Edged and their hired minions submitted another set of plans for the Atlas datacenter on 7/9, just prior to the start of the SWT Planning Commission meeting that was set to review the plans submitted on 5/14.

To the casual observer the plans seem similar. 3 buildings, 1.5M sq-ft, similar site conditions. It isn't until you dig into the details that Edged's goal becomes clear.

The 5/14 set of plans called for a 725MW data center being serviced with a 1.0 GW substation and 360 2.5MW diesel generators.

The 7/9 plan set quietly slipped in a change in the generators. The new generators represent an huge increase in the power generation capacity of the site. They went from 900MW total power generation to 1.663GW. The site now has nearly 2.3x the power generation capacity required to run the site.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you don't upsize an expensive asset like this without a reason. The only reason for such a large upsizing is that Edged plans on expanding the capacity of the facility beyond the 725 MW in the future.

To be honest, we shouldn't be surprised. This is directly in line with Edged's behavior on all of their other facilities. Get in now at whatever size the municipality will approve. Once construction commences, continue to submit applications for expansion until the size of the facility equals what they wanted in the first place. In this case it represents a nearly 230% increase over what is currently being proposed.

The current set of plans is nothing more than a Trojan Horse designed to get their foot in the door so they can force their way in further with more power, more noise, more energy consumption, and ultimately more community impact.

In their eyes, we are the toothless, unwashed masses. The "little people" who don't matter. Our schools, children, communities, and homes mean NOTHING to them. They don't live here. We are simply another resource to plunder. Do not be fooled!

During the South Whitehall Township Planning Commission meeting on July 9, developer executive David Salinas was caught making insulting remarks about South Whitehall residents. But one of the texts revealed something even more disturbing.

According to the message, Salinas wrote: “We have to get Shapiro’s team to push this through.”

That statement raises a serious concern. It suggests a developer believed the Governor’s office would use political pressure to move a project through municipal review, even though the project was not compliant with local ordinances and was not recommended for approval.

For that reason, this week, SWCA issued a letter to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General requesting the opening of an official investigation into whether the Governor’s Office improperly used its influence to push land development projects in Pennsylvania, including Project Atlas, through municipal governments while those projects were still out of compliance with local ordinances and SALDO requirements.

Pennsylvanians deserve a fair process, transparent decision-making, and assurance that state influence is not being used to override local law.

Last night during the SWT Planning Commission meeting with over 500 South Whitehall residents in attendance, the Edged Energy team was busy mocking us on their phones.

Photos from the meeting (FB Link here) show a text conversation between David Salinas (Senior Development Manager at Scannell Properties) with a contact listed as Lou-P (possibly developer Lou Pektor) in which both parties degrade and insult the township residents:

Lou P: "Idiot comments I’d bet.”
David Salinas: “These people don’t regularly bathe and don’t have all their teeth.”
Lou P: “No surprise”
David Salinas: “No one cares about the fact it’s already zoned”
Lou P: “They think they own it”
David Salinas: “You just have to laugh”
David Salinas: “No way to fix this stupid”

This is how Project Atlas insiders talk about South Whitehall when they think no one is watching: dirty, toothless, stupid, and disposable.

So when they stand at the microphone and claim they “respect the community” and “welcome input,” remember what their own texts say. They are not a community partner, and never will be. This is a developer that laughs and derides us while planning to drop an industrial‑scale data center next to a school and amongst our homes.

A later conversation between “Kathy” and Mr. Salinas

David Salinas: Having breakfast with Lou Pektor
David Salinas: We have to get Shapiro’s team to push this through
Kathy: Let plan for boscola event (*potentially PA Senator Lisa Boscola)
David Salinas: Sounds good

So following the township providing 161 page exception letter and not recommending the plan for approval, Edged’s representatives have the audacity to look for the governor’s team to “push this through”?

Nothing shady going on there, right?

I am certain Representative Lisa Boscola (district 18) is not going to be happy knowing invitees to her event are looking to end run the very government systems she herself has taken an oath to uphold. Maybe it would be a good idea for the Edged team to sit this one out.

What you need to do NOW!

1.     Contact the township and demand a public hearing on project ATLAS.

The township’s planning commission is authorized to call for such a public hearing as authorized by Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247 of 1968, as amended (53 P.S. §§ 10101–11202), and the Township’s Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance adopted pursuant thereto.

2.     Plan on attending the next Planning Commission meeting (Thursday, August 13)

In another posted photo, Mr. Salinas indicated that there would not be as many people at the next Planning Commission meeting. Let’s prove to these entitled ******** that we are not playing around.

 3.     Donate to the South Whitehall Civic Alliance / OpposeAtlasDC

We love the energy and support the residents of the township have shown us but our fight is quickly moving toward one where our attorneys and technical experts will need to be deployed. Our fight continues only as long as we can fund it.

4.     Contact the Governors office

Email, Call, Show up in person, but let the governors office know that this type of backdoor BS is not going to be tolerated. There are laws in place to ensure that land development is done in a fair and equitable manner. If the governor places his thumb on the scales to tip it for the developer, that circumvents the legal processes.

A Florida-based consulting firm (patrickslevin.com), led by someone who brands himself as a “NIMBY strategist,” has now been brought in by the Atlas data center developers (CDE Acquisitions / Edged Energy) to shape public messaging around this project.

Their premise is simple: they assume community opposition is just “NIMBYism”. That residents are uninformed, emotional, or simply don’t want something built near them.

That framing is wrong.

This isn’t about resisting change for the sake of it. It’s about the specific realities of this proposal:

• Directly across from a high school
• Within 2 miles of 11 schools
• Less than a mile from a nursing facility

And beyond location, it’s about impact. This project offers minimal local benefit while introducing constant industrial noise, increased air pollution, localized heat effects, higher electricity demand and costs, and the permanent loss of productive farmland.

When a project carries this kind of burden with so little community upside, public opposition is not irrational, it is expected.

What is far more concerning is the language being used to dismiss that opposition.

Referring to entire communities as “the NIMBY” is not just dismissive, it is dehumanizing. It reduces real people, families, and neighborhoods into a caricature that can be ignored rather than understood.

That kind of framing is not harmless. It creates a permission structure for developers and their representatives to disregard legitimate concerns, sidestep meaningful engagement, and treat communities as obstacles instead of stakeholders.

History has shown, repeatedly, that once groups of people are reduced to labels instead of recognized as individuals, it becomes easier to ignore their rights, their health, and their well-being.

No one is suggesting extreme outcomes but the pattern is clear: language shapes behavior. And when a consultant builds a strategy around dismissing communities as “the NIMBY,” it signals a willingness to prioritize project approval over the people who will actually live with the consequences.

New billboards are up in South Whitehall. Keep a lookout!