Shaara Watts  

Jobs & Small Business

Sustainable development means helping local busineses become the successful employers we need now.  Grow good-paying local jobs in Southern Maryland. Instead of bringing in industry with the failed promise of good jobs, we need to cut red tape and support local entrepreneurs.

Data Centers

There is nothing good about data centers.  They take jobs, use the resources of a small town without the infrastructure improvements and hinder our transition to renewable energy resources. Maryland currently has 41 of them.  I will sponsor legislation halting the construction of new data centers and work to repeal any industrial zoning that favors their construction. 

Our aquifers are being depeted at the rate of 2 feet a year.  Support sustainable development.  We are dependent on individual wells and septic systems, so we need to discard our current growth model and recognize that we cannot continue to absorb unlimited building, population growth and industry.  Any growth must be governed by water use.  The USGS estimates that by 2030 our aquiferss water levels will be critically low.  Pumping surface water from central pumping stations does nothing for existing home and businss owners in retrofitting for water distribution and treatment. 

Power

Maryland has among the highest utility costs in the country due to much higher demand and decreased supply.  Currently there are 41 data centers in Maryland near cities like Baltimore, Frederick and Silver Spring.  We retired several fossil fuel plants in favor of renewable sources that the President has blocked.  The Maryland General Assembly has proposed two bills seeking direct rebates to families and power grid modernization.  I support these bills and will work toward transitioning from fossil to renewable sources.