Data center restrictions tracker · Pennsylvania

Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania: data center moratorium (2025)

Data snapshot 2026-08-15 · part of Pricing the Fear of Data Centers

Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, adopted a data-center moratorium on October 1, 2025. Its status in this snapshot is in force.

The record reads: "Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan asked Governor Shapiro and the PA General Assembly for a three-year statewide moratorium on new large-scale data center approvals. The county alone has at least 11 proposed data center campuses… (datacentertracker.org)."

Details

ActionClassStatusDateMW thresholdScopeSource
Moratoriumrestrictionin forceOctober 1, 2025county-widedatacentertracker.org

Jurisdiction type: county. County: Lackawanna County. Dataset: datacentertracker. Snapshot August 15, 2026; documented actions, not a census.

Elsewhere in Lackawanna County

Pennsylvania context

Pennsylvania has 50 documented local actions across 48 jurisdictions in this snapshot. There is no statewide restriction, incentive rollback, or large-load tariff on record for Pennsylvania in this snapshot.

A town that says no to a data center gives up local tax revenue, not jobs: one large campus pays $2M to $90M a year depending on the tax regime, against roughly 50 permanent jobs. The parent piece prices it and lists the conditions that beat a ban.

Sources

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