Pennsylvania HB 2496 / state enables local moratoriums / first of its kind / bipartisan

Pennsylvania HB 2496 is bipartisan and would explicitly authorize any Pennsylvania local government to enact a 180-day moratorium on data center development while it conducts zoning review. The bill cleared committee this week and is heading toward a floor vote. This is structurally different from every other moratorium item the corpus has tracked. The previous moratorium pattern was bottom-up: counties and cities pausing on their own initiative, often against state preemption, with state law as the antagonist. HB 2496 inverts that — Pennsylvania at the state level is affirmatively arming localities with a moratorium tool that they would not otherwise have unambiguous authority to use. The contrast with three other state-level patterns the corpus is already tracking is the strategic frame: • New York: state-level statewide moratorium (≥20 MW, one-year freeze) — top-down ban. Bill passed legislature, awaiting Hochul signature. • Tennessee: state law preempts local bans on data centers — top-down block on local action, the pattern Nashville EO 59 had to work around. • Utah: state-level special authority (MIDA) preempts local zoning for specific projects — top-down exemption. • Pennsylvania (new): state-level enabling legislation that hands moratorium authority to localities — top-down empowerment of bottom-up action. Four different state-vs-local relationships in four states inside one month. The federal layer (yesterday's FERC order) sits above all of them.

Primary source · ABC27 Harrisburg ↗