Gov. Josh Shapiro's executive order restricting data center development in Pennsylvania won't halt the proposed 2-million-square-foot facility at 900 Conshohocken Road in Plymouth Township, opponents and advocates say, because that project is already deep in local zoning proceedings the order doesn't reach.
Shapiro signed Executive Order 2026-05 on Tuesday, Aug. 18, removing all data center projects from the state's Permit Fast Track Program and requiring developers to obtain local land-use approval before the Department of Environmental Protection will review their applications. The order also requires developers to bring their own power, sign legally binding consent orders, provide community-benefit agreements with local hiring commitments and bars state agencies from signing nondisclosure agreements related to data center projects.
"I have no other choice than but to take this executive action to protect the good people of Pennsylvania from these predatory developers," Shapiro said at a Harrisburg press conference.
But the order does not include a moratorium. And because MLP Ventures' Brian O'Neill is seeking zoning relief through Plymouth Township's Zoning Hearing Board, not a state permit, opponents say the executive order has no direct effect on the 900 Conshohocken Road proposal to convert the former Cleveland-Cliffs plate finishing site into a data center with 10 renovated steel mill buildings, standby generators and gas turbines.
State Sen. Maria Collett, D-12th Dist., directly named Plymouth Township in her response to the order, according to The Pottstown Mercury. Collett said residents have organized against the 900 Conshohocken Road proposal for more than a year, going to zoning hearings and collecting signatures, and called the executive order proof they are "on the right side of this fight."
Critics including Food & Water Watch and state Sen. Katie Muth are calling for a full statewide moratorium of at least three years. New York enacted the nation's first such moratorium, which opponents cite as the model Pennsylvania should follow. The executive order lasts only as long as Shapiro is governor; the next governor could reverse it on day one.
Limerick hearing adds regional pressure
Two days after the executive order, Limerick Township supervisors held a four-hour-plus public hearing Thursday, Aug. 20, on "Project Laurel," a proposed 192-acre data center between the Philadelphia Premium Outlets and the Limerick nuclear power plant. The project would clear 38 acres of woodland and draw energy equivalent to powering half a million homes, according to Patch.
The board declined to recognize the developer's expert witness after attorneys for the township and Spring-Ford School District questioned the landscape architect's credentials. The next Limerick hearing is set for Sept. 8.
A separate Linfield data center proposal by developer MCD7, on 55 acres of former Pennsylvania Game Lands adjacent to the old Publicker distillery site, faces a planning commission meeting Thursday, Sept. 10, and a conditional use hearing Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Plymouth's next hearing: Sept. 17
In Plymouth Township, the Zoning Hearing Board unanimously moved the next evidentiary hearing on the 900 Conshohocken Road proposal to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, at the Karen B. Weiss Meeting Room inside the Plymouth Township Municipal Building, 700 Belvoir Road, according to a township notice. The venue is significantly smaller than Colonial Middle School, where prior hearings drew hundreds of opponents.
Community organizer Ardis Lukens told Main Line Media News after the Monday, Aug. 17, board meeting that she wished the township had explored other options before moving to the smaller space. Approximately 9,000 people live within a square mile of the proposed site.
The township will livestream the Sept. 17 hearing at the Greater Plymouth Community Center, 2910 Jolly Road, Plymouth Meeting. The public comment portion is expected to be held at a larger venue.
