The DMV has long been the epicenter of data centers. Maryland has at least 45 data centers with 13 proposals on the way, and Virginia is home to 35% of all hyperscale data centers in the world. Maryland, like the rest of the U.S., is apprehensive. As of March, 70% of Americans opposed local construction of AI data centers. Additionally, around 20% of all data centers in the U.S. are located in disadvantaged communities. Marylanders are no stranger to environmental injustice; communities of color and low-income areas are disproportionately impacted by proximity to hazardous facilities.
One such facility is the proposed data center in Landover, which is facing a moratorium on permits after a petition opposing construction received over 23,000 signatures. Furthermore, Frederick, Carroll and Baltimore counties face unwanted development as part of the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, which runs transmission lines from a power plant in Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia’s 250-plus data centers. Over 100 landowners have denied power company surveyors access to their property, again demonstrating Maryland’s tenacity against harmful development which, frankly, no one asked for.
In addition to stolen property and environmental justice concerns, the issue at the top of everyone’s minds is the impact of data centers on energy prices. Average residential energy prices in Maryland increased by 18% from October 2024 to October 2025, and a Bloomberg analysis found that wholesale electricity costs 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers.
This issue goes beyond Maryland. PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization serving 13 states. There is talk of Pennsylvania and other states leaving PJM in light of recent issues, including a lack of preparedness and long-term planning for skyrocketing energy demand, failure to give states a seat at the table and mismanagement resulting in avoidable costs for customers.
According to the Brookings Institution, in the PJM region, “power supply costs jumped from $2.2 billion to $14.7 billion in a single year, with data centers accounting for nearly two-thirds of the increase.” Furthermore, the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel has lodged an official complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that PJM’s mishandling of transmission expansion “will drive up Maryland customer bills by $1.6 billion over the next 10 years alone.” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has said that PJM needs to modernize, “or they’re going to lose Pennsylvania.” Similarly, Maryland lawmakers proposed a bill that would study the possibility of withdrawing from PJM. Though this bill did not pass, it is a significant indictment of PJM.
One of the industry’s few redeeming qualities is its theoretical job creation. After construction, a typical 250,000-square-foot data center employs only 50 full-time workers, and data centers create one permanent job for every $13 million invested, according to data from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. It’s estimated that data centers provided only 23,000 permanent jobs nationwide in 2024 — not exactly the plethora of jobs they were touted to create. For context, in 2024, the U.S. employed 28,600 solar panel installers, 42,400 conservation scientists and foresters, and 596,100 workers in the renewable energy sector broadly.
In the face of various energy concerns, the Maryland General Assembly has passed the Utility RELIEF Act. Portions of this bill pertain to data centers — specifically, it requires them to be responsible for their own energy infrastructure costs instead of passing them to Marylanders, and it increases transparency regarding development and water and energy use. While the Utility RELIEF bill sounds like a crackdown on data centers, opponents argue that costs could still be passed onto ratepayers and that development will continue to accelerate. The Food & Water Watch nonprofit goes as far as to call it “a shameless giveaway to Big Tech and energy companies” and “a phony bill that will do very little to help Marylanders struggling with high energy bills.”
We have no way of knowing how other costs might still be passed onto Marylanders. Additionally, the bill doesn’t change the fact that all this extra energy usage places a huge strain on the energy grid as a whole. This means an increased threat of blackouts, which is especially pertinent as summers get hotter and hotter — Baltimore has already seen 39 days above 90 F this year. Only time will tell if this bill abates increased energy costs, environmental impacts and grid strains. In the meantime, Marylanders can continue to defend their communities through civic engagement: petitioning, advocacy and — perhaps most importantly — voting.
Adrianne Fantasia is an environmental resilience professional and graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in environmental science and policy.
