As lawmakers gather in Annapolis for a special session on redistricting, a vocal constituency sees an opportunity for an entirely different crusade.
Neither political party nor electoral lines have seemed to matter when it comes to data center backlash, which is rising across the state. Half of Maryland jurisdictions have imposed a moratorium, fueled by concerns over rising electric rates, noise pollution and water usage. Activists see the special session as their next shot at statewide action.
“Maryland’s laws — our environmental laws, our energy laws, our land use laws — are just completely inadequate to address data centers’ impacts,” said Greg Smith, an organizer from Prince George’s County.
State environmental groups started rallying legislators weeks ago to tag a data center moratorium vote onto the three day session agenda, per Dave Arndt, co-chair of Maryland lobbying group Climate Justice Wing.
During the special session, leaders in the House and Senate get to decide whether any particular issue gets attention. And Sen. Karen Lewis Young, who represents part of Frederick County, isn’t particularly optimistic about its prospects. She campaigned alongside Smith, Arndt and others to add the moratorium to the agenda and has found leadership wary of opening the floodgates for other bills.
“It’s not that the presiding officers don’t support the concept,” Lewis Young said. “It’s that once they open it up to issues other than redistricting, we could be there three weeks instead of three days.”
She said a statewide data center study is still on the horizon, with an expected October release. The study, for which Lewis Young sponsored the legislation, will cover three areas: energy use, environmental impacts and revenue analysis. The study’s findings, Lewis Young said, could help expedite a vote or other emergency action.
It’s not unheard of — just last month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order imposing the first statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers. (The governor, a Democrat, did not sign the state legislature’s more aggressive bill to regulate the data center industry.)
In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore has taken a more development-friendly stance. In May 2024, he signed an executive order that eased environmental restrictions for data center developers to install backup generators, wanting to lessen “red tape” while supporting Maryland’s tech economy. In May of 2025, he met Lewis Young’s data center study bill with a veto, which the General Assembly eventually overrode.
Other studies in support of data center developments similarly champion prospective economic benefits. The Maryland Tech Council sponsored one last fall that pointed to the buildout’s massive tax revenue potential and local construction job boost. Not to mention the importance of the facilities to support AI innovation.
However, the Tech Council did underline the need for a transparent development process.
“Local governments have an important responsibility to carefully consider how digital infrastructure projects fit within their communities,” a Tech Council rep wrote in an email to Technical.ly, “and the Council respects the need for thoughtful local planning and meaningful public engagement.”
While lawmakers weigh the issue, the public tide is turning sharply against new projects.
A political issue, whether candidates like it or not
Americans hold increasingly negative views towards data center developments, according to recent polling.
A July Politico poll found that 41% of Americans would oppose a data center being built within three miles of where they live, up from 28% in a January survey. The opposition spans party lines, but Democratic voters are intensifying their push at a faster rate.
Local action in Maryland reflects a broad consensus, with conservative strongholds on the Eastern Shore and in Western Maryland passing moratoriums just as readily as Democratic-leaning counties.
Widespread public opposition to data centers has already felled several establishment candidates.
In the June primaries, Frederick County Council President Brad Young, who spent 12 years on the school board before taking office in 2022, finished third. Young, who oversaw legislation tied to the massive Quantum Frederick development, faced heavy criticism from residents for his decisionmaking. The pushback reached Calvert County, too. Three county commissioners who voted against a data center moratorium were ousted in their primary races, replaced by newcomers who campaigned heavily against the developments among other contentious issues.
Despite these political victories and the avalanche of county moratoriums, activists say that patchwork strategy isn’t enough. Data center downsides, Climate Justice Wing’s Arndt said, can easily spill outside county lines.
“It’s a rather crude way of doing it,” Arndt said. “We don’t want one county making a financial decision that’s going to affect all the ratepayers in the state of Maryland.” Plus, not all of the moratoriums are foolproof, he said. Prince George’s County’s mandated two-year pause, for example, allows future local legislation to lift it prematurely.
Andy Ellis, the Green Party candidate for governor, said he has traveled the state to understand bipartisan opposition from voters. Generally, conservatives aim to protect farmland and progressives target Big Tech, he said, but both blame local leadership.
“There’s this expression of people,” Ellis said, “just not trusting their elected officials to make these deals.”
Reenergizing the climate fight
For local environmental activists, the backlash against data centers has offered a new opportunity to pull climate issues back into the spotlight.
While data centers are not the sole driver of rising electric rates, their massive power demands are a major contributor to recent hikes. Activists worry that clean energy won’t scale fast enough to meet this surge.
Maryland is already falling short of its aggressive climate goals, and data center developers are resurrecting coal plants and permitting fleets of diesel backup generators to power them.
Yet the growing public anger has created a powerful organizing tool, according to Smith, a volunteer with the nonprofit Sustainable Hyattsville.
He helped lead the push for Prince George’s County’s moratorium extension. Working alongside coalition networks across Maryland, he said that environmental causes rarely mobilize this quickly.
“People become activists when they feel a direct threat to them or their families or their home or their pocketbooks or their farm or a place they hold sacred,” Smith said. “With data centers imposing such a wide array of impacts, they’re just pissing off all kinds of people.”