We must bring real wisdom to the building of data centers in our communities.
In this moment, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving a corporate building spree in the region our congregations serve.
Already, over 600 “hyperscale” data centers have been built across Virginia and more are proposed for Maryland: massive, loud server warehouses that occupy acres of land and run day and night, making obscene demands on our energy grid and polluting entire communities’ air and water. And too often, the cost of all this infrastructure is borne by us on our energy bills. (See video here from More Perfect Union.)
Neighbors in Virginia and across the country can testify that new data centers are often sited in overburdened and underserved Black, brown, and lower-income communities. Since existing laws are generally inadequate to restrict data center development, many of these facilities can get permitted without any requirement to seek community input from those who will be most impacted. And communities that already are being made sick by pollution from clusters of fossil fuel facilities therefore have precisely the kind of energy infrastructure in place that attracts data centers, compounding environmental injustice.
While the prospect of corporate profits from the AI “boom” is imposing one data center proposal after another onto our region, every local community has grassroots power to weigh in on how their land, water, and energy are used.
Data center expansion is driven by AI, but we are driven by something else: our ancient sacred traditions – real human wisdom – about living well in community and caring for each other and for the land and water we share.
Learn & Speak Out In Your Congregation
Invite your congregation to learn more about data centers, to speak out for pending legislation in Maryland and Virginia with downloadable photo petition signs, and to make thoughtful decisions about their own uses of AI.
Is a new or expanded hyperscale data center coming to your community? Your congregation can join with neighbors to bring wise-heartedness to data center debates already underway in Baltimore City, and in Baltimore, Frederick, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties.
Make More Mindful Use of AI
It’s important to remember that we as human beings and our own wise hearts should be deciding how we use technology. Explore some ways to make choices about how much you engage AI in your daily life.
Resources coming soon
Insist that Data Centers be Good Neighbors
Maryland congregations are coming together through Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA) to join the Maryland Data Center Reform Coalition in speaking out for strong policies that hold data centers to high standards of community input and responsible energy usage.
Take action: Join us March 11th to speak out together in Annapolis. Register here.
Northern Virginia congregations are joining our partners at Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS) and Virginia Interfaith Power & Light in supporting legislation to insist that new data centers be better neighbors.
Learn more: Data Center reform legislation in the 2026 session
Bring Real Wisdom to Data Center Conversations in your Community
Your neighbors are already coming together to respond to data center proposals for communities across Maryland.
In late December, against the Planning Commission’s recommendations and public outcry, the County Council voted to allow for data center expansion beyond the original EastAlco Data Center Complex, including by rezoning land currently designated as Priority Preservation Areas and Rural Legacy Areas. A Frederick County Data Center Referendum Committee, led by Envision Frederick, is collecting signatures (until March 18th) for a referendum on the ballot that “would give residents the opportunity to weigh in before additional expansion occurs and before the state has completed comprehensive studies on the environmental, energy, and economic impacts of data centers.” An effort is underway to collect 18,000 valid signatures by March 18, 2026.
Take action: The Frederick County Data Center Referendum Committee is showing up at community spots across Frederick to collect signatures for the referendum. Find out where you can sign the call daily on their website and Facebook Group.
Volunteer: The Frederick County Data Center Referendum Committee is also training volunteers to collect signatures. Sign up.
At least two data centers are proposed, one in Landover and one at the former Six Flags site. A County Council resolution in February 2025 established a Data Center Task Force, and a moratorium on data center permits awaiting the task force’s report. Just before the report was released in late 2025, 30 county organizations and community leaders sent the council a letter, asking for “a comprehensive, independent, science-based review must be undertaken to evaluate all viable scenarios for data center development” and requesting that the moratorium be extended.
Read more: Data centers spark ‘fight for the soul’ of a mostly Black MD county
Since the summer of August 2024, Terra Innovations has been seeking to develop a data center in Dickerson on the site of a former coal-fired power plant, with Sugarloaf Citizens Association and Montgomery County Countryside Alliance tracking closely.
County Executive Marc Elrich issued draft data center recommendations in mid-January, to which the county’s own Climate, Energy, and Air Quality Advisory Committee has responded, as has the Montgomery County Climate Coalition, which is calling for “an immediate moratorium on permitting for data centers while these policies are discussed and adopted in a transparent process with stakeholders.”
Council members have introduced two bills so far, a zoning measure and a year-long task force.
Take action: Both bills mentioned above will have a public hearing on February 24th from 1:30-3:30 PM. Sign up to testify by 2/24 at 2:00 and find hearing information for the zoning amendment and task force bill by clicking on the respective links here.
Security Land and Development LP had proposed a data center for Woodlawn, seeking to begin development as soon as summer 2026, until the Baltimore County Council passed a moratorium on data center permits in February that will delay for at least a year.
In Baltimore City, we’re following the lead of Sacred Parks and Waterways — a grassroots group protesting the pollution and tree removals brought by Johns Hopkins’ proposed Data Science and AI (DSAI) Institute — and we’re monitoring data centers proposed for South Baltimore.
Learn: Despite protests, poetry and a cease-and-desist letter, Hopkins cuts down city trees for AI InstituteLearn: Baltimore Peninsula considering data centers
Data centers are being proposed rapidly in our region, and while some sites are tracking the known proposals, some developers begin projects under the radar. If you know of a data center proposal in your area, let us know!
Email ethan@ipldmv.org