Maryland Data Centers Must Now Put Hiring and Apprenticeship Plans in Writing

Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed Executive Order 01.01.2026.16 on September 23, creating a state review that any data center with 25 megawatts or more of projected or actual peak electric demand must clear before it receives a state permit, incentive, or letter of support. Among the criteria the state will weigh is how the project staffs its construction work.

The order sets five principles: ratepayer and grid protection, economic benefit for Marylanders, community voice, environmental protection, and transparency and accountability. Under the economic benefit principle, the state considers the number and quality of the construction and permanent jobs a project will create, whether those jobs pay what the order calls family-sustaining wages and benefits, and whether the developer maintains a local hiring plan, uses Registered Apprenticeship programs and skilled construction labor, and invests in local workforce pipelines. Review sits with a new Maryland Data Center Accountability Task Force whose members include the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of the Environment, and the director of the Maryland Energy Administration.

What changes is the paperwork. A developer must file a Statement of Commitments that sets measurable commitments with milestones under each principle, binds successors, and carries an authorized officer's signature. The task force then issues a determination of aligned, conditionally aligned, or not aligned, which it is to reach within 60 days. Those commitments and the annual performance reports that follow are published on a Maryland Data Center Dashboard updated no less than monthly, with annual reports due to the governor by December 1 beginning in 2027. State agencies are also barred from entering new nondisclosure agreements with data center developers.

That turns crew composition into a public record. Registered Apprenticeship is a defined status, tied to programs registered with a state or federal apprenticeship agency rather than a label a contractor can assign itself, and it now appears in a filing that counties, unions, and residents can read and check against performance reports later. A developer seeking an aligned determination has reason to hire electrical contractors that run or draw from registered programs and to document journey-level staffing rather than describe it in general terms.

The money is what gives the criteria weight. Only projects found aligned or conditionally aligned can receive state incentives, grants, loans, or financing, and a project found not aligned can see its state permit reviews slowed. A project denied a required local land-use approval cannot be found aligned at all. Moore separately said he will work with the General Assembly in the session that begins in January 2027 to repeal the data center sales and use tax exemption enacted in 2020, which would remove the state's largest standing incentive and leave the commitments framework as the main lever.

Maryland has now written local hiring and apprenticeship into the price of a state signature.