10/06/2026
Post #27 DATA CENTERS: NATIONAL, STATE, AND COUNTY BY COUNTY
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Yes — a data center can push our electric costs up no matter where it lands: Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s, anywhere. That’s the point made in the interview I shared, and it’s a fair one. But it leads me somewhere different: if it’s going to cost us either way, why aren’t we pushing back and asking for more? So this is a short history of how we got here — national, to the state, to county by county. Because the same pitch being made in Calvert was made almost everywhere else first, and a lot of those places, are now pausing, tightening the rules, and in some cases reversing course.
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Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1NRni5qaGE/
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Everything below links to a primary or published source. Where a statute is involved, I’m not a lawyer; I’m pointing you to the text, not interpreting it for you. The documents are public. Read them and reach your own conclusion.
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1. THE FEDERAL PUSH — AND WHERE CONGRESS LANDED
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On July 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14318, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,” directing federal agencies to speed permitting, ease regulatory requirements, and open federal land for large data centers — those needing more than 100 MW of new electricity, costing at least $500 million, or tied to national security. It came paired with a federal “AI Action Plan.”
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Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/accelerating-federal-permitting-of-data-center-infrastructure/
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The Department of Energy then named four federal sites — in Idaho, Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina — for data center and power projects.
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Source: https://davisgraham.com/news-events/the-trump-administrations-progress-to-site-data-centers-on-federal-lands-initial-steps-but-work-remains/
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On March 4, 2026, the White House gathered seven AI and hyperscale companies — among them Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Amazon, OpenAI, and xAI — to sign a voluntary “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” meant to keep households from absorbing data centers’ electricity costs. It carries no legal enforcement.
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Source: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/strategic-federal-actions-aim-to-strengthen-ai-and-energy-infrastructure/
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Congress, by contrast, has passed no binding data center law. The White House has urged Congress to preempt state AI rules it considers too burdensome.
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Source: https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/sanders-ocasio-cortez-ai-data-center/507-4f259cb3-35f2-41b9-8cd5-617ffd57043f
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But binding federal action has stalled. A provision to bar states from regulating AI was stripped from the fiscal year 2026 defense bill after bipartisan opposition; the AI language that remained is about the military’s own systems and computing, not the commercial buildout. After it failed, the administration moved to preempt state AI rules by executive order — a step that has no force of law on its own.
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Source: https://www.meritalk.com/articles/ndaa-drops-ai-moratorium-tmf-renewal-but-packs-major-cyber-provisions/
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Source: https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/executive-order-tries-to-thwart-onerous-ai-state-regulation-calls-for-national-framework
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In March 2026, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill (S.4214) to pause new AI data center construction until federal safeguards exist. It was widely described as unlikely to advance, and lawmakers in both parties have rejected a construction moratorium.
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Source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4214/text
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Where there has been cross-party movement, it is on cost. House Energy and Commerce Democrats asked federal energy regulators to keep families from bearing data centers’ grid costs.
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Source: https://www.aol.com/articles/debate-over-ai-heats-gop-205500327.html
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And Maryland’s Senator Chris Van Hollen introduced legislation requiring companies to pay for the grid expansion they drive.
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Source: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/legislation-introduced-to-end-data-center-tax-breaks-in-maryland-and-arizona/
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The net effect: Washington has pushed to build faster while passing no binding rules of its own — which has left the real regulation to the states and counties below.
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2. THE STATES: WHO PAYS, AND WHO PAUSES
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No state has banned data centers outright. As of June 1, 2026, no broad statewide moratorium had been enacted anywhere.
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Source: https://www.datacenterbans.com/
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New York came closest: on June 5, 2026, its legislature passed a one-year moratorium on permits for new large-scale data centers and sent it to the governor. If signed, it would be the first statewide freeze in the country.
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Source: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2026/06/05/data-center-moratorium-approved-
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The biggest category of new state law isn’t about banning the buildings — it’s about who pays for the power.
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Florida (SB 484), signed in May 2026, bars utilities from shifting data center costs onto residential and small-business customers and requires large users to pay their full cost of service. Oklahoma (HB 2992) set similar cost rules; Washington (SB 5982) tied large data centers to clean-energy deadlines.
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Source: https://www.datacenterbans.com/
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California, Ohio, and Utah enacted laws requiring developers to cover their own energy costs, and South Carolina and Maryland passed rate-negotiation laws in 2025.
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Source: https://www.multistate.us/resources/state-data-center-policy-101
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On the pause side, Maine’s legislature passed an 18-month moratorium, but Governor Mills vetoed it in April 2026 and the override failed; most other state-level moratorium bills have stalled, which has pushed that fight down to cities and counties.
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Source: https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2026-04-29/janet-mills-successfully-vetoes-bills-on-data-centers-and-sealing-criminal-records
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3. MARYLAND
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A reminder before the statutes: I’m not a lawyer, and what follows points to the text, not a legal opinion.
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Maryland’s 2025 Next Generation Energy Act requires the Public Service Commission to set a separate rate class for data centers so ordinary customers don’t carry their costs. The law states that residential customers should not bear the financial risk of large-load customers connecting to the grid.
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Source: https://marylandmatters.org/2026/01/03/data-center-regulations-2026/
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In a December 16, 2025 special session, the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto to order a statewide study of data centers’ environmental and economic effects, due to the legislature by September 2026.
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Source: https://technical.ly/civics/maryland-data-center-impact-study-veto-override/
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The issue runs straight through Calvert. In 2024, the debate over Senate Bill 1 turned on whether a data center drawing power directly from Calvert Cliffs “behind the meter” would effectively pull the plant off the regional grid — with one estimate of up to a $4 billion impact on ratepayers.
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Source: https://marylandmatters.org/2024/04/08/the-strange-journey-of-senate-bill-1/
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In the 2026 session, roughly 30 data center bills were filed. Two are worth noting because they did not pass. HB120 would have paused new data center construction statewide. HB560 would have repealed both the state sales-and-use tax exemption for data center equipment and the authority counties hold to reduce or eliminate the local assessment on that equipment. Neither advanced.
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Source: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0560?ys=2026RS
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For scale on the existing state break: Maryland has reported giving up about $22 million in sales and use tax through 2025, against 276 jobs reported at those facilities.
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Source:https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/cmte_testimony/2026/wam/17hj0gB_GyO0gwlfeouMhwxX7radqrlyd.pdf
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4. WHAT MARYLAND COUNTIES HAVE ACTUALLY DONE
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The statewide pause failed, so counties are acting on their own. A partial map as of June 2026:
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Frederick cut the land open to data centers roughly in half — from about 5,000 acres to about 2,500, concentrated near the old Eastalco site — through a Critical Digital Infrastructure overlay adopted in early 2026.
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Source: https://frederickcountymd.gov/9122/Data-Centers
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Prince George’s had 2020 “by-right” approvals; after a $5 billion project was approved before most neighbors knew, the council passed a moratorium in September 2025 and a task force recommended a public hearing for every data center.
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Source: https://www.bayjournal.com/news/energy/maryland-counties-to-data-center-industry-slow-down/article_c8362372-9a29-4ef9-925a-c81840390a95.html
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Baltimore County voted unanimously in February 2026 to pause permitting through as late as the end of 2026 and repealed its 2024 data center regulations.
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Source: https://www.bayjournal.com/news/energy/maryland-counties-to-data-center-industry-slow-down/article_c8362372-9a29-4ef9-925a-c81840390a95.html
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Montgomery, with a project moving at the former Dickerson coal site, saw the county executive propose limiting data centers to industrial zones, requiring them to supply most of their own power, and a six-month moratorium.
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Source: https://www.bayjournal.com/news/energy/maryland-counties-to-data-center-industry-slow-down/article_c8362372-9a29-4ef9-925a-c81840390a95.html
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Charles (next door): the planning commission recommended denial of its data center zoning amendment in March 2026, citing potable-water use and who bears infrastructure costs.
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Source: https://thebaynet.com/charles-county-planning-commission-votes-to-deny-data-center-zoning-amendment/
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Howard, Carroll, Harford, Queen Anne’s: Howard’s council passed a moratorium awaiting the executive’s signature, Carroll passed a 12-month pause, Queen Anne’s joined, and Harford is moving toward a permanent ban; Baltimore City is considering a pause.
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Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/maryland-data-center-ban-moratorium-development-regulations/
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5. THE MONEY: PROPERTY TAX, AND WHAT A PILOT IS
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A PILOT — Payment In Lieu Of Taxes — is a negotiated fixed payment a company makes instead of the ordinary tax. Depending on the terms, it can lock in revenue, or function as a discount.
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The pitch is real: data centers can become large taxpayers. In Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers paid about $733 million in property taxes in 2024 — roughly a third of the county’s property tax revenue.
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Source: https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2024-data-centers-in-virginia.asp
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The counterweight is also documented: data centers employ very few people once running. An industry analysis put it at about 157 permanent jobs on average, and one Microsoft site in Illinois drew more than $38 million in exemptions for 20 permanent jobs.
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Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/20/tax-breaks-for-tech-giants-data-centers-mean-less-income-for-states.html
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Maryland’s tax structure has two layers, and they are not the same thing:
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The state sales-and-use tax exemption on data center equipment is uniform Maryland law. A county cannot change it.
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Source: https://commerce.maryland.gov/fund/data-center-maryland-sales-and-use-tax-exemption-incentive-program
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The local personal-property tax is a county choice. Maryland has no state personal-property tax; seven counties — including Frederick — don’t levy one, while Calvert and most others do. So Calvert would capture personal-property-tax revenue on data center equipment that Frederick cannot. One caveat: computer equipment depreciates quickly, so those figures depend on the operator continually replacing equipment.
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Source: https://commerce.maryland.gov/about/taxes
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Source: https://www.discoverfrederickmd.com/157/Incentives-Taxes
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And the lever: Maryland also authorizes a county to reduce or eliminate that local assessment — the very authority HB560 tried to repeal. Whether Calvert uses it to fully tax data center equipment or to discount it is a county decision, in Calvert’s hands.
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6. HOW THE CASE IS BEING SOLD, AND WHAT INDEPENDENT SOURCES SAY
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A primer titled “Weighing the Evidence,” branded with a trades union, has carried the optimistic figures — a typical large data center bringing hundreds of permanent jobs and, in its words, helping “bridge Maryland’s budget gap.” The same policy firm that wrote that primer also authored Calvert’s Economic Development Strategic Plan. Those are facts; readers can weigh the overlap.
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Set against independent sources: on jobs, the permanent-employment numbers above. On rates, Virginia’s own legislature found data centers pay their current costs but will raise system costs for everyone because of new infrastructure built to serve them — and residential rates rose about 32% nationally between 2020 and 2025.
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Source: https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2024-data-centers-in-virginia.asp
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Source: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-evidence-on-data-center-employment-effects/
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The point isn’t to argue. It’s to set the claim and the independent number next to each other.
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7. THE TRANSPARENCY QUESTION, WITH TWO DOCUMENTS
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You can’t file a records request on a company. You can file one on the government body that holds the company’s documents — and a confidentiality stamp does not override public-records law.
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Spotsylvania County, Virginia: a resident’s records request unsealed a 33-page Amazon water contract stamped “Confidential” on every page. The contract itself concedes its terms are subject to Virginia’s public-records law.
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Source: https://poweredbywho.com/stories/amazon-spotsylvania-mattameade-water-contract
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Source:https://poweredbywho.com/docs/contracts/amazon-spotsylvania-mattameade-wsa-2024-11-22.pdf
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Culpeper, Virginia: a records request produced a reclaimed-water agreement showing a data center developer operating as a Delaware LLC — the same use of shell entities and code names a national watchdog has documented across the industry.
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Source: https://poweredbywho.com/stories/virginia-data-centers-water-culpeper
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Source: https://goodjobsfirst.org/cloudy-data-costly-deals-how-poorly-states-disclose-data-center-subsidies/
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BACK TO CALVERT
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Calvert is the site of an Amazon (AWS) application. The same company was the original operator behind a campaign a city council in Tucson, Arizona, unanimously rejected.
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Source: https://azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/tucson-city-council-rejects-project-blue-amid-intense-community-pressure/
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On the benefit question the interview raised, the county already has a working template for exactly this kind of deal. Its agreement with Dominion Cove Point is a PILOT that includes a 42% tax credit on new and repurposed equipment — structured around the same equipment-depreciation problem a data center presents.
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Source: Calvert County Comprehensive Plan, 2025
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And the county has been building the machinery for a data center version of that deal. In the 2025 General Assembly, a Calvert County Delegation bill (HB949) would have authorized the county to negotiate payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements with data centers; it died in committee.
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Source: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0949?ys=2025RS
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Separately, the county hired a consultant to design a data center incentive program and draft authorizing legislation (see Post #20). A county official says no deal has been signed. All of it is on the record.
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A developer has told residents the project could mean close to $50 million a year to the county, driven by personal property.
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Source: Thomas Natelli, T-Bone and Heather radio interview, March 2026
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Whether that figure holds depends on the equipment question above — and on whether the county taxes that personal property or discounts it.
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None of this tells you what to think. But it does provide you with the documented facts to draw your own conclusion. It tells you what is documented — here, and everywhere else. The rest is yours.
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Every source above is public. I’ve tried my best to put documents I can’t link to out here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HB_wMVFbklAl5FiQzqws_69a3t_yvQ9f