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Approval of Danko Data Center Challenged in Court on Constitutional Grounds
April 28, 2026, Danko Holdings II, LP and Fishlips, LLC attempted to submit an application for development of the “Danko Data Center,” proposed to be built in Muncy Township.
The proposed data center would include three data center buildings, two fourteen-pod facilities, one eight-pod facility, water storage tanks, a water treatment facility, a substation, and auxiliary structures, and would be located right next door to residential, historic, and agricultural landscapes.
In July, when the Township had not held a conditional use hearing within 60 days, nor rendered a determination on the data center application materials based on procedural steps the municipality was pursuing regarding data center applications, Danko Holdings and Fishlips published notice that their application was “deemed approved” by virtue of the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), a state law authorizing and overseeing local land use decision-making.
September 25, Green Amendments For The Generations, joined by the township, neighbors and residents challenged, as unconstitutional, the provisions of the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) that provides for the concept of “deemed approval”.
“State sanctioned ‘Deemed Approval’ of data centers and other projects turns state law on its head; rather than protecting the health, safety, and welfare of our people, it now serves the purely profit goals and business objectives of corporations, big business and now AI companies” said Maya van Rossum, Founder and Leader of Green Amendments For The Generations.
The case requests that the court declare the provisions of the MPC at issue to be unconstitutional for violating Article I, Section 1 and Article I, Section 27 of the PA constitution, and the 5th and 14th amendments of the U.S. constitution and that the challenged provisions of the MPC be stricken from Pennsylvania law. If the case is successful, the Danko Data Center would be subject to the ordinances and standards of Muncy Township and applicable state laws, and communities across the state would be assured their opportunity for environmental rights and due process protections on all future development proposals.
Read the Press Release announcing the September 25 filing here.
Read the Petition filed with the Commonwealth Court here.
Upper Mount Bethel Data Center Threat
Act Now: At this link send message to the supervisors and urge them to reject the industry drafted agreement & to pursue a strong data center ordinance.
Slate Belt Holdings, LLC, is partnership between Talen Energy and River Pointe Logistics to develop a 754-acre data center campus in Upper Mount Bethel, just south of the Delaware Water Gap.
In order to gain legal leverage to advance their project, Slate Belt Holdings filed a legal action to the township’s existing zoning that seems clearly intended to strong arm local government officials into approving the project the companies want.
The companies then forwarded to the Upper Mount Bethel Township Supervisors a lopsided Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) offering to drop their legal challenge (“validity challenge”) and provide what sounds like significant funding in exchange for the township agreeing to zoning changes that are agreeable to the data center and ties the hands of the township on several critical issues.
Township officials are weighing their decision. Our organization believes signing this MOU is a bad idea and will undermine the ability of the township to ensure essential protections for the community and environment.
If you agree, please consider joining with others to submit a letter to the Upper Mount Bethel Township Supervisors to
- Reject the MOU,
- Obtain an independent legal assessment on the “Validity Challenge” used to pressure the township, and
- Pass a comprehensive data center ordinance
Township Supervisors have an obligation to serve the interests of the community and to safeguard the environmental resources for the benefit of the people. Send your message today. At this link we can help you with a message that will be directly sent to the supervisors.
At this link you can view the video of testimony provided by Green Amendments leader Maya van Rossum at the August 10 meeting.
The August 24 hearing was standing room only. For nearly the entire 3 hours of the meeting the community offered substantive and meaningful testimony telling the township why it should not sign a memorandum of understanding with the data center developer that gives the industry higher standing than the community and essential veto authority in the creation of a new data center ordinance, all under the threat of litigation. After all the public comment was in, and the meeting was in its final stages, a few of the supervisors announced that a new MOU had been developed, essentially suggesting that the ~3 hours of testimony was not directly relevant. Green Amendments For The Generations, with our sister organization Delaware Riverkeeper Network, submitted this firm letter in reaction.
Going into the August 24 meeting, Green Amendments For The Generations and Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted two significant comments as well as verbal testimony urging the supervisors to reject the MOU, to prioritize and fast track development of a strong data center ordinance, and explaining that the Slate Belt Holdings legal threats should be questioned and challenged. These comments are both still directly on point, regardless of minimal modifications made to the MOU announced at the end of the special meeting. You can see those comments here:
- Comment: Reject the MOU, the legal threat is dubious
- Comment: If you insist on signing the MOU, it must be overhauled and here’s how
- Points: Points to help you craft your own testimony.
- Video of the August 24 hearing
Lower Mount Bethel Data Center Threat
Talen Energy, working with J.G. Petrucci, Peron Development, and CBRE have teamed up to propose a data center on a 450-acre parcel at the intersection of Gravel Hill Road and Martin’s Creek Belvidere Highway in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, PA. At a public meeting held on April 9, 2026 the companies were light on details and heavy on promises of minimal impact.
But documents secured by Green Amendments For The Generations from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) paint a different picture: a need to rezone agricultural lands to industrial zoning; ~ 220 diesel-powered emergency generators, distributed across multiple buildings; aboveground storage tanks containing diesel fuel likely exceeding regulatory thresholds (e.g., 21,000 gallons) and thereby triggering additional permitting and compliance obligations; domestic and industrial wastewater in need of disposal; and more that is yet to be determined.
In response the community spoke up in opposition, as did Green Amendments For The Generations. It is looking like the Data Center developers are trying to regroup and find another pathway forward. Meanwhile the community is demanding, and the township is pursuing, a strong ordinance to provide needed protection.
Stay tuned for next steps and how you can be involved.
Be sure to check out our Data Center Resources page to find a toolkit empowering you with the knowledge on how to use the Pennsylvania Green Amendment to take on data centers, information on data center impacts, and resources on protective ordinance language.
Opposing Sweetheart Deal For Toxic Bishop Tube Site
Since 2017, Green Amendments For The Generations has been helping East Whiteland Township, Chester County, PA community members to advocate for their environmental rights. The focus has been to secure clean up – by wealthy responsible corporations – of the long ignored toxic contamination at the site, and to support community members in their endeavor to secure this site as protected natural open space.
The Bishop Tube Site is a former metals processing plant. The site is bordered by Little Valley Creek, an Exceptional Value stream. Portions of the site are wooded and include wetlands that are also deemed Exceptional Value.
Due to the actions and decisions of the site’s industry owners, the site is supersaturated with dangerous toxins, including TCE and PFAS contaminants. Toxins are found in the soils, the groundwater and the neighboring creek. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has known about the contamination since at least 1985; and has had the legal authority to hold responsible corporations (very wealth ones) accountable to address the toxic condition at the corporations’ expense. Rather than expedite efforts to secure site remediation, the PADEP has spent much of its time working to cut deals, including with Constitution Drive Partners, who is not only one of the responsible corporations, but is also a developer that wants to develop the site with residential homes. The most recent proposal submitted in the Fall 2020 was for ~92 residential homes.
Neighboring residents fear that the toxic contamination is responsible for serious illness amongst their community members. The contamination has also had serious implications on their sense of safety and their property values.
After years of behind-closed-doors negotiation between the PADEP and the legally responsible corporations – namely Johnson Matthey Inc. (previously known as J. Bishop, Matthey Bishop), Whittaker Corporation, Marcegaglia USA, Constitution Drive Partners – on March 14, 2026, a privately negotiated settlement was issued for public review and comment. The public was given just 60 days for this comment period, with requests for an extension quickly rejected by PADEP. The settlement was issued in the form of a Consent Decree that will require court approval if it is to take effect.
GAFTG has worked to help inform community members of their environmental rights as they pertain to this settlement/Consent Decree proposal. And we have submitted a comment of our own, focusing on the constitutional environmental rights issues that stand as a strong complement to comments submitted by community members and our sister organization the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
You can review GAFTG’s comment here.
Green Amendments For The Generations is not sitting still while we wait for the judge to decide what to do. We are investigating and developing additional legal and advocacy options that will need your engagement and support. So please stay tuned.
If you want to learn more about the Bishop Tube site and how it has affected the community, including the battles with the developer (such as the legal SLAPP suit the developer filed against Green Amendments Founder Maya van Rossum and that was threatened against 10 to be named community members), you will find the whole story in the Green Amendment book. It’s the lead story opening Chapter 6, The Paving of America.
Standing Against ICE Detention Centers Threatening Our Environment, Health & Safety
Hot News: Green Amendments For The Generations’ petition to intervene in the legal action between the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement was granted, allowing us to fully engage in the case. Shortly thereafter, DHS withdrew their legal appal, removing the threat and the need for our legal intervention.
Federal Endangerment Finding Re Climate Withdrawn – Green Amendments For The Generations Makes Clear that PA is NOT Off The Hook
February 12, 2026, the federal government eliminated its endangerment finding—a foundational step taken years ago to support nationwide reduction of GHGs, particularly as the result of vehicle emissions. Green Amendments For The Generations and our sister organization Delaware Riverkeeper Network write to the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to urge strong state action. Our letter makes clear that regardless of where the federal government ultimately lands in the battle to regulate climate-changing emissions, Pennsylvania government officials and agencies have — by virtue of the Pennsylvania Green Amendment constitutional mandate — their own independent duty to mitigate climate change.
The letter sent today makes clear that Pennsylvania’s Green Amendment – Article I, Section 27 of the state constitution — requires Pennsylvania Agencies to use their statutory and regulatory authority to abate and remedy climate change. This duty exists even if the Commonwealth is not the cause of environmental degradation, and even if the actions of the PA Agencies alone are unsuccessful in preserving the public natural resources from climate change.
You can read the letter here.
Talen Data Center, Montour County – Successful NO Vote
In Pennsylvania, Talen Energy Supply, LLC (Talen Energy) is asking the Montour County Commissioners to rezone over 800 acres of land from zoning as agricultural, public/semi public or rural residential uses to an industrial use designation. In response to strong community advocacy, Talen Energy confirmed that the change in zoning was needed to support a planned data center.
Very little information has been made available about the actual data center itself.
After a robust hearing in November, 2025, the Montour County Planning Commission recommended that the rezoning request be rejected by the County Commissioners who are the final arbiter of the petition.
The County Commissioners invited written comment and held a hearing on January 23, 2026. Despite it being a work week, work day hearing (friday starting at 9:30 am), the room was full and the testimony was powerful.
Green Amendments For The Generations submitted written comment urging rejection of the rezoning request and joined the community in offering testimony at the hearing.
On February 10th, the Montour County Commissioners unanimously voted NO to rezone approx. 1000 acres of farmland to industrial to allow for a data center and powerplant proposal by Talen Energy and Amazon. Community member after community member described this battle as David vs. Goliath, and they couldn’t be more right. Pennsylvania’s Green Amendment, Article 1 Section 27, was mentioned several times at the earlier commissioners hearing in January.
