More than 60 Maryland environmental and community groups sign letter opposing the Moore administration’s apparent plan to facilitate construction of a massive gas power plant and gas pipeline to power data centers owned by cryptocurrency company.

 

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Fearing a tidal wave of climate pollution and profound disruptions to Charles County communities and natural resources, more than 60 organizations from across Maryland sent a letter Monday to Governor Wes Moore asking him to drop his apparent interest in supporting a massive data center project along the Potomac River in Charles County. 

In the letter, the groups – including the Maryland Sierra Club, Public Citizen, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and dozens of faith, justice and community-based groups — are calling on Moore “to immediately stop all special support and assistance your administration is giving to plans to convert the Morgantown Generating Station into a one gigawatt methane gas power plant along the Potomac River in Charles County, MD.”

The project would require a minimum of 20 miles of new gas pipeline and would represent hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure. TeraWulf, the cryptocurrency mining company behind the project, is counting on the Moore administration’s support to shepherd the project through an expedited environmental review process so that the electricity generated from the plant could power nearby data center operations. 

The group American Rivers just named the Potomac River the “most endangered river in America,” largely due to existing and proposed data centers in the river’s watershed. The energy use alone for the Charles County project would be equal to all the electricity used by the city of Baltimore. 

Many of the signatory groups have pledged to stop the power plant from ever being built. 

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.