Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order that routes every proposed data center of 25 megawatts or more through a single state review, and the Office of Governor Wes Moore says the review begins the moment a project asks the state for anything, whether a permit, an incentive or a letter of support. The order also creates a Maryland Data Center Task Force inside the governor's office and a public Data Center Dashboard, and Moore said he will ask the General Assembly next session to repeal the state's 2020 sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment.
The mechanics for a developer or a tenant are these. The task force draws members from the Maryland Energy Administration and the Departments of Commerce, Labor, Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Planning. It reviews each project against five principles: ratepayer and grid protection, economic benefits for Marylanders, community voice, environmental protections, and transparency and accountability, then issues a written public determination of Aligned, Conditionally Aligned or Not Aligned. The release says the task force will publish its rules in advance, but gives no date for that or for the dashboard going live.
Updated monthly, the dashboard will list each project's location and legislative districts, the developer, its parent company and any disclosed anchor tenant, and projected power demand and water use, along with every state action requested and the determination behind it. Technical.ly reports the order also bars state executive departments from signing nondisclosure agreements with developers, while local economic development organizations can still sign them, and that the order does not cover data centers run by a university, hospital or state agency.
In the release, Moore said: “By signing this executive order, we are establishing clear safeguards to ensure Marylanders do not foot the bill, our people benefit, community voices are heard, and our environment is protected — all while centering transparency and accountability throughout the process.” The operational detail behind that sentence is that the order sets no fee, no cap and no moratorium; its teeth are the determination and the public record.
What it replaces is a patchwork rather than a vacuum. The Maryland Daily Record reports that 14 of the state's 24 jurisdictions have moratoriums or bans in place, and CBS News Baltimore reports the Baltimore County Council voted on Tuesday to extend its moratorium through 2027. Moore said the order will not override communities that already have local bans, as reported by Bloomberg Government from the news conference. The Daily Record adds that the order builds on this year's RELIEF Act, which makes data centers upgrade their own grid infrastructure and pay higher electricity prices.
The cost item is the tax break. Repeal needs the legislature, so nothing changes on equipment purchases until a bill passes. Moore put the ask more bluntly at the morning news conference. “Data centers have got to pay their own way,” Moore said, in remarks reported by the Daily Record. “They need to pay their own way or they need to go away.”
Compared with its neighbors, Technical.ly describes the order as resembling the framework Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger issued last week and as less aggressive than New York's year-long statewide moratorium or Texas's pause on new permit reviews.
For buyers and engineers, the practical change is that any Maryland site over 25 megawatts now carries a public determination and a monthly disclosure of its power and water numbers before the state will help it. The unknowns are when the task force publishes its rules, how long a determination takes, and whether the equipment tax exemption survives the 2027 session.
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