Tuesday’s executive order represents a significant change from the approach Shapiro promoted just over a year ago.

In June 2025, Shapiro celebrated Amazon’s plans to invest at least $20 billion in Pennsylvania data centers as the largest private-sector investment in the Commonwealth’s history.

At the time, the governor said his administration was helping Amazon secure additional locations, develop the necessary infrastructure and move projects efficiently through the approval process.

“Our team worked closely with local leaders and Amazon to land this deal, and we continue to be actively engaged on securing additional sites in Pennsylvania—helping them secure local support, developing the infrastructure needed to support more data centers, and ensuring our permitting processes move quickly and efficiently,” Shapiro said in the state’s June 2025 announcement.

Nine days later, the Shapiro administration directly credited Pennsylvania’s new expedited permitting system with helping secure Amazon’s investment.

“A big reason we were able to get this done is because of Pennsylvania’s new fast-track permitting system,” Shapiro said, according to a June 18, 2025, administration release.

During an August 2025 appearance at the future Amazon data center site in Bucks County, Shapiro said his administration was proving that “government can work at the speed of business.” The event was specifically intended to highlight how faster permitting could help Pennsylvania attract major developments.

One year later, Shapiro is removing data centers from the same PA Permit Fast Track Program.

Shapiro presented Tuesday’s action as a response to what happened after Pennsylvania announced the Amazon investment.

According to the governor, the Commonwealth has since been inundated with speculative proposals from developers who may lack financing, customers or sufficiently developed plans. He said some developers have pressured municipal officials and ignored residents’ concerns.

Shapiro said more than 100 possible data center projects have been discussed across Pennsylvania, but only five currently possess the necessary permits to begin operating.

“These speculators are nevertheless scaring our communities—being aggressive with township officials, bullying our neighbors, and refusing to listen to the people of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said during Tuesday’s executive order signing ceremony.

The governor’s position is not that Pennsylvania should reject every data center. Instead, his administration now draws a distinction between projects it considers viable and responsible—such as the Amazon campuses it helped recruit—and speculative proposals that lack local support or sufficient planning.

The order nevertheless marks a clear policy shift. In 2025, Shapiro promoted accelerated permitting as an advantage that could help Pennsylvania compete for more data centers. In 2026, amid growing opposition in communities including Upper Merion and neighboring Plymouth Township, he is making those projects subject to greater scrutiny.

The shift is already drawing criticism from those who argue Shapiro helped create the surge in data center proposals he is now attempting to control.

Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Shapiro’s Republican challenger in the governor’s race, characterized the executive order as a political reversal, arguing that Shapiro had previously been one of the industry’s strongest advocates.

That criticism provides important context, but the governor maintains that the growth of speculative proposals and the conduct of some developers required a stronger state response.

For Upper Merion residents, the practical change is more consequential than the political argument: data center developers will no longer receive the benefit of Pennsylvania’s accelerated permitting program, and the state says it will not approve projects that fail to obtain approval from the local community.

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Corey