In Maryland’s most populous county, a bipartisan majority of candidates for county office commit to enacting landmark clean energy requirements for data centers, building on momentum across the state and beyond.

ROCKVILLE, MD –  In a sign of rapidly shifting politics away from data centers powered by fossil fuels, every incumbent candidate for Montgomery County Council office has committed to supporting only data centers powered 100% by clean energy. Also, all three leading candidates for County Executive have done the same, and a bipartisan majority of all candidates – incumbents and challengers – are now on record opposing dirty data centers. 

Most of these commitments are the result of a one-question candidate survey released today by Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund. The full bipartisan list of candidates who made the pledge can be found at the bottom of this release.

Councilmembers Will Jawando, Evan Glass, and Andrew Friedson, the three frontrunners for Montgomery County executive and incumbent candidates, all made the 100% clean-energy data center pledge.

“This candidate survey shows the tide is definitely turning against data centers that run on coal- and gas-fired power in Maryland,” said Mike Tidwell, Executive Director of CCAN Action Fund. “While climate change bears down on the state, these MoCo Council incumbents and challengers and County Executive candidates are showing real leadership by supporting the strongest energy standard for data centers in the nation.”

Montgomery County is just one of the many data center battlegrounds in Maryland. Baltimore City and Baltimore County recently enacted one-year moratoria, and advocates in Frederick County led a successful county-wide “petition for referendum” campaign against a pro-data center zoning text amendment. The issue has taken on added urgency in Montgomery County as Atmosphere LLC, an out-of-state data center company, is seeking to develop a hyperscale data center campus at the site of the retired Dickerson coal plant along the Potomac River. Atmosphere, which has declined to power the data center with clean energy, recently began the permitting process to build a data center campus at the site and was swiftly met with backlash from community members and local organizations.

“The economics of renewable energy have never been better, especially for large-load customers like data centers,” said Doug Siglin, Director Emeritus, Building a Better Maryland. “A data center can use clean energy for a similar or even less cost than fossil fuels because of the plummeting costs of utility-scale solar, wind, and batteries. Data center companies should be investing in these clean sources of energy and not in dirty fossil fuels. Montgomery County lawmakers understand this, which is why they overwhelmingly support a common-sense 100% clean-energy requirement.”

“The buildout of hyperscale data centers is a dystopian nightmare evangelized by Big Tech,” said Brittany Baker, Maryland Director of CCAN AF. “Communities are catching on to the fact that these massive facilities are a threat to the energy grid, pocketbooks, water resources, and jobs. I am glad that candidates in Montgomery County understand that strong regulations need to be in place to fight back against this Big Tech nightmare.”

Elsewhere, policymakers are also moving towards a 100% clean energy requirement for data centers. Washington state recently enacted SB5982, requiring data centers to use 100% carbon-neutral electricity by 2030, matching the standard applied to the state’s investor-owned utilities. Internationally, Germany recently passed a law requiring data centers to run on 100% clean energy by 2027, and the Australian government is exploring a nationwide 100% clean energy requirement as well. Even here in Maryland, the recently passed Utility RELIEF Act incentivizes data centers to build their own carbon-free electricity generation, but does not require them to do so. 

“Data center development is the most consequential land use issue of our lifetime,” said Angie McCarthy, Clean Energy Campaign Manager at Nature Forward. “We support not only mitigating their harm but also striving to improve the communities where they are built. We support the targeted deployment of 100% new, carbon-free energy sources. 100% renewable energy is a great first step, but far from the last.”

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List of candidates who support a 100% clean-energy requirement for all new data centers built in Montgomery County 

(through public statements or signing the pledge from CCAN Action Fund) 

County Executive: Will Jawando (D), Evan Glass (D), Andrew Friedson (D)

County Council District 1: Drew Morrison (D), Debbie Spielberg (D), Julie Yang (D)

County Council District 2: Marilyn Balcombe has not signed CCAN Action Fund’s pledge but supports legislation that accomplishes the same goal. 

County Council District 3: Jud Ashman (D), Allison Eriksen (D), Ricky F. Mui (R)

County Council District 4: Paula Bienenfeld (D), Kate Stewart (D), Peter “Rocky” Whitesell (D)

County Council District 5: Charles Kirchman (D), Kristin Mink (D)

County Council District 6: Natali Fani-González (D)

County Council District 7: Van Free (D), Sharif Hidayat (D), Dawn Luedtke (D)

County Council At-Large: Fatmata Barrie (D), Josie Caballero (D), Marc Elrich (D), Scott Goldberg (D), Hamza Khan (D), Matt Losak (D), Laurie-Anne Sayles (D), Prabu Selvam (D), Karla Silvestre (D), Steve Solomon (D), Lelia True (D), Muhammad Wali (D), Sherwin Wells (R)

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund is dedicated to driving change in public policies at the local, state, and national levels to address the climate crisis. Through voter education, lobbying, and participation in the electoral process, we seek to advance our country’s leadership in the global movement toward clean energy solutions — focusing our efforts primarily in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. We know that a vibrant democracy is central to our success so we work to defend democratic integrity wherever we can.