The People's Report - Data Centers in Prince George's County, MD
Centering Equity in Data Center Policy
This People's Report is grounded in research on environmental justice, environmental impacts, public health, job creation and tax revenue claims, and quality-of-life concerns. It also reflects community members' lived experiences near existing and proposed data centers, insights gathered through stakeholder engagement, and an analysis of the legal, policy, and civil rights implications of future Prince George's County actions.
The Prince George's County Qualified Data Center Task Force produced a report intended to summarize its findings, assess the impacts of AI-driven data centers across PG County, and recommended next steps.
This report offers an independent assessment evaluating gaps in the County's Report, including environmental justice and civil rights, air quality, energy justice, and water infrastructure. This Report concludes with gap and policy recommendations that are equity, justice, and health-focused.
Development and Community Risks
One such proposal is the Brightseat Tech Park, a hyper-scale data center project to be developed on the vacant Landover Mall site in PG County. 18.3% of its residents live below the poverty line. The community faces overlapping environmental and social stressors that increase health risks for residents, which could result in high levels of traffic-related air pollution from daily commuters and crowds
This report is a timely and essential tool in helping people to push back against the threat posed by AI data centers to our collective well-being. This report is especially welcomed by those of us who live in Prince George's County where the issue of possible siting, permitting, and construction of a new AI data center at the site of a former commercial shopping center known as the Landover Mall has erupted.
- Vernice Miller Travis, Co-Founder, WE ACT for Environmental Justice- The People's Report - A Gap Analysis of Data Center Infrastructure in Prince George's County, Maryland