Maryland and Virginia Take Executive Action on Data Centers

What happened

Maryland and Virginia have taken executive action concerning data centers. The development places separate state orders side by side, but they remain distinct actions by different state governments. Potomac Conservancy has drawn attention to both states’ orders under a shared data center focus.

Neither state’s action is directly connected to a race, election or candidate. The immediate civic question is how Maryland’s and Virginia’s executive branches will carry out their respective directions, not how a candidate would vote or campaign on them. No candidate position is associated with this development.

How to read the orders

Each state’s order is a separate policy record. The exact language controls what that state’s executive branch directs, while later state actions can show how those directions are implemented.

A comparison should keep the Maryland and Virginia orders separate, including any differences in their dates, definitions, assigned responsibilities and timelines. Maryland’s action does not stand in for Virginia’s, and Virginia’s does not stand in for Maryland’s.

An executive order is not a candidate position, campaign pledge, election result or ballot measure. The next records to follow are each state’s official order text and any implementation notices from the state entities responsible for carrying it out. If either state changes, expands or replaces its direction, that action would appear in a new official record.