CCC Signs Onto Community Letter Urging Montgomery County to Pause Data Center Development for Two Years

CCC Endorses Two-Year Pause on Data Centers

You Can Take Action Also — Sign the Petition from the Link Below

CCC has signed-on to a proposed two-year moratorium on new data centers in Montgomery County, urging County Council to develop a regulatory framework protecting the environment, resident health, and utility costs. The moratorium has been proposed by Climate Coalition Montgomery, with national support from Food and Water Watch. Interfaith Power and Light of the DMV, as highlighted in a previous edition of eNews, also has a wealth of resources for advocacy around this issue here.

A hyperscale data center has been proposed at Dickerson, Maryland, the site of a mothballed Pepco power plant, and the Planning Commission has initiated review of the proposal as a Conditional Use Amendment. Hyperscale data centers are the largest, modular server warehouses associated with cryptocurrency and AI, consuming 50 to 100 megawatts of electricity, as much as 100,000 households. In addition to straining the electric grid, the largest class of data centers consume vast quantities of water for cooling, and may directly pollute the surroundings using unregulated backup power such as onsite diesel or natural gas generation. The Climate Coalition and the county’s own Department of Permitting Services assert hyperscale data centers are not an approved land use in the county, and that the Planning Commission erroneously accepted the Dickerson application for consideration.

Community-based organizations have taken a special role countering the rapid growth of hyperscale data centers, typically associated with artificial intelligence models from a handful of ultra-powerful tech companies.

Learn more about the threat of large data centers, and sign the petition to County Council here (it is quick and easy to take action):