AIBRIEF
Pa. has at least eight signed nondisclosure agreements between data center developers and the local officials who vote on their zoning, and two bills to ban the practice are moving in the legislature.
At least eight Pennsylvania officials have signed nondisclosure agreements with data center developers before any public meeting on the projects. Talen Energy asked Anthony Township Supervisor Craig High to sign one before a meeting that turned out to be about a data center. Schuylkill County Commissioner Chair Larry Padora signed one after his solicitor warned the deal was unenforceable under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know law; the only confidential item he left with was the end user's identity: Amazon. Two state bills to ban the practice are moving in the legislature.
Rep. Joe Ciresi's HB 2359 would condition a data-center tax exemption on a no-NDA pledge. It passed the House 171-31 on June 30 and now sits in Senate Finance. Sen. Tracy Pennycuick's SB 1408, a flat ban, is in the Senate Communications and Technology Committee, which she chairs. She aims to advance it when lawmakers return in September.
Microsoft has pledged to stop using NDAs with local governments. The Data Center Coalition calls a blanket ban a "slippery slope" and proposes duration and topic limits instead, per the Spotlight PA investigation.
If the bills pass with carve-outs that preserve the practice, the "ban" framing is overstated. Watch September.