I am a member of the Climate Justice Wing’s (CJW) of the Maryland Legislative Coalition, a collaborative of grassroots and professional organizations. We have had a data center study group for over a year researching impacts on our communities, transmission grid, water, noise, air pollution, energy usage.
Big tech and land developers are proposing constructing data centers in our county.
Prince George’s County held three park and planning community meetings this summer seeking input from communities.
The County Council has also formed a data center task force, made up heavily of construction, developers, utility people. Some members do have more interest in community impacts. At present, almost no serious review of data center impacts and regulations have been put in place to control them. This includes the work done to date by and for the task force established by the county council to provide it guidance.
Why is the county looking at data centers so intensely? Prince George’s County is struggling to bring in more revenue. They and Governor Moore think data centers will generate more revenue and high paying jobs.
The claim of revenue is not clear, and our CJW Data Center study group has also found revenues questionable, however impacts to climate and energy are certain. We are facing more flooding, air, water pollution, concerns with water availability and at times droughts as aquifers lower. Climate mitigation will add to our budget problems. As it stands, ratepayers are paying for the building of transmission lines, and grid upgrades. More fossil fuels will be used to provide energy which leads to more GHG.
A number of questions have not been addressed regarding data centers’ impacts, and our county is about to implement a plan in November. Please direct your attention to video links of meetings and the list of the members of the task force.
Please attend the next in-person meeting of the task force on Wednesday, September 10, at 11 AM at 1616 McCormick Drive, Largo, MD. While the public can’t participate in these meetings, they can observe, and it is important for the task force to know that “we are watching.”
I’d like to request that our council members provide periodic updates/videos on these task force meetings in their constituent communications.
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