Gov. Healey signs executive order on new Massachusetts data centers: "We're giving communities full voice"

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced guardrails on the construction of new data centers in the Commonwealth, as over a dozen states consider how to contain the industry amid community backlash.

Healey signed an executive order requiring data center developers to enter into community benefit agreements with local cities and towns. These deals would allow municipalities to negotiate anything from pollution limits, to infrastructure investments.

"We're giving communities full voice in the process," Healey told reporters.

The governor is also requiring that new data centers bring their own energy supply or pay a fee into a ratepayer protection fund that would return the money to ratepayers.

"We can't have a situation where data centers are consuming more energy that's available on the grid at the expense of the rest of our businesses and our residents," Healey said.

The move rang hollow for some residents of Lowell who are suing to prevent the expansion of the Markley Data Center located near a residential area of the city.

"It doesn't change the fact that tomorrow morning I still have to wake up and deal with this facility. It's still here and nothing is changing," said Jake Fortes, a longtime opponent of Markley whose home backs up to the Markley Center.

Healey's opponent, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue, also told reporters that he has little interest in investing in new data centers in the Commonwealth.

"My position is, at this time, we can't handle more energy demand, we don't have the infrastructure in place," Minogue said.

Brad Tietz, who advocates on behalf of the data center industry as the director of government affairs for the Midwest division of the Data Center Coalition, told WBZ that data centers bring large economic and societal benefits.

"It's healthcare records, banking records, government, schools, telehealth, remote work," Tietz said. "We're 100% committed to ensuring our full cost of service, full stop."