To Feed Data Centers, Pennsylvania Faces a New Fracking Surge

[Brenda]

Twenty years after fracking began to boost natural gas production in western Pennsylvania, residents are bracing for another surge in output as gas-fired power plants prepare to meet a big jump in electricity demand. At least five new energy-hungry data centers are planned in the region, most of which will power themselves by producing electricity by burning natural gas on site. The burst in activity is prompting predictions, by power companies as well as their critics, of drilling hundreds or even thousands of new gas wells to fuel the centers’ power demands.

Such concerns are not new in western Pennsylvania. For the last two decades, environmental advocates and researchers have accused the natural gas industry of polluting the air, polluting water through leaks and spills of chemicals used in fracking, and causing illnesses including cancer, asthma, and birth defects. The harms of fracking have been documented in a “compendium” of some 2,300 peer-reviewed studies from around the world published by the nonprofits Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York. The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, maintains that fracking for natural gas in Pennsylvania is safe, and that by replacing coal-fired generation it was responsible for a nearly 11 percent decline in the state’s carbon dioxide emissions between 2022 and 2023.

“Unconventional oil and gas development has led to the loss of water resources not just at the front end, with removal, but also contaminating aquifers to the point where communities have lost their potable water,” said Stolz. As fracking expands to meet data center power needs, he added, “conditions will get worse for the people of western Pennsylvania.”

This shit has been happening in Mexico and other countries in poor areas for years. Now it's here. Josh Shapiro is not on the side of the people of PA.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/pennsylvania-data-centers-natural-gas