifically geared towards resisting the negative impacts of data centers, right? So for it to not directly name that says something.”…