MARYLAND (WBFF) — As data centers become more prevalent, leaders in Prince George’s County released a report issuing several policy recommendations to guide data center development moving forward.
The Prince George’s County Data Center Task Force was established to review the impacts of data centers. Some of the recommendations included in the 400-page report are related to tightening zoning restrictions around data centers, protecting environmentally sensitive areas, and increasing the distance data centers need to be from homes. The recommendations outlined in the report are just recommendations, and have not yet been implemented.
“So with the recommendations, one of the parts that I wanted to make sure was clear was that there will be no skipping of the process,” said Prince George’s Councilmember Wala Blegay.
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“What happened in Landover should never happen again,” she said, referring to a data center project that drew sharp criticism and concern from community members. “And we are going to implement legislation to make sure that anybody that moves forward with the data center will have to, will have to go through a special exception process.”
Blegay explained that the special exception process would outline a specific process that would ensure robust community engagement in future data center projects.
“No data center will be fast tracked, so that the entire community is able to have input, and the council member for that respective district should be one of the stakeholders to make the final decision,” she added.
She also mentioned it was important that data centers do their part when it comes to energy supply on the grid.
“One of the ones that I really wanted to push, and it wasn’t quite clear in the recommendations, is actually having the data center bring their own generation,” Blegay said.
“So this will be making sure that anything that comes they have to pay for their own generation, and it doesn’t go on the grid, and it doesn’t impact any electricity bills,” she added.
This comes at a time when state lawmakers are also trying to navigate data centers, and the demand they put on Maryland’s strained electric grid, especially as Governor Wes Moore has made a push to attract data centers and quantum.
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“I do think he should take a more strategic approach,” said Delegate Brian Chisholm, a Republican representing Anne Arundel County.
“How are we going to provide enough energy to those, those data centers in order to make it a win for the citizens of Maryland?” he added.
The Maryland Freedom Caucus, along with other lawmakers in the state legislature, are introducing legislation and making a push to require data centers to provide their own generation rather than creating additional strain on the grid.
“It’s going to be the rate payers and the taxpayers need to be protected here, and I think there is some bipartisan support for making sure we do this in a way that doesn’t hurt so many rate payers, because affordability is the big problem right now, and increased utility bills are at the top of that list,” Chisholm said.
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