Montour County Amazon Data Center, Washingtonville, Pennsylvania

Montour County commissioners unanimously blocked Talen Energy's plan for an Amazon data center campus near Talen's Montour power plant at Washingtonville, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 2026, refusing to rezone more than 800 acres of farmland from agricultural to industrial. The rezoning was meant to allow Amazon data centers next to Talen's natural gas-fired plant, the same arrangement Talen uses to supply Amazon at its Susquehanna nuclear plant, and it would also have allowed an expansion of the coal- and gas-fired plant to power the data center.

Residents learned of the plan in summer 2025 by word of mouth, when neighbors began getting offers for their land at six to seven times market rate, and used right-to-know requests to confirm a data center was the goal. They formed Concerned Citizens of Montour County, and more people signed a petition against the rezoning than voted in the 2024 election; farmer Mike Leighow, whose farm relies on a well, said: "If we can't get water, we can't survive."

Commission chair Rebecca Dressler said Talen had not met its burden: "No evidence was provided demonstrating that the benefits outweigh documented and foreseeable public harms." Talen said it still plans a data center in the county: "We remain committed to pursuing a path forward in Montour County," and analysts at Capstone said they expected Talen and Amazon to "either redouble their efforts in Montour County or pursue an alternative brownfield site elsewhere in Pennsylvania."

Since the denial, Montour County commissioners have approved a data center amendment to the county zoning ordinance, amending it again after residents objected, and Derry, Limestone and West Hemlock townships adopted a joint data center ordinance in July. Any new Talen or Amazon proposal in Derry Township would go through the township's new ordinance and the county's rules, decided by the Derry Township supervisors and the Montour County Board of Commissioners.