WAMU18%
Marylanders have been fighting data center growth in their communities. Companies are starting to fight back 14%
By Joneill19%
7/21/2026, 7:32:36 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Availability Heuristic, and Hasty Generalization, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 8.2% saturation with 142 hits. Analysis detected 1,244 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,732 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 30.8% and a BS Rank of 14% (17,212 of 19,902 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 86.50% of the article peer group.
Reverend Derrick Green has a message.
It’s not the one you might expect from a local pastor.
The word he’s preaching to ministers in Prince George’s County is about…data centers.
“It is the way of the present and the future,” Green said in an interview.
Data centers, the massive server warehouses that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence, have become one of the most contentious land-use battles in the Washington region.
Opponents have been loud and effective, packing council meetings in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties to raise concerns about higher utility bills, noise, and pressure on the region’s water supply and electric grid.
Both counties have paused new data center development – a six-month delay in Montgomery County and two years in Prince George’s – while local lawmakers write rules for the industry.
And now at least one state senator told WAMU they want to use the upcoming August special session to introduce legislation for a state-wide moratorium bill.
Supporters of data centers, who point to tax revenue and economic growth, haven’t won over as many people.
But their strategies are getting more creative.
A text-message campaign
Recently, cellphones across Prince George’s County lit up with a text.
It said residents deserve to lead the nation in building wealth.
It pointed to neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia, where data centers generate more than a billion dollars a year in tax revenue.
Then it asked recipients to click a link and join the movement.
The texts came from Reverend Green’s group, the Interfaith Action Movement, a faith-based advocacy organization.
He says he sent them because he doesn’t want Black communities to miss out on the wealth AI is bringing.
“While we’re arguing, we’re being left out of an industry that is already here,” Green says.
Green has a history of working with Democratic politicians such as Maryland Governor Wes Moore, former New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (for whom he served as a special advisor), and Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy.
He has a separate consulting firm, Green Consultants LLC, and this spring registered with the Maryland State Ethics Commission as a lobbyist for Prince George’s County Government in Annapolis.
He reported making over $70,000 between January and April.
According to records, his work focused on local alcohol legislation, bi-county agencies, local education bills, county laws and vehicle rules.
Data centers are not listed anywhere in his lobbying filing.
Green says the text campaign is self-funded — for now.
He doesn’t want the work to stay voluntary forever, and says his group isn’t opposed to working for data center developers down the road.
He believes developers can and should be invested in the well-being of communities.
He also says he knows how to be the conduit between the two groups.
“We met with a group of ministers today,” Green explains.
“And they were absolutely interested in sharing the information and getting us in front of other ministers.”
Neon shirts at county council meetings
Green’s texts followed a string of Prince George’s County hearings where pro-data-center supporters have been clocking in consistently since February, whether or not data centers were on the agenda.
“The ones that are building the data centers are starting to evolve from an ecological standpoint,” explained Sandy McDonald before the council in February , noting she was originally against them but has since changed her mind.
That day only two other people testified alongside her.
But since then, the pro-group has grown, and frequently shows up in different variations of matching shirts and hats.
At one anti-data center protest this month organized with the support of the Party for Socialism and Liberation , the pro-group arrived by bus wearing neon orange shirts.
They appeared uncomfortable as members of the crowd hurled accusations at them, questioning whether they were residents and whether they were being paid.
WAMU reached out to McDonald, who claimed in February to be the point of contact for the group, but she did not respond to our request for comment in time for publication.
In Montgomery County, a CEO names names
Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, the data center fight between residents and developers turned personal.
Chuck McBride, CEO of Atmosphere Data Centers, the California-based company behind a massive proposed campus at the site of a retired coal-fired power plant in Dickerson, sent an email to two residents opposing the project.
It accused them of working with the Chinese communist government and told them to “Back down ASAP.”
Caroline Taylor, who leads the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, a land conservation nonprofit, was one of the recipients.
“The idea that citizens’ groups could be bullied into submission in this way is just, it’s pretty outrageous, actually,” Taylor says, noting her aversion to accusations reminiscent of McCarthyism.
McBride later apologized in writing, and sent a statement to WAMU saying, “This particular email did not reflect the tone of those prior interactions, nor did it reflect the level of respect we have for the individuals and organizations participating in this discussion and for that I am deeply sorry… We remain committed to engaging in that dialogue respectfully and constructively moving forward.”
But the company isn’t backing down on the project.
Documents obtained by WAMU show that Atmosphere has filed an administrative appeal, arguing the county’s moratorium is being applied too broadly.
Their arguments hinge on how the county defines terms such as “data centers” and “permits.”
In 2022, the county classified the data center project as a cable communications system, based on its use of cables and its role in storing, processing and transmitting digital information.
They rescinded that classification last month.
But, because of it, lawyers for the developers are arguing that the six-month pause shouldn’t apply to them.
In addition, internal county emails show a county engineer was hours away from approving the project’s stormwater plans in June before he was ordered to stop under the executive moratorium.
The developers’ lawyers are also arguing that these approvals aren’t permits (which are prohibited under the moratorium) and should move forward.
Documents indicate the company may sue the county.
WAMU reached out to Atmosphere for comment and did not hear back in time for publication.
Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, who has clinched the Democratic nomination for county executive, sponsored a bill that would replace the county executive’s six-month pause with a two-year moratorium in law.
He says none of the pushback surprises him.
“It’s nothing new that big business, when there’s billions of dollars in this, that they’re gonna sue and try to move forward as quickly as possible,” Jawando says.
“We’ve seen that from every industry over the course of human history.”
A national backlash and a well-worn playbook
Opposition to data centers has spread nationwide, and it’s one of the few issues where Democrats and Republicans seem to agree.
Last week New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order creating the nation’s first statewide moratorium on large “hyperscale” data centers, pausing state permits for up to a year while regulators write rules on energy, water and community impacts.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, long a booster of the state’s AI buildout, called last month for a ban on data centers in rural neighborhoods.
As the opposition grows, so does the pressure to overcome it.
And there’s a well-worn playbook.
For decades, energy companies have hired consultants to build support for unpopular projects, sometimes going as far as creating groups that look like grassroots movements but are actually funded by industry.
Frank Maisano knows that world from the inside.
He’s an energy consultant at the D.C.-based firm Bracewell, who has spent years helping developers win over hostile communities, from fracking wells to wind farms.
“Let’s be clear about one thing.
It doesn’t matter what you’re building, somebody is going to be opposed to it,” Maisano says.
But Maisano says data center companies have made it harder on themselves.
Unlike fracking, which lowered fuel prices, or wind farms, which offer clean power, the hyperscalers (the industry term for the largest data centers) haven’t given communities a clear answer on what’s in it for them.
The jobs argument, he says, only goes so far.
“When we were building wind turbine projects in Western Maryland, labor unions played a huge role in arguing in favor,” he explained, noting that he paired the jobs argument with big businesses in the communities that had strong constituencies to push projects over the finish line.
His advice to developers is to show up, be transparent, be a good neighbor and invest locally.
He points to a wind project in West Virginia where funding local sports programs and scholarships helped bring residents on board.
“Once you start building bridges, that’s when you start building projects,” Maisano says.
With billions of dollars on the line, the fighting is expected to continue.
Senator Karen Lewis Young of Frederick County told WAMU she wants to introduce a minimum six-month statewide data center moratorium bill during the upcoming August special session, which was called to address redistricting, but is not sure she can get it drafted since that requires special approval from leadership in the General Assembly.
Maryland Matters reported that leaders have already told lawmakers no other business will be taken up.
She wants a state-sponsored study on data centers to be completed before new projects move forward.
She’s calling fellow senators to build support.
“I believe that we need to have the results of the data center study, which should be available in October, and will give us detailed information about the environmental risks of data centers, the energy demands, and a true cost benefit analysis of the financials,” Lewis Young explained.
“And until we have that information, I don’t think we can make educated, safe, responsible decisions about data centers, and that’s why I’d like to do a moratorium for anything that isn’t currently under contract.”
The next test comes this week when a Montgomery County Council committee takes up bills that would lock the moratorium into law, along with a zoning change that would temporarily ban the largest data centers countywide.
And in Prince George’s County, the planning board will take a look at zoning for data centers.
The post Marylanders have been fighting data center growth in their communities.
Companies are starting to fight back appeared first on WAMU .
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