The order lands about six weeks before Election Day, after lawmakers overrode his veto of a required state study and a bill to end the tax break stalled in committee.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order Wednesday that sets one review process for large data centers, creates a state task force and a public dashboard, and puts him on record for repealing the 2020 sales tax exemption for data center equipment. It does not pause construction, and it cannot repeal the tax break on its own. Moore said final decisions on projects still rest with local governments, and that the state will not go around a local community’s no, according to Maryland Matters.
The order, Executive Order 01.01.2026.16, works like this:
- It covers a data center with a projected or actual peak demand of 25 megawatts or more, including an expansion that adds 25 megawatts or more. Higher education, health care, state agency, and Defense Department facilities can be excluded.
- A Maryland Data Center Accountability Task Force, staffed by the Governor’s Office and chaired by someone the governor picks, reviews projects. Its members include the Energy Administration and the departments of Commerce, Labor, Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Planning.
- Each project gets a public finding of Aligned, Conditionally Aligned, or Not Aligned. The task force has 60 days from intake to complete a baseline assessment.
- A dashboard, updated monthly, lists each project’s location, developer, parent company, anchor tenant if disclosed, projected power and water use, and every state action requested.
- State agencies may not enter, renew, or extend nondisclosure agreements with data center developers. Existing agreements are honored.
“A Not Aligned label, on its own, does not stop a project.”
What a Not Aligned finding does
Coverage of the announcement did not say. The order does. For a Not Aligned project, agencies are to withhold facilitation, letters of support and advocacy, and the Department of Commerce is not to approve a discretionary state incentive. Agencies are to defer substantive review until the developer documents its local approvals. All of that applies only to the extent the law allows.
The order also says nothing in it authorizes an agency to deny, delay, or condition a permit on any ground the law does not already provide. It says it creates no right enforceable against the state. A Not Aligned label, on its own, does not stop a project.
The order applies only to state action a developer seeks after Wednesday. Permits and incentive certifications already issued are not affected. WJLA reported Sept. 1 that the Amazon Web Services buildings near Adamstown already hold permits, including for 99 emergency generators.
The task force can also change its own yardstick. The order says no single criterion is dispositive and lets the chair amend, repeal or add criteria. Among the factors it lists are whether a developer uses project labor agreements and Registered Apprenticeship programs, and whether it relies on new clean generation.
The record
“Wednesday’s order was signed 22 days after that deadline, and no public release of the report had been located.”
At the May 2024 signing of the Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act, Moore said the bill “is going to supercharge the data center industry in Maryland.” In May 2025, he vetoed a bill ordering a state impact study. Lawmakers overrode him in December, 44-0 in the Senate and 109-21 in the House. The study was estimated to cost up to $502,000 and was due Sept. 1. WBFF reported Aug. 31 that it would miss the deadline. Wednesday’s order was signed 22 days after that deadline, and no public release of the report had been located. The order itself refers to the report’s findings as something that should inform the state’s approach.
On Sept. 17, Moore told Punchbowl News he would sign a statewide moratorium or ban if legislators sent one. A week earlier, his campaign would not say whether he supports one. Wednesday’s order contains no moratorium.
The order is also not the state’s first attempt to regulate large power users. Moore signed the Utility RELIEF Act in May. Among other changes, it lowered the threshold for large-load rate treatment to 25 megawatts from 100 and requires the Public Service Commission to set up a registry for large-load customers.
The tax break
“Even as Moore seeks repeal, the order tells Commerce to fold its requirements into the exemption’s application and certification process.”
Moore’s line that data centers wrote the rules points at a 2020 law, Senate Bill 397. It passed the House 123-6 and the Senate 45-0. The Daily Record reported it took effect without then-Gov. Larry Hogan’s signature. Dan Cox was one of 17 delegates listed as sponsors of the House version, House Bill 1339.
Even as Moore seeks repeal, the order tells Commerce to fold its requirements into the exemption’s application and certification process, to the extent the law allows.
The $22 million figure the Banner cites comes from Good Jobs First, which says it surfaced through an information request by environmental groups. It is not an official state figure. A February analysis by the Department of Legislative Services found that neither Commerce nor the Comptroller had data on the value of the exemptions. It listed 10 approved data centers, one pending application and three denials.
A repeal bill, House Bill 560, drew 21 Democratic sponsors and a Feb. 12 hearing. The General Assembly’s record shows no action on it in the House Ways and Means Committee after that hearing. Repeal now depends on lawmakers, who return in January.
What Republicans proposed
Republican Delegates Mark Fisher, Brian Chisholm, Matt Morgan and Kathy Szeliga pre-filed House Bill 120 for the 2026 session. It would have barred new data centers until the legislature required co-location with new power generation. It died in committee.
On the ground
“The Daily Record counts 14 of 24 jurisdictions with moratoriums or bans.”
Frederick County has the state’s only approved hyperscale project, the Banner reports. On Sept. 14, County Executive Jessica Fitzwater rejected a development agreement for the Frederick Digital Campus and extended the pause on new data center applications to July 1, 2027. The Daily Record counts 14 of 24 jurisdictions with moratoriums or bans, and Harford County passed the state’s first indefinite ban in June. The order says a project denied a required local approval cannot be found Aligned or Conditionally Aligned while the denial stands.
Opponents and industry
Republican nominee Cox campaigns on a statewide moratorium. Green Party candidate Andy Ellis renewed his call for a ban and said Moore is chasing headlines. Maryland Tech Council CEO Kelly Schulz told WBFF that pauses are fine if counties use the time well, but developers will not wait forever.
What to Watch
- The task force’s guidance and its first findings, which will show how much weight a determination carries.
- The overdue state study, which may land before the election.
- Repeal of the exemption and moratorium bills, which return in January.
- The task force’s first annual report to the governor, due Dec. 1, 2027.
Sources: Executive Order 01.01.2026.16 and Office of Gov. Wes Moore press release (Sept. 23, 2026); The Daily Record (Hannah Gaskill, Sept. 23 and Sept. 10, 2026); Maryland Matters (Christine Condon, Sept. 23, 2026, and Dec. 16, 2025); The Baltimore Banner (Adam Willis and Brenda Wintrode, Sept. 23); Punchbowl News (Sept. 17); WJLA/Spotlight on Maryland (Gary Collins, Sept. 1); WBFF (Mikenzie Frost, Aug. 31); Maryland Department of Legislative Services fiscal note on HB 560 (Feb. 11, 2026); Good Jobs First (June 2026); Utility Dive (April 14, 2026); Frederick County government (Sept. 14, 2026); Maryland General Assembly bill records for SB 397, HB 1339, HB 120, HB 560 and HB 1532.
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