- Many thousands of gallons of potable water to cool equipment 24/7
- Large areas of land to site warehouses - often taking farmland and open space
- Each data center has the constant, round the clock power needs of a small city - ratepayers can expect to see increases up to 70% in their bills in the next 5 years.
- When power can't come from the grid - that constant power comes from high emissions diesel generators.
Our digital lives require cloud storage but the rise of AI has made the need for data centers explode. Developers are looking all over the country and world for suitable places to site data centers. Maryland, particularly Western Maryland, with it's proximity to Virginia's 'data center alley' is appealing to the industry.
But we have lots of questions about just where all these resources will come from and who ends up footing the bill.
That is why we support the Data Center Impact Analysis and Report Act (( HB270 SB116)) we are working with state and local partners in the Climate Justice Wing of the Maryland Legislative Coalition to support this and other common sense bills to protect our environment. We will be asking for folks to write in and testify on this bill - for now, please check out our fact sheet.