Artificial Intelligence (AI) data center proposals have been popping up all over Maryland without the consent of residents. In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University plans to build an AI data center in East Baltimore, which would require the displacement of a predominantly Black and working-class community. Other data centers have been proposed to replace an old power plant in Montgomery County and a mall in Prince George’s County. Across the state, people have come together to protest these plans.
Data centers are facilities that house the information technology infrastructure necessary to train, deploy, and deliver AI applications and services.
As Virginia residents have pointed out, AI data centers have negatively impacted the surrounding communities in many ways: they bring noise pollution, diesel generators, higher electricity bills, and pollution of drinking water in some cases. Zooming out of local communities, the data centers impact our environment on a large scale due to the amount of electricity they require to run. Dominion Energy, the electricity provider for Virginia, has said that it cannot meet the energy demands of data centers in the state without keeping coal on the grid and expanding natural gas facilities. Communities across Virginia are trying to challenge the existing data centers and the construction of new ones.
Governor of Maryland and presidential hopeful Wes Moore has expressed some concern about the construction of data centers. In a meeting with the state grid operator PJM, he asked them to consider the rising costs of energy bills due to data centers. Aside from this, Moore has expressed support for data centers and even defended them when faced with scrutiny. For example, in December, he rejected a study to evaluate the potential impact of data centers on the state. In 2024, Moore’s administration proposed a bill that would exempt diesel-powered backup generators from scrutiny by the Public Service Commission. And most recently, Moore’s team approved the plans of Paul Prager, the owner of TeraWulf, a bitcoin mining company, to reboot an old coal plant on the Potomac River to power what could be the state’s largest data center. Prager had donated to Moore’s election campaign. Moore’s actions show that he aims to protect data centers and their construction in Maryland rather than actually represent the concerns of Marylanders and push against their construction in the first place.
Some mass media have often focused on how Moore has been one of the few Democrats brave enough to challenge Donald Trump outright. However, his actions on data centers show that he won’t stand by working people when push comes to shove.
We cannot rely on politicians like Wes Moore. We can only rely ourselves and our self-organization as workers to stand against the capitalists like Prager.
