A year after Pennsylvania fast-tracked Amazon’s $20 billion data-center buildout, the state has made itself harder to build in.
As of this week, large projects must now wait on local land-use approvals before state permits can move.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive order, formally Executive Order 2026-05, removes data centers from the PA Permit Fast Track Program. It also sets new Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) review rules for data center projects with peak demand above 25 MW. The rules apply to permit applications submitted after the order took effect on Aug. 18.
A second shift, making data centers pay grid costs that currently land on other ratepayers, still sits with regulators.
Local zoning dictates state timelines
The order creates a two-track system.
Developers willing to sign a project-specific consent order with DEP — committing to Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) Requirements — keep something close to the old speed. DEP reviews their permits on a rolling basis while local approvals proceed in parallel. But state permits cannot be issued until a project conforms to the local comprehensive plan and clears the required zoning and subdivision approvals.
Developers that skip the GRID agreement wait at the back of the line. DEP won’t open their applications until every required local approval is documented, along with any water-withdrawal or wastewater-discharge authorization. These developers don’t get rolling reviews nor access to the PAyback and Permit Decision Guarantee programs.
Fast track revoked for existing sites
The order reverses Pennsylvania’s approach in late May, when the original GRID standards treated compliance as a reward. Developers that secured their own incremental electric capacity, paid its full cost and covered the grid costs their projects created could earn a place in Fast Track. The new order keeps the obligations but swaps the prize: GRID compliance now grants rolling review, not priority status.
The change reaches the Fast Track’s marquee tenants. State pages listed Amazon Data Services’ Salem Township and Falls Township campuses as in-progress Fast Track projects — the same buildout Shapiro celebrated in June 2025, when he called the program “a big reason we were able to get this done.” The order now directs the state to remove existing data-center projects from the rolls, Amazon’s included.
Grid cost allocation awaits regulatory action
The electricity changes are not yet in force in the same way. The order directs Shapiro’s Special Counsel for Energy Affordability to seek Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) rules that would charge data centers for the costs they create, including those tied to the reliability-backstop procurement proposed by PJM Interconnection (PJM), the regional grid operator. The rules would keep those costs off other customers and assign commission-jurisdictional interconnection costs to data-center projects.
The proposed rules would also decide who loses power first. During specified grid emergencies, utilities would curtail data centers ahead of any other customer — unless a facility has secured enough incremental capacity to cover its full demand.
Pennsylvania regulators have also been circling this territory. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission adopted a model large-load tariff on April 30, with the final order entered May 12. The model — nonbinding guidance meant to shape future utility tariff filings — applies to customers exceeding 50 MW individually or 100 MW in aggregate. The new executive order pushes further on both fronts: a lower trigger, at 25 MW, and rules aimed squarely at backstop costs and curtailment.
Nor is Pennsylvania alone. Virginia regulators have moved to separate dedicated grid-connection costs for large loads from the transmission costs recovered from utility customers broadly.
Capacity charges drive the dispute
Data centers’ mounting electric bill is hard to ignore. Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s Independent Market Monitor, estimated that data-center load accounted for $6.3 billion, or 38.2%, of the $16.4 billion in capacity charges from the 2028–29 auction. Across four auctions, it attributed $29.4 billion, or 46.2%, of capacity charges to data-center load and argued for a dedicated auction.
Meanwhile, PJM has a supply problem. Its 2028–29 auction cleared 6,831 MW below the reliability requirement, and on July 31 the grid operator filed its Reliability Backstop Procurement proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), aiming to open procurement Sept. 30.
Pennsylvania’s permitting changes took effect with Shapiro’s signature. The money — who pays, and how much — still rides on what FERC and the PUC ultimately approve.