Archbald, PA, fights data centers in AI development rush

Residents of Small Pennsylvania Town Resist 6 Planned AI Data Center Campuses

With little available affordable housing, residents of a trailer park are set to be evicted to make way for the centers.

Archbald, PA, fights data centers in AI development rush

This story was produced by Grist and co-published with Spotlight PA. “I DON’T LIKE TO SEE ANYONE UPSET,” said Nick Farris of Provident Real Estate Advisors. He was sitting in the front of a crowd of roughly 150 inside Valley View High School’s auditorium in Archbald, a town of about 7,500, huddled between two mountain ranges in Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna Valley. Farris was there to represent the developer for Project Scott, one of many data cente…

The AI boom has plunged a small Pennsylvania town into chaos

“I don’t like to see anyone upset,” said Nick Farris of Provident Real Estate Advisors. He was sitting in the front of a crowd of roughly 150 inside Valley View High School’s auditorium in Archbald, a town of about 7,500, huddled between two mountain ranges in Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna Valley. Farris was there to represent the developer for Project Scott, one of many data center campuses coming to town. “However,” he said. “I think that this is …

Six data center campuses planned for one borough

This story was produced by Grist and co-published with Spotlight PA.

Pennsylvania’s data center problem

Few issues are as simultaneously innocuous, contentious and far-reaching as data centers, despite their recent emergence. With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and its adoption across industries, it seems like data centers have sprung up nearly everywhere. With that, however, there have been constant debates about whether their noticeable environmental and economic impact on communities is inherently outweighed by their perceived econom…