Gov. Maura Healey’s executive order would force large data centers to bring their own clean power or pay into a ratepayer protection fund.
Massachusetts has moved to put a hard clean-energy requirement on new data centers, making the state the latest to tighten the screws on a sector that has been expanding fast and drawing more pushback.
Clean power becomes the price of entry
Under Gov. Maura Healey’s executive order, data centers larger than 25 megawatts of peak demand will have to bring their own power and make sure it meets Massachusetts’ clean energy requirements. Healey would prefer those facilities generate the power onsite. If that is not possible, developers would need to fund new generation nearby or pay into a ratepayer protection fund.
The governor’s office also clarified that data centers will be required to meet 100% of their electricity demand with clean energy generation. That goes beyond the state’s broader clean energy standard, which only requires a portion of electricity to come from approved sources such as wind, solar and hydro, with the share rising over time.
For 2030, Massachusetts’ standard calls for those sources to supply at least 40% of total power. Data centers, under the new order, would face a stricter bar.
State regulators slow the pipeline
The order also tells communities to avoid signing nondisclosure agreements, a sign that state officials want more visibility into how these projects are negotiated. Healey is pausing applications for a data center sales tax exemption that took effect last month, giving regulators time to put the new restrictions in place.
The move lands as states take a harder line on data center growth. Massachusetts is now the third state in as many months to rein in development. In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said new data centers would have to submit to audits by the public utility commission and ERCOT, the grid operator. In July, New York’s governor stopped construction of new data centers 50 megawatts or larger.
Public pressure is changing the politics
A few years ago, tech companies and data center developers were being courted with incentives to build in specific states. That playbook has changed. Public opposition has grown, and politicians are under pressure to show they are responding.
The tech industry is now pushing back. Pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, backed by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and Greg Brockman, is buying ads aimed at voters in battleground states ahead of the midterm elections.
Massachusetts is making the cost of expansion plain: if a data center wants to grow there, it will have to pay for the power it uses and prove that power is clean.
