Showdown: Lefty non-profit backed protest group targeting new Pennsylvania data center from $4B company
The national battle over AI data centers is coming to a head in Pennsylvania, where an activist group boosted by the lefty non-profit arm of the Heinz family is trying to stymie a multi-billion dollar project.Florida-based TECfusions is currently navigating a 180-day moratorium on data center construction in Upper Burrell Township near Pittsburgh — an embargo similar to Gov.Kathy Hochul’s plan to halt permitting new, large facilities in New York for a year.Local environmental activist group Protect PT, the driver behind the postponement, is backed by non-profit Heinz Endowments, formed in 2007 from two endowments associated with company founder Henry J Heinz.
The Pittsburgh-based nonprofit donated $400,000 to the group in 2024 — roughly half of its funding that year — as part of nearly $93 million in grants the foundation awarded that year to lefty causes, according to Cause IQ.With the cash, Project PT pushed for the moratorium in May and is organizing the resistance to the New Kensington, Pa., project — set to bring a small army of lawyers, witnesses, and environmental experts to an August hearing.“The people that live close to the site have said they don’t want it,” said the group’s executive director Gillian Graber, citing concerns over power and water consumption.TECfusions, which operates other centers in Arizona and Virginia, and announced a $4 billion initial public offering on Wednesday, said the millions funneled to protesters are no match for the forces of history.“Every printing press had its protesters.
Every data center will too.And history remembers neither,” Simon Tusha, the company’s founder and chief technology officer, told The Post.
“Data centers aren’t intruders on the Monopoly board.They’re the new utilities, deserving their own square between the railroad and the water company.”Resistance against AI data centers on environmental grounds is baseless, he added, noting the company is repurposing and expanding ...