State-level climate targets don't make sense

State policy matters, state-specific emissions don't

Data centers use a lot of electricity, and it’s very important to their customers to avoid service outages. As a result, the facilities are normally built with backup power generators that might burn natural gas or more frequently diesel, which is dirtier. This is not a unique attribute of data centers — a hospital has exactly the same issue — but data center construction is booming in a way that hospital construction is not.

Which brings us to Maryland, where Governor Wes Moore’s administration is supporting legislation to streamline permitting of high-energy facilities that require backup generators.

The consensus seems to be that the primary intended beneficiaries of this legislation are would-be builders of data centers, a market that Maryland hopes will bolster its high wage economy. For this, Moore has attracted the ire of the state’s environmental groups, who raise a host of concerns that are largely focused on the implications for Maryland’s state-level greenhouse gas emission targets. Notably, according to Inside Climate News’ account of the groups’ objections, they are not primarily focused on the idea that the backup generators are too polluting. The governor’s position is that the existing review process for the generators is essentially just a pretextual barrier to construction, and he wants to eliminate it. But the groups say pretextual barriers to data center construction are good, because data centers use a lot of electricity:

In their testimonies, the environmental groups reminded committee members that data center concentration in Maryland will put enormous strain on the state’s energy demand and grid capacity, which will have consequences for Maryland’s ability to meet its statutory climate and clean energy targets. 

To the groups’ credit, what they are saying here is literally true: It is much easier for Maryland to meet Maryland’s statutory climate and clean energy targets if nobody builds any data centers in Maryland.

But who cares?