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Category: Energy

  • Trump visits a Ford pickup truck factory, aiming to promote his efforts to boost manufacturing

    Trump visits a Ford pickup truck factory, aiming to promote his efforts to boost manufacturing

    DETROIT — President Donald Trump offered a full-throated defense of his sweeping tariffs on Tuesday, traveling to swing-state Michigan to push the case that he’s boosted domestic manufacturing in hopes of countering fears about a weakening job market and still-rising prices that have squeezed American pocketbooks.

    Trump visited the factory floor of a Ford plant in Dearborn, where he viewed F-150s — the bestselling domestic vehicle in the U.S. — at various stages of production. That included seeing how gas and hybrid models were built, as well as the all-gas Raptor model, designed for off-road use.

    The president chatted with assembly line workers as well as the automaker’s executive chairman, Bill Ford, a descendent of Henry Ford. “All U.S. automakers are doing great,” Trump said.

    He later gave a speech to the Detroit Economic Club that was meant to be focused on his economic policies but veered heavily to other topics as well. Those included falsely claiming to have won Michigan three times (he lost the state in 2020 to Joe Biden) and recalling the snakes that felled workers during U.S. efforts to build the Panama Canal more than a century ago.

    “The results are in, and the Trump economic boom has officially begun,” the president said at the MotorCity Casino. He argued that “one of the biggest reasons for this unbelievable success has been our historic use of tariffs.”

    Trump insists tariffs haven’t increased costs

    The president said that tariffs were “overwhelmingly” paid by “foreign nations and middlemen” — even as economists say steep import taxes are simply passed from overseas manufactures to U.S. consumers, helping exacerbate fears about the rising cost of living.

    “It’s tariffs that are making money for Michigan and the entire country,” the president said, insisting that “every prediction the critics made about our tariff policy has failed to materialize.”

    But voters remain worried about the state of the economy. Tuesday’s visit — his third trip to a swing state since last month to talk about his economic policies — followed a poor showing for Republicans in November’s off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere amid persistent concerns about kitchen table issues.

    The White House pledged after Election Day that Trump would hit the road more frequently to talk directly to the public about what he is doing to ease their financial fears. The president tried to drive that home on Tuesday, but only amid lengthy asides.

    “I go off teleprompter about 80% of the time, but isn’t it nice to have a president who can go off teleprompter?” he said, before mocking Biden, suggesting his predecessor gave short speeches and doing an impression that included a dramatic clearing of his throat.

    Trump promised to unveil a new “health care affordability framework” later this week that he promised would lower the cost of care. He also pledged to soon offer more plans to help with affordability nationwide — even as he blamed Democrats for hyping up the issue.

    “One of our top priorities of this mission is promoting greater affordability. Now, that’s a word used by the Democrats,” Trump said. “They’re the ones who caused the problem.”

    Trump eased some auto tariffs

    Despite cheering tariffs, Trump has actually backed off the import taxes when it comes to the automobile sector. The president originally announced 25% tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, only to later relax those, seeking to provide domestic automakers some relief from seeing their production costs rise.

    Ford nonetheless announced in December that it was scrapping plans to make an electric F-150, despite pouring billions of dollars into broader electrification. That followed the Trump administration slashing targets to have half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030, eliminated EV tax credits and proposed weakening the emissions and gas mileage rules.

    While touring the assembly line, Trump suggested that a major North American trade agreement he negotiated during his first term, the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, was irrelevant and no longer necessary for the United States — though he provided few details.

    The pact, known as the USMCA, is up for review this year.

    Trump largely sidesteps Powell probe

    The president’s attempt to shift national attention to his efforts to spur the economy comes as his Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move that Powell says is a blatant endeavor to undermine the central bank’s independence in setting interest rates.

    Critics of the move include former Fed chairs, economic officials and even some Republican lawmakers. During the Michigan visit, Trump lobbed his often-repeated criticisms of Powell but offered little mention of the investigation.

    Some good economic news for Trump arrived, though, before he left Washington, with new data from December showing inflation declined a bit last month as prices for gas and used cars fell — a sign that cost pressures are slowly easing. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in December from the prior month, the Labor Department said, the same as in November.

    “We have quickly achieved the exact opposite of stagflation, almost no inflation and super-high growth,” he said in his speech.

    Other economic policy speeches

    The Michigan stop follows speeches Trump gave last month in Pennsylvania — where his gripes about immigrants arriving to the U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to fight inflation — and North Carolina, where he also insisted his tariffs have spurred the economy, despite residents noting the sting of higher prices.

    Like in Michigan, Trump also used a casino as a backdrop to talk about the economy in Pennsylvania, giving his speech there at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono.

    Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and 2024, after it swung Democratic and backed Biden in 2020. He marked his first 100 days in office with a rally-style April speech outside Detroit, where he focused more on past campaign grudges than his administration’s economic or policy plans.

    Democrats seized on Trump’s latest visit to the state to recall his visit in October 2024, when Trump, then also addressing the Detroit Economic Club, said that Democrats’ retaining the White House would mean “our whole country will end up being like Detroit.”

    “You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said during a campaign stop back then.

    Michigan Democratic Party Curtis Hertel said in a statement that “Trump’s speech showed just how out-of-touch he is with reality, claiming that affordability is ‘fake’ as Michiganders have less money in their pocketbooks because of the Republicans’ price-hiking agenda.”

  • The big obstacles to Trump’s plan for a Venezuelan oil windfall

    The big obstacles to Trump’s plan for a Venezuelan oil windfall

    There’s a familiar ring to President Donald Trump’s plan to send U.S. energy giants to Venezuela to use the wealth generated from rekindling long-stalled oil production to stabilize that country and cement American energy dominance: Similar ambitions accompanied the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    The quick riches promised did not materialize there, as firms grappled with years of political turmoil and security threats, struggled to negotiate workable contract terms and confronted vexing infrastructure inadequacies. Venezuela may not be any easier, industry analysts warn.

    “One of the clear lessons from Iraq — and it is not unique to Iraq — is that you need to have stability and be able to assess risk before you can start production,” said Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a research firm. Until then, he said, companies may not be enthusiastic about making the billions of dollars in investments required in Venezuela.

    It’s unclear which firms Trump was referencing at a news conference Saturday morning, when he said: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go and spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure.”

    Chevron, which operates there now, declined to comment on plans.

    ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips exited the country and saw their assets seized after refusing to meet the terms of Venezuela’s government nearly two decades ago. ExxonMobil did not respond to requests for comment.

    “It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments,” ConocoPhillips spokesperson Dennis Nuss said in an email.

    But the appeal is clear. Venezuela has one of the biggest oil reserves in the world, estimated at 300 billion barrels.

    “Every major oil company in the world and some of the smaller ones will look closely at this because there are very few places on Earth where you could increase production so much,” said Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at Rice University. “But first you need political stability and clarity.”

    He said restoring peak oil production there would cost up to $100 billion and take about a decade. And that is assuming there is enough political stability for companies to operate unencumbered during that entire period.

    There are other obstacles. The oil in Venezuela is a heavy form of crude that is more difficult to process and carries a heavier carbon footprint than oil pumped elsewhere. Venezuela’s power grid is on the brink, creating an uncertain outlook for oil production, which requires massive amounts of energy. Also, Russian and Chinese firms partnered with Venezuela after U.S. companies left the nation, complicating the reestablishment of U.S. firms.

    Returning to Venezuela has hardly been a central talking point of U.S. oil companies.

    In this era of relatively low oil prices and uncertainty about how robust future demand will be amid an on-again, off-again global energy transition from fossil fuels, firms are anxious about reinvesting tens of billions of dollars more in pumping in Venezuela absent assurances that their investments would be secure for at least a decade, according to industry analysts.

    Trump’s removal of Venezuela’s leader and plan to put the U.S. in charge of the country for now does not ensure that, despite his sweeping promises.

    “We built Venezuela’s oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us,” Trump said. “The oil companies are going to go in. They’re going to spend money there that we’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground. We’re going to get reimbursed for all of that. We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend.”

    Today, the nation’s oil production is a fraction of what it could be and its infrastructure is badly frayed because of domestic turmoil, the departure of foreign oil companies, and related international sanctions. The nation is pumping a mere 1 million barrels of oil per day, less than 1% of global output. That is also less than a third of its peak production under the Hugo Chávez regime and a quarter of what experts say it is capable of generating.

    That oil has largely been purchased by China.

    The only American company operating in Venezuela is Chevron, with its production constrained by considerable Venezuelan government restrictions.

    “Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets,” said a statement from Bill Turenne, a company spokesman. “We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.”

    While acknowledging that firms have reason to be reticent, Monaldi, of Rice University, pointed to forecasts showing Venezuelan oil could be crucial to meet rising global demand over the next decade.

    But none of that can happen overnight.

    “Oil companies do not operate in a vacuum and we are years from significant volume increase,” said Pedro Burelli, a critic of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro now living in the United States, and a former board member of the Venezuelan state oil company. “Regulations and contracts matter, as U.S. oil companies are publicly traded companies with shareholders who will demand rational investment decisions.”

    Oil companies have even been reluctant to increase their rig counts here, despite Trump’s repeated calls for more drilling, amid demand uncertainty and dropping market prices. U.S. oil production soared during the Biden administration, but the pace of growth has slowed since Trump returned to office, with some forecasts predicting declines this year.

    Book said oil companies will be looking to sign contracts that they are confident will be honored for the long term, and there is no government in Venezuela that right now can honor such a contract.

    “Before you make all these big investments and start running operations, you also need a stable country with reliable electricity, functioning ports, and an available workforce,” he said. “A lot of factors go into pulling this off.”

    Trump may have further complicated the outlook for U.S. oil firms returning to Venezuela by declaring that he does not believe the popular opposition leader there, María Corina Machado, commands the respect to run the country immediately following Maduro’s ouster.

    Machado has been a vocal proponent of helping U.S. firms re-establish operations in Venezuela. One of her energy advisers, Evanan Romero, a former Venezuelan oil executive and government minister, stressed in an interview that if the oil firms wish to return, “we will welcome them.”

    “They will make money, Venezuela will make money,” he said.

  • Trump administration pauses five offshore wind projects on the East Coast

    Trump administration pauses five offshore wind projects on the East Coast

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Monday it is pausing leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the East Coast due to unspecified national security risks identified by the Pentagon.

    The pause is effective immediately and will give the Interior Department, which oversees offshore wind, time to work with the Defense Department and other agencies to assess the possible ways to mitigate any security risks posed by the projects, the administration said.

    “The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.”

    From July: Trump administration cancels plans to develop new offshore wind projects

    The administration said leases are paused for the Vineyard Wind project under construction in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and two projects in New York: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind.

    The Interior Department said unclassified reports from the U.S. government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called “clutter.” The clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of wind projects, the Interior Department said.

    The action comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates U.S. law.

    Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.

    Saris ruled in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, that challenged Trump’s Day One order that paused leasing and permitting for wind energy projects.

    Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, and prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity.

  • Trump’s return brought stiff headwinds for clean energy. So why are advocates optimistic in 2026?

    Trump’s return brought stiff headwinds for clean energy. So why are advocates optimistic in 2026?

    There were some highs amid a lot of lows in a roller coaster year for clean energy as President Donald Trump worked to boost polluting fuels while blocking wind and solar, according to dozens of energy developers, experts, and politicians.

    Surveyed by the Associated Press, many described 2025 as turbulent and challenging for clean energy, though there was progress as projects connected to the electric grid. They said clean energy must continue to grow to meet skyrocketing demand for electricity to power data centers and to lower Americans’ utility bills.

    Solar builder and operator Jorge Vargas said it has been “a very tough year for clean energy” as Trump often made headlines criticizing renewable energy and Republicans muscled a tax and spending cut bill through Congress in July that dramatically rolled back tax breaks for clean energy.

    “There was a cooldown effect this year,” said Vargas, cofounder and CEO of Aspen Power. “Having said that, we are a resilient industry.”

    Plug Power president Jose Luis Crespo said the developments — both policy recalibration and technological progress — will shape clean energy’s trajectory for years to come.

    Energy policy whiplash in 2025

    Much of clean energy’s fate in 2025 was driven by booster Joe Biden’s exit from the White House.

    The year began with ample federal subsidies for clean energy technologies, a growing number of U.S.-based companies making parts and materials for projects, and a lot of demand from states and corporations, said Tom Harper, partner at global consultant Baringa.

    It ends with subsidies stripped back, a weakened supply chain, higher costs from tariffs, and some customers questioning their commitment to clean energy, Harper said. He described the year as “paradigm shifting.”

    Trump called wind and solar power “the scam of the century” and vowed not to approve new projects. The federal government canceled grants for hundreds of projects.

    The Republicans’ tax bill reversed or steeply curtailed clean energy programs established through the Democrats’ flagship climate and healthcare bill in 2022. Wayne Winegarden, at the Pacific Research Institute think tank, said the time has come for alternative energy to demonstrate viability without subsidies. ( Fossil fuels also receive subsidies.)

    Many energy executives said this was the most consequential policy shift. The bill reshaped the economics of clean energy projects, drove a rush to start construction before incentives expire, and forced developers to reassess their strategies for acquiring parts and materials, Lennart Hinrichs said. He leads the expansion of TWAICE in the Americas, providing analytics software for battery energy storage systems.

    Companies can’t make billion-dollar investments with so much policy uncertainty, said American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet.

    Consequently, greenhouse gas emissions will fall at a much lower rate than previously projected in the U.S., said Brian Murray, director of the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability at Duke University.

    Still, solar and battery storage are booming

    Solar and storage accounted for 85% of the new power added to the grid in the first nine months of the Trump administration, according to Wood Mackenzie research.

    That’s because the economics remain strong, demand is high, and the technologies can be deployed quickly, said Mike Hall, CEO of Anza Renewables.

    Solar energy company Sol Systems said it had a record year as it brought its largest utility-scale project online and grew its business. The energy storage systems company CMBlu Energy said storage clearly stands out as a winner this year too, moving from optional to essential.

    “Trump’s effort to manipulate government regulation to harm clean energy just isn’t enough to offset the natural advantages that clean energy has,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said. “The direction is still all good.”

    The Solar Energy Industries Association said that no matter the policies in Washington, solar and storage will grow as the backbone of the nation’s energy future.

    Nuclear, geothermal had a good year, too

    Democrats and Republicans have supported investing to keep nuclear reactors online, restart previously closed reactors, and deploy new, advanced reactor designs. Nuclear power is a carbon-free source of electricity, though not typically labeled as green energy like other renewables.

    “Who had ‘restart Three Mile Island’ on their 2025 Bingo card?” questioned Baringa partner David Shepheard. The Pennsylvania plant was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident, in 1979. The Energy Department is loaning $1 billion to help finance a restart.

    Everyone loves nuclear, said Darrin Kayser, executive vice president at Edelman. It helps that the technology for small, modular reactors is starting to come to fruition, Kayser added.

    Benton Arnett, a senior director at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said that as the need for clean, reliable power intensifies, “we will look back on the actions being taken now as laying the foundation.”

    The Trump administration also supports geothermal energy, and the tax bill largely preserved geothermal tax credits. The Geothermal Rising association said technologies continue to mature and produce, making 2025 a breakthrough year.

    Offshore wind had a terrible year

    Momentum for offshore wind in the United States came to a grinding halt just as the industry was starting to gain traction, said Joey Lange, a senior managing director at Trio, a global sustainability and energy advisory company.

    The Trump administration stopped construction on major offshore wind farms, revoked wind energy permits and paused permitting, canceled plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development, and stopped federal funding for offshore wind projects.

    That has decimated the projects, developers, and tech innovators, and no one in wind is raising or spending capital, said Eric Fischgrund, founder and CEO at FischTank PR. Still, Fischgrund said he remains optimistic because the world is transitioning to cleaner energy.

    More clean energy needed in 2026

    An energy strategy with a diverse mix of sources is the only way forward as demand grows from data centers and other sources, and as people demand affordable, reliable electricity, said former Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. Landrieu, now with Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, said promoting or punishing specific energy technologies on ideological grounds is unsustainable.

    Experts expect solar and battery storage to continue growing in 2026 to add a lot of power to the grid quickly and cheaply. The market will continue to ensure that most new electricity is renewable, said Amanda Levin, policy analysis director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

    Hillary Bright, executive director of Turn Forward, thinks offshore wind will still play an important role too. It is both ready and needed to help address the demand for electricity in the new year, which will become increasingly clear “to all audiences,” she said. Turn Forward advocates for offshore wind.

    That skyrocketing demand “is shaking up the political calculus that drove the administration’s early policy decisions around renewables,” she said.

    BlueWave CEO Sean Finnerty thinks that states, feeling the pressure to deliver affordable, reliable electricity, will increasingly drive clean energy momentum in 2026 by streamlining permitting and the process of connecting to the grid, and by reducing costs for things like permits and fees.

    Ed Gunn, Lunar Energy’s vice president for revenue, said the industry has weathered tough years before.

    “The fundamentals are unchanged,” Gunn said, ”there is massive value in clean energy.”

  • Human reporters explain why AI data centers are so controversial in the Philly suburbs and beyond

    Human reporters explain why AI data centers are so controversial in the Philly suburbs and beyond

    Every day, millions of people across the U.S. turn to ChatGPT and other AI tools, searching for answers.

    Some of their questions are mundane: What should they make for dinner with these four ingredients? What other movies was this actor in? Where could they go on a weekend getaway for under $1,000?

    Others use AI in life-saving research and for society-changing innovations.

    How these tools work — and at what cost — is at the heart of the ongoing debate over the rapid construction of data centers.

    At some proposed sites in the Philadelphia region, neighbors are rallying in opposition, saying the community’s health, safety, and quality of life are at stake. Meanwhile, developers, elected officials, and other proponents tout economic benefits.

    If you’re trying to make sense of all the buzz about AI data centers, here’s what three human reporters think you should know.

    What is a data center?

    A data center is a building or campus that handles cloud-storage and computing needs of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and the like. People, hospitals, banks, businesses, and governments rely on the cloud to store and retrieve vast troves of records, videos, and pictures.

    Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has exponentially increased demand for specialized data centers powerful enough to execute ever more complex requests in the form of text, code, images, audio, or video.

    A single AI query consumes multiple times the power of an ordinary search engine query, resulting in the need for additional servers to handle the load when multiplied across millions of queries.

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    Newer hyperscale data centers can reach 1 million square feet or larger. For comparison, the Cherry Hall Mall is 1.3 million square feet.

    Where are data centers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey?

    More than 150 data centers already exist in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to Data Center Map, a private company that tracks the facilities nationwide. The Philadelphia area has dozens of data centers, operated by an array of companies from telecom giants like Comcast to digital-services companies like Lumen and DāSTOR.

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    Not all of these properties are AI data centers: Comcast’s facilities, for example, connect thousands of local customers to internet, cable, and phone services, and have been doing so for decades.

    Where are new data centers being built in Pa. and N.J.?

    Hot spots for new AI data centers include North Jersey and the Scranton and Pittsburgh areas in Pennsylvania.

    Three recent proposals in the Philadelphia suburbs have made headlines:

    Edmund J. Campbell, attorney for Main Line developer Brian O’Neill, speaks to the Plymouth Township zoning hearing board on Monday Nov. 17 before abruptly withdrawing his client’s application over legal issues.

    Why do some communities want a data center?

    A data center can bring in significant tax revenue, create jobs, attract other businesses to the region, and put the area on the cutting edge of a rapidly growing industry, proponents and developers say.

    In Loudoun County, Va., data centers accounted for nearly half of the property tax revenue in 2024, according to the county’s website, with the county getting $26 for every $1 spent on data center services. Nearby Prince William County reported that its 44 data centers generated more than $293 million in total tax revenue (though some industry stakeholders debate whether tax breaks offset these gains).

    Unlike residential redevelopment, data centers don’t increase demands on local schools or EMS services, data center proponents say. Nor do they bring in added traffic like fulfillment warehouses or other industrial uses.

    Data centers are seen by some as a good reuse of formerly industrial land, such as proposals in Bucks County on a former U.S. Steel site; in Chester County on a remediated Superfund site; and in Montgomery County on the former Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill.

    Why are some communities opposing data centers?

    Opponents of data centers worry about pollution, noise, power and water use, and the impact another data center could have on their electric bills. In some areas, they decry the loss of open space and express broader concerns about whether the AI boom is a bubble that could burst before all this data-center investment pays off.

    How are data centers impacting my electric bill?

    Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E are major drivers behind the dramatic increase in energy demand. Every ChatGPT query, for example, is estimated to use five times more electricity than a simple web search.

    An average query uses about the power that an oven would use in a little over one second or a high-efficiency light bulb would use in a couple of minutes, according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

    In 2023, U.S. data centers consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity, compared to 15% for all residential use. Data center demand is expected to rise, potentially consuming 6% to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028, according to a 2024 report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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    When energy demand rises without a proportional increase in supply and capacity, experts say, consumers see higher bills. Although it’s possible prices would lower with increased demand as long as there is sufficient existing capacity in place, say some experts.

    “There’s a variety of factors, but it isn’t really transparent when you look at your electricity bill,” said John Quigley, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

    Several recent reports have tried to quantify the impact data centers are having on consumer bills. According to a recent Bloomberg News analysis, the monthly electric bills of customers who lived near significant data center activity have increased 267% in the past five years.

    What are some environmental concerns regarding data centers?

    Water: Data centers require significant amounts of water to cool servers and IT equipment. Some cooling systems are more efficient than others.

    A Virginia legislative audit report said 11 data center buildings each used over 50 million gallons, including one building that used 243 million gallons in 2023. While some data centers use substantial amounts of water, most use similar or less than other large commercial and industrial water users, Virginia found.

    Based on available data, most data centers use about 6.7 million gallons of water a year, about the same as an average large office building.

    Land use: Some proposals would require substantial clearing for forested or unused land, as in a 1,000-acre proposal in Covington and Clifton Townships in the Poconos. Residents in East Vincent Township in Chester County have mobilized to save the rolling hills, farms, and rural character near the proposed Pennhurst site.

    Air pollution: The electricity that powers data centers comes from a grid powered by plants that run on natural gas, a fossil fuel that emits pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, and a precursor to smog. The plants also release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Backup generators are often fired by diesel. Amazon and Microsoft have plans to tap nuclear power, which does not produce air pollutants, though it does produce toxic waste.

    Noise: Data centers sometimes emit hums and vibrations produced by servers, whirring fans, HVAC systems, and other sources.

    What kinds of jobs do data centers create?

    Construction of a data center requires hundreds of temporary tradespeople, such as masons, electricians, plumbers, and HVAC technicians.

    Once open, data centers typically need very few full-time employees. Even the largest usually employ fewer than 150 people, sometimes as few as 25. Permanent positions can include IT specialists, data analysts, electricians, maintenance workers, and security personnel. Sometimes certain employees can work remotely.

    Developers of some data centers currently proposed in Pennsylvania estimate hiring between 30 and 70 permanent workers. Data center technician jobs at Amazon’s Salem Township facility come with starting salaries between $50,000 and $152,000 a year, according to job listings on Indeed.com.

  • Bucks County fuel spill victims inspired a federal bill calling for $500M to modernize pipelines

    Bucks County fuel spill victims inspired a federal bill calling for $500M to modernize pipelines

    U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican, introduced a bill Thursday with a Democratic co-sponsor to modernize pipelines and emergency responses in the wake of a leak of a Sunoco pipeline detected this year in Bucks County.

    The bill is named after the Wojnovich family, whose well was tainted with 12½ feet of jet fuel.

    It would set aside $500 million in grants spread over five years to replace or upgrade high-risk hazardous liquid lines, “to facilitate the improved safety and modernization of hazardous liquid distribution infrastructure.”

    In addition, it would require that prospective homeowners be made aware of nearby pipelines, what fuel they carry, any history of incidents, and who operates the lines.

    Fitzpatrick introduced the bill, H.R. 6187, the Wojnovich Pipeline Safety Act of 2025, with U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from New York.

    Fitzpatrick is up for reelection in 2026 in the 1st Congressional District, which includes all of Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County. As the last remaining Republican representing the Philadelphia suburbs in the U.S. House, Democrats believe he is vulnerable.

    Fitzpatrick — as well as other federal, state, and local elected officials — has been involved since January, when a jet fuel leak from the Sunoco Twin Oaks pipeline was detected.

    He and others have called for the line to be shut down. Fitzpatrick has called for independent testing of wells and “complete remediation” in the Mt. Eyre Manor neighborhood where the leak was detected.

    “What families endured during this leak exposed areas where the state response was not fully equipped to meet the moment,“ Fitzpatrick said Friday in an email, ”which is why I have called on the responsible state agencies to produce a codified and consistently enforced plan that will guarantee clean water and long-term protections.”

    He credited a neighborhood task force from Mt. Eyre with helping him write the bill, “from the ground up.”

    The spill has caused significant disruption in the Mount Eyre Manor neighborhood, in the Washington Crossing section of Upper Makefield, becoming a constant worry for families such as Kristine and Kevin Wojnovich.

    How a pipeline leak disrupted a quiet Bucks neighborhood: ‘Never drink the water’

    The Wojnoviches live in the suburban Bucks County neighborhood near the popular Delaware Canal State Park towpath and only a few thousand feet from the Delaware River. Theirs was one of six wells that tested above state maximum contaminant levels. Other wells tested positive for contaminants, but under those levels.

    Kristine Wojnovich at home in the Mt. Eyre neighborhood in Washington Crossing, Bucks County on Nov. 7, 2025. Just out of view, is the top of a 400 foot drinking water well contaminated after a Jan. 2024 jet fuel leak was detected in Sunoco’s Twin Oaks pipeline.

    The family began noticing a petroleum odor in their tap water as far back as September 2023 and reported it to Sunoco, which is owned by Energy Transfer. However, the company initially informed the Wojnoviches that their water simply had bacteria.

    It wasn’t until an inspection by the state Department of Environmental Protection in late January 2025 that a leak was confirmed.

    “Every page of this bill is shaped by what Upper Makefield families lived through,” Fitzpatrick said in the release, noting, “the gaps in testing, the delays in information, the uncertainty about their water, and the absence of clear standards for communication and emergency response.”

    Specifically, the bill would also require:

    • That real estate contracts include disclosure of any hazardous liquid pipeline easements within one-half mile of a property, whether the line has undergone repairs in the past 10 years, and a list of any leaks or failures.
    • Overhaul of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s current online pipeline viewer so that leak, inspection, and remediation data are readily available.
    • Updates to local emergency alert systems and response plans.
    • Pipeline operators to conduct in-person tests of water, soil, or air for potential pipeline leaks or failures.
    • Penalties for leaks, failures, and delayed reporting, ranging from $2.5 million to $5 million.
    • The reimbursement of fire departments and EMS for equipment, overtime, and cleanup costs.
    • Establishing an Office of Public Engagement and regular federal reporting.

    Kristine Wojnovich said she’s honored by the bill’s introduction, and credits both Fitzpatrick and the neighborhood task force that’s pushed for legislation.

    “Aging pipelines and outdated leak detection methods are all over this country,” Wojnovich said. “And the leak and contamination that happened in our community could have happened anywhere. This legislation is a meaningful step forward.”

  • Massive Bucks data center spurs call to protect consumers from getting hit with power grid costs

    Massive Bucks data center spurs call to protect consumers from getting hit with power grid costs

    An independent monitor has asked federal officials to ensure consumers don’t get stuck with the bill if the electric grid can’t handle power needs of a massive data center planned for Bucks County.

    The monitor, Joseph Bowring, filed comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week, asking that a Sept. 23 transmission service agreement between Peco and Amazon Data Services be rejected.

    The agreement is regarding the 2 million-square-foot “digital infrastructure campus” Amazon plans for the Keystone Trade Center, an 1,800-acre property once owned by U.S. Steel, according to Falls Township. The data center, meant to handle computing needs of the wildly increasing demand for AI, has been heralded by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Trump administration.

    But Bowring, the independent market monitor for the region’s grid operator PJM, questioned the agreement, which is designed to protect power customers from economic risks associated with the cost of upgrading systems to handle the new load.

    In the agreement, Peco sought to ensure, among other things, that consumers don’t get stuck with the bill for grid upgrades if Amazon never builds the data center.

    However, Bowring said that the agreement does not “address the key question of whether there is sufficient capacity to serve the identified large new data center load without imposing significant and unacceptable reliability- and capacity-related cost impacts on all PJM customers.”

    He’s not alone in concerns about the cost data centers could impose on homeowners and other power customers. Many have already seen utility bills rise rapidly in the past few months.

    PJM, Peco, and the grid

    Montgomery County-based PJM manages the electric grid for all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. PJM is responsible for maintaining grid reliability, coordinating electric flow, and assessing capacity. It is the largest regional transmission organization in the U.S.

    The data center lies in Peco’s service territory within the PJM grid.

    The capacity and reliability of electrical grids across the United States has emerged as a major issue as data centers rush to go online.

    David Mills, chair of the PJM Board of Managers, wrote in an August letter to stakeholders that PJM is forecasting peak load growth of 32 gigawatts by 2030. Of that, 30 gigawatts is projected to come from data centers.

    Grid operators and power companies like Peco are scrambling to evaluate whether they can provide continuous electricity with the massive new loads without expensive upgrades such as new transmission lines and substations — costs that advocates fear will be passed onto consumers.

    Map produced by the National Resources Defense Council estimates electricity capacity costs to utility companies based on PJM forecasts through 2032.

    Protecting consumers

    Making sure power consumers don’t get stuck with the cost of upgrades has been a key point of consumer advocates.

    Bowring wrote that while the agreement does include some important provisions to protect energy customers from risk, it does not go far enough.

    “The Market Monitor recommends that the agreement not be approved unless Peco can demonstrate that the referenced new data center load can be served reliably and economically,” Bowring wrote to FERC.

    The Falls Township data center is one of two big projects Amazon has planned in Pennsylvania, Shapiro announced in June.

    Amazon will spend $20 billion to build two data centers in Pennsylvania

    The company plans to invest at least $20 billion in the construction of data center complexes in Pennsylvania, in what officials called the largest private-sector investment in the state’s history. The second complex would be built alongside a nuclear power plant in Luzerne County.

    Both would require enormous amounts of power.

    For example, FERC has already rejected one Amazon “behind-the-meter” power connection of 480 megawatts for the Luzerne County data center. That’s more power than is consumed by some small cities.

    Bowring addressed the data centers during a summit on PJM at the National Constitution Center in September that was attended by multiple governors, including Shapiro.

    “PJM has a problem: Capacity,” Bowring said at the summit. “There’s no extra capacity, and there’s lots of data centers that want to join. … It cannot be handled by the market as it exists.”

    PJM has said it does not have the authority to deny the interconnection of new data center loads even if it does not have the capacity. Bowring disagrees but is asking FERC to clarify the matter.

    Peco’s ‘extensive planning’

    Greg Smore, a Peco spokesperson, said the utility is working with Amazon.

    “We have done extensive planning to ensure we can deliver the energy needed to power this data center through our transmission and distribution system,” Smore said. “That data center, like any other large customer, is responsible for procuring electric supply, through an energy supplier or the existing PJM energy market.”

    Smore said that knowing there’s “an adequate supply of energy to serve all our customers at a reasonable price is a real concern.”

    So Peco, which is owned by Exelon, is working with stakeholders, he said, to add more generation to the grid while ensuring reliability and help address rising energy supply costs.

    He said the agreement with Amazon “protects all customers in Southeastern Pennsylvania from bearing greater transmission service costs if the data center does not make the sizable contribution to our system costs that would be expected.”

    Advocates fear costs to public

    The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group, estimates Peco could pay $9.1 billion in costs by 2033 related to the need for greater capacity.

    “The projected demand from data centers is vastly outstripping the amount of new supply in PJM,” said Claire Lang-Ree, an advocate with NRDC.

    “It will cause power bills to rise and stay high for the coming decade, mainly through capacity cost increases,” Lang-Ree said.

    The NRDC estimates cumulative costs could result in a $70 monthly rise in average electric bills in coming years across the PJM grid.

    In addition, she said it would lead to a decline in reliability and an increased risk of blackouts for the general public. And, she said, the power demand could undermine states’ clean energy and air quality goals.

    “It’s really hard to overstate what’s at stake here,” Lang-Ree said.

    Clara Summers of Consumers for a Better Grid, a nonprofit watchdog, said states should impose tariffs to be paid by data centers to support the large power loads they require and ensure that costs of new utility infrastructure doesn’t fall unfairly on consumers. And data centers should provide their own electric supply.

    Summers likened not taking action to allowing the wealthiest acquaintances at a restaurant gathering to order the most expensive food, then, “dining and dashing.”

    “Unless something is done, everyday people will be left holding the check for some of the wealthiest companies in the world, and that’s unacceptable,” Summers said.

    This story has been updated to reflect comments from Peco.