States are stalling efforts by data centers to connect to the electric grid, which could delay-though probably not derail-power companies' efforts to profit from the artificial-intelligence boom. In fact, for some companies that provide electricity, it could turn out to be a benefit.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued the latest broadside against data centers this week, announcing new rules on Tuesday that will force them to bring their own power sources and get community buy-in before starting construction. Shapiro's executive order follows the announcement of a one-year data-center moratorium in New York, and an industry "audit" in Texas that will also force data-center builders to pause efforts to connect to the grid.

The fact that data centers are under fire in states with such different politics shows just how broad-based the pushback has become.

"It's fascinating that New York and Texas are moving in the same direction," said Abe Silverman, a Johns Hopkins research scholar focused on energy policy. "We are a split country, except on this one issue."

Shapiro's executive order will force data centers to agree to a set of rules before the state Department of Environmental Protection will consider their applications. The companies will have to secure local approval of the projects and pledge to pay for the generation and transmission of the energy necessary to power the buildings' servers. The rules will apply to projects whether or not they connect to the larger electric grid.

Shapiro also removed all data-center projects from a "fast track" process the state has used to connect high-priority projects to the grid quickly. He had previously announced these standards as voluntary guidelines, which led to criticism from data-center opponents and his Republican challenger in this year's governor's election. Shapiro had also tried to get the state legislature to pass the rules through a bill, but it was defeated in the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Pennsylvania doesn't yet have any AI data centers, the governor said in prepared remarks with his order. But it has attracted more than 100 data-center project proposals, with some of them needing as much power as a midsized city. Pennsylvania is attractive to data-center operators looking for a place to plug in. Unlike some of its neighbors, the state produces more electricity than it needs, and it produces a lot of natural gas, which can feed power plants.

But not everyone in the state is looking forward to hosting the massive warehouses. Towns in Pennsylvania have been pushing back against projects that residents say will use too much electricity and water, and will foul the environment.

Shapiro's order is neither a ban nor a moratorium. In fact, he's generally supportive of data centers. In his remarks, he even mentioned a few projects, including two Amazon data centers, that he says will bring jobs and revenue to the state.

"He's clearly not saying no to data centers," said Alex Kania, a utilities and power analyst at U.S. Bancorp | BTIG. For top data center developers, "it's not going to lead to projects getting canceled as far as I can tell."

Another analyst thinks that Shapiro's order could be a negative for companies that already own power plants in the state, like Talen Energy, Vistra Energy, and Public Service Enterprise Group. Those companies had been hoping to make deals with data-center developers to sell them power from those existing plants under specialized contracts. But Shapiro's demand that data centers build or bring their own power sources with them means that existing plants may not be able to sign those special deals anymore, writes Jefferies analyst Paul Zimbardo.

The slowdown in data-center development could also impact utilities, such as PPL and Exelon, that build transmission wires in the state. On the one hand, it could reduce how many wires they build to service data centers, but it could also help them by forcing tech companies to pay for more of the buildout.

Kania thinks PPL has a way to benefit from the new rules. The company is in a joint venture with Blackstone, called Invitium Energy, to build new power plants for data centers in Pennsylvania. Invitium has reserved 5 gigawatts worth of natural-gas turbines to power data centers. PPL CEO Vincent Sorgi said this month on a conference call that he expects Invitium will sign a deal with a developer by the end of the year. Shapiro's order could boost demand for Invitium's plants.

Data-center developers are facing higher hurdles to get their projects off the ground. Power companies that can help them catch up to the new political reality should profit.