At CMU Summit, Rep. Summer Lee Calls for Stronger Community Protections as AI Data Centers Expand Across Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH, PA – OCTOBER 2, 2026 — Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) joined community organizers, researchers, environmental advocates, labor leaders, and policymakers at Carnegie Mellon University's Community-Centered AI Infrastructure Summit to call for stronger protections for Pennsylvania communities facing the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers.
The statewide summit, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in partnership with Data & Society, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and the Pennsylvania Climate Equity Table, brought together residents and experts to examine the growing demands AI infrastructure places on Pennsylvania's electricity grid, water resources, workforce, and environment. Participants also explored policy solutions and community organizing strategies to inform a Community Action Plan for AI Infrastructure.
Drawing on her experience growing up in the Mon Valley, Rep. Lee warned against repeating the mistakes of Pennsylvania's industrial past, when corporations generated enormous wealth while working-class communities were left to bear the costs of pollution, disinvestment, and broken promises.
“Here in the Pittsburgh area, we have communities that have been similarly sacrificed. I grew up in one of them,” said Rep. Lee. “ We know what it looks like when these choices are made for us, but not with us. I believe that we have to establish regulatory frameworks before we suffer its consequences. Leading on AI doesn't mean building more data centers at any cost or racing toward superintelligence without considering the consequences. It means making sure that AI actually improves life for all of us, not just the CEOs or oligarchs.”
During the summit, Rep. Lee highlighted her cosponsorship of the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, which would temporarily pause new data center construction and the expansion of existing facilities until Congress establishes comprehensive federal safeguards addressing AI's economic, environmental, and safety impacts. She emphasized that the pause must give lawmakers time to establish meaningful protections for communities already facing the consequences of unchecked development.
Rep. Lee called for stronger federal, state, and local regulations to address rising electricity and water costs, establish labor standards, increase community transparency, and account for the cumulative environmental and health impacts of industrial development. Drawing on her visit to Memphis, Tennessee, where residents are organizing against the environmental and noise pollution associated with xAI's data center operations, Rep. Lee warned against repeating the mistakes of Pennsylvania's industrial past and allowing corporations to make decisions that affect communities without their input.
Rep. Lee also connected the expansion of AI infrastructure to broader concerns about civil rights, workers' livelihoods, environmental harms, and corporate influence in Washington. She warned that unchecked AI could reinforce existing discrimination in healthcare, employment, and policing, while the communities bearing the environmental and economic costs of its expansion are left without meaningful protections. She also highlighted her Abolish Super PACs Act, arguing that unlimited corporate spending in elections undermines Congress's ability to establish regulations that prioritize the public over corporate profits.
Footage of Rep. Lee’s remarks can be found here.
Rep. Lee has championed legislation to protect communities, workers, and civil rights as artificial intelligence expands. She is a cosponsor of the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, which would temporarily pause new data center construction and expansion until Congress establishes comprehensive federal safeguards addressing AI's economic, environmental, and safety impacts. Alongside Senator Ed Markey, Rep. Lee introduced the Eliminating BIAS Act, which would establish dedicated civil rights offices in federal agencies that use or oversee AI to combat algorithmic discrimination. She also co-leads the AI Civil Rights Act, which would strengthen protections against AI-driven discrimination in housing, healthcare, employment, and other essential services.
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Judiciary and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.7 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 4,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.