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Wealth or Water? The Data Center Dilemma 

by Maya Burns

At the crux of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence is king. In April of 2025, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) projected that the AI market will grow to $48 trillion by 2033. As the U.S. and China race for the lion’s share of the market, both countries have begun to invest hundreds of billions into the development of data centers, facilities built to handle the immense energy and computational demands of machine learning. As of March 2025, the United States was home to 5,426 data centers, ten times more than the next emerging AI markets – and more are planned, including 37 in the Pittsburgh area.  

“Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” is a broad term for a vast field of computer science, the general intent of which is to mimic and offload intellectual tasks such as reasoning, data analysis, or language processing, to a machine capable of evaluating outcomes far quicker and from a more extensive data set than a human can. For AI to run, large warehouses typically pull from local electrical grids and water supply to power hundreds to thousands of hyper-efficient Computer Processing Units (CPUs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). The industry’s potential economic benefits are contested, and to some, overshadowed by the environmental consequences. While the European Union has already enacted regulations binding data centers to compliance with previous environmental protection acts, the US currently has no comparable federal policies limiting company or data center greenhouse gas emissions, electric demands, or water usage. Corporations may see prosperity in their futures, but is the strain placed on communities by the presence of data centers worth the progress?  

International and local government officials and AI researchers met at Carnegie Mellon University in July 2025 at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where $90 billion in AI investments were announced by corporations like Blackstone, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. Here, the President claimed that these new data centers would be powered not by wind or solar but “maybe [by] nuclear, maybe gas, maybe coal.” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright professed that “Pennsylvania’s natural gas production could ramp up tremendously fast,” and that the state “could lead the world in AI and reshoring manufacturing.” But claims of a new industrial revolution powered by non-renewable energy appear bleak when set against the consequences of the last industrial boom. 

From the late 18th century until the mid-20th century, Pittsburgh’s primary industries included local iron and bituminous coal mines, coking said coal into more concentrated fuel, and steel production. Steel mills lined all three rivers through Allegheny and surrounding counties, and the Pittsburgh coal seam was among the most productive in the world. While pushing the city to a place of global leadership in manufacturing, these industries brought with them a slew of pollution. Insufficient regulation in the name of economic power granted Pittsburgh the moniker “The Smokey City”. Veteran Pittsburghers often tell stories of having to bring an “inside shirt” with them to work, since simply walking outdoors was enough to become covered in soot.  Even after the majority of coal mining ceased, abandoned mines still produce mine drainage, contaminating local waterways and potentially forming compounds lethal to aquatic wildlife. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, removal of more than 15 billion tons of coal over 200 years left Pennsylvania with one-third of the country’s abandoned mines.  

Come modern day, we like to think that Pittsburgh has gone through an environmental renaissance. Our keystone industries are now the (comparatively) environmentally friendly realms of medicine and education. Pittsburgh is no longer a distinctly smokey city, and it has fallen from its status as a global economic hub as a consequence. 

Brian Regli is a potential hyperscale data center developer from Springdale Borough, 16 miles from Pittsburgh proper. He warned, “This is one of the few opportunities you now have to establish a stronger tax base to fund your schools and your community centers…if not this, then what?” But does the introduction of unregulated technology in a new industrial age threaten to stall – or worse, nullify – Pittsburgh’s environmental progress? 

Current figures say that 4.4% of the United States’ electricity is used to power data centers–more than the entire state of California. Though the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that these intense energy requirements will encourage the use of cost-effective solar and wind, current sustainable energy infrastructure is insufficient to meet AI’s demands.. 

Pennsylvania’s new data centers are set to operate on fracked methane gas obtained from the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation first developed around 390 million years ago that expands through the Appalachian Basin. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, creates wells of natural gas and oil by injecting on average 1.5 million gallons of water, sand, and chemicals into the shale. The water used for fracking is contaminated, and rarely returned to surface water. The question arises: are we willing to once again pillage our natural resources in the name of becoming an economic powerhouse? In a time where we have surpassed pre-industrial temperatures by 1.5°C, every new industrial investment made with disregard for limiting greenhouse gas emissions will project us further into a future of relentless climate disaster.   

Corporations involved in AI have exhibited a lack of transparency about the impacts of their electricity demands on communities near data centers. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) raises concerns about an xAI plant outside Memphis, Tennessee. According to the SELC, xAI, a public-benefit corporation focused on artificial intelligence, installed 35 methane gas turbines with the potential to emit thousands of tons of nitrogen oxides and other air pollutants annually without the proper permits, potentially violating the Clean Air Act. Industrialists of the 19th century did not have to face pre-existing environmental legislation. Without pushback, data center developers and executives will be able to expand their sector and influence legislation, continuing the damage of their predecessors.   

Damage to Allegheny County’s ecology and health is not inevitable. Non-profit organizations such as the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Allegheny Land Trust work to restore and secure land in widespread land conservation efforts. Local governments are hearing pushback from residents near proposed data centers, despite the developer's promises of prosperity. Our rivers are clearer than when they were lined with steel mills. The air is now cleaner, eliminating the need to change clothing throughout the day. Yet we still rank below the national averages for air and water quality. At this crucial moment, Pittsburgh can choose to either liquidate its landscape further or reconcile its partnership between industry and ecosystem.