HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania lawmakers have ordered a statewide study of who should bear the cost of dismantling retired data centers, advancing an examination of potential financial liabilities for municipalities as large-scale computing facilities become a growing land-use concern.
The state House voted 203-0 on October 20 to adopt House Resolution 630, sponsored by state Rep. Christina Sappey, D-Chester, directing the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to assess data-center decommissioning costs, existing regulations and potential financial safeguards.
The resolution requires the committee to examine the typical expenses associated with closing data centers, including the potential environmental, fiscal, and local government consequences.
It also calls for a review of existing state and municipal ordinances, financial-assurance requirements, and instances in which parties other than facility owners have paid decommissioning costs.
The committee must evaluate anticipated retirement dates for operating Pennsylvania data centers and submit findings and legislative recommendations within six months of adoption, placing the reporting deadline around April 20, 2027.
The study could inform future statewide requirements governing site restoration, equipment removal and financial guarantees intended to protect municipalities from costs associated with abandoned or retired facilities.
“Pennsylvania lacks uniform guidance for data centers at the end of their life cycle,” Sappey said in a statement. “This lack of uniform standards leaves local municipalities physically and financially vulnerable and liable during the decommissioning process.”
The measure has particular relevance in Chester County, where municipalities are evaluating data-center development proposals and zoning regulations addressing the facilities’ land use and infrastructure demands.
Sappey was joined by Chester County lawmakers Danielle Friel Otten, Chris Pielli, Kristine Howard and Melissa Shusterman as sponsors or co-sponsors of the resolution.
Without uniform statewide decommissioning standards, municipalities considering data-center projects must determine whether to impose local requirements for closure plans, site restoration or financial security.
House Resolution 630 does not itself establish those requirements. As an adopted House resolution, it does not require Senate approval or the governor’s signature, and it does not impose binding obligations on data-center developers.
The measure also does not suspend construction, approve or reject individual projects, or require facility owners to post bonds or other financial guarantees.
The decommissioning study follows separate House action on legislation introduced by Sappey addressing emergency preparedness at large-scale data centers.
House Bill 2535, which passed the chamber in September, would require data-center operators to provide local fire officials with floor plans and inventories of facility contents and infrastructure as a condition of occupancy.
The information would have to be updated annually, while the legislation would designate submitted materials as confidential security information.
Unlike the adopted study resolution, that bill would need to complete the legislative process before its proposed requirements could become law.
Together, the measures address two distinct questions surrounding Pennsylvania’s expanding data-center sector: how emergency responders obtain information about operating facilities and how communities can limit financial exposure when those facilities eventually close.
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