The Pennsylvania Green Amendment & Data Centers is a document produced by Green Amendments For The Generations that explains how green amendments give citizens enforceable rights that can be used to fight data centers. We are fortunate to have a Green Amendment as part of the PA state constitution.

Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees:

The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.

The Pennsylvania Green Amendment & Data Centers

Data centers are proliferating across the U.S., and Pennsylvania is no exception. But Pennsylvania, unlike many states, has a Green Amendment in place that secures individuals’ rights to clean, safe, and healthy environments and obligates government officials to act as trustees of our natural resources, safeguarding them for present and future generations.

It is important to raise the environmental rights of the people and the natural resource trust obligations of the government when commenting on proposed projects, legislation, zoning changes, zoning ordinances, government land swaps, or other government actions where data centers are the focus. Laying out the environmental rights and duties the Green Amendment prescribes can create the foundation necessary to secure protection from what is being proposed.

Along with the substantive rights and duties articulated by the Green Amendment, the Amendment also creates a constitutional obligation on government officials to undertake a full and fair review of the environmental consequences of proposed actions prior to decision-making.

Download The Pennsylvania Green Amendment & Data Centers as a pdf.
This documents provides much additional information and recommendations on how to raise the constitution in a meaningful and impactful way.