At a community meeting Sunday about the natural gas-powered data center project near Homer City, activists and residents expressed concerns ranging from environmental to economic and health impacts.
The afternoon event was organized by Concerned Residents of Western PA, a group formed to oppose the planned 4.5-gigawatt power plant and AI data center in Indiana County. About 200 people attended the gathering at the Indiana Theater in Indiana, Pa.
Panelists included Nina Victoria, a community advocate from the Center for Coalfield Justice in Washington County; Jay Walker, outreach coordinator with the Clean Air Council; and Kat Marquez, civic engagement mobilizer for PennFuture.
“The push for AI is being driven by politicians and corporations hoping to benefit from tech,” Walker said. “We, members of society, are not the main benefactors of AI.”
Representatives from the developer, Homer City Redevelopment LLC, were not invited to the meeting. A company spokesman told TribLive last week the company would not comment on Sunday’s community meeting.
In April, Homer City Redevelopment announced plans to build the plant on the 3,200-acre site that once held a coal-fired power plant that was shut down in 2023. The estimated $10 billion development is projected to generate power next year. Officials say it will produce more power in excess of what is needed for the data centers, adding to the energy supply through the interstate transmission grid.
State officials including Gov. Josh Shapiro and state Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, have indicated support for the project.
Homer City Redevelopment says the project will create 10,000 on-site construction jobs and 1,000 direct and indirect permanent jobs in technology, operations and energy infrastructure.
Panelists and some audience members cast doubt on the company’s promised plans.
Victoria said, through researching other data centers, her group found most construction workers are temporary and won’t contribute to a community’s tax-base long term. Jobs that are permanent are remote, she said, and jobs on-site are not high-paying.
“The promise of prosperity for data center development is often unrealized,” she said.
Dana Driscoll said she lives less than 10 miles from the planned data center. As a farmer, she told the panel, she is concerned about the impact the center would have on water supply, citing drought warnings that already exist.
Anna Goldman of Armstrong Township raised issues of data centers’ impacts in other communities.
“Do we really need another power plant?” she asked.
Marquez said natural gas-powered plants are better than coal, but not by much. Emissions and pollution from data centers could increase the risk of illness for people who live in proximity to the plant.
While it’s unconstitutional for a municipality to outright ban data centers, community members can push back by asking for stricter zoning laws and communicating with elected officials and the state Department of Environmental Protection, Victoria said.
“The question we will ask: (Do) the honest upsides make up for the honest downsides?” Walker said.
A representative of Concerned Residents of Western PA said the group’s goal is for “the public to be educated in a broader sense. … Hearing everyone share their concerns, it was a diverse set of concerns, which means there was a lot.”