*Trailer* On the Record: Charles County w/ Clifton Crosby Jr.

This is the trailer the full episode that will be posted on 5/27!

In this episode, host Carlos Childs explores key issues shaping Maryland's 27A district through an insightful conversation with Delegate candidate Clifton Crosby Jr. They cover topics from local infrastructure projects and data center opposition to renewable energy policies, transportation solutions, housing affordability, and the future of legislative governance. If you're invested in Maryland’s community progress and political future, this discussion is a must-listen.

Clifton Crosby Jr.:

• Campaign website

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Since you kind of told us about your your like background in robotics, kind of computer science, stuff like that, I wanna kinda talk to you about data centers then. Yes, that's that's one of the biggest things happening right now. We see that data centers are popping up throughout the state of Maryland. Uh recently, Prince George's County has put in a temporary moratorium on it. Um, you have Charles County, which is looking at putting in a ZTA to allow data centers to come into the county. You have a lot of back and forth. I'll say there's residents in Charles County, Prince George's County do not want data centers. It has not even been something that they're looking at as a possibility as far as residents are concerned. Governments look at it as, ooh, this provides, you know, tax revenue, which in many cases it doesn't. But then also you have the General Assembly who recently passed legislation to make it so that data centers have to bring their own power source, which there are some people who are saying, oh, that's good and it mitigates electricity costs for residents. But on the other hand, you're looking at having a data center next to a nuclear power plant or a natural gas plant or diesel generators. Six on one hand, half a dozen the other, for how bad it is. What are your thoughts on data centers uh currently within the state of Merl?

SPEAKER_01 1:09

I love this topic being I'm in a STEM background and a non-STEM space. And one, I I always lead off with this so there's no confusion. I am against data centers, even with my technical background. And I I've been I've been a contractor for the for the federal government for about the last five years. So I understand both sides of the argument of why data centers are such a hot topic right now. But I also understand that the good is not as good as they're making it out to be. Like you said, the tax revenue that we're always getting told that it brings and the jobs that it creates are far more overcasted than the bad of data centers, which is really spot on, if not worse, than what they're telling us as far as electricity usage and the environmental impacts, you know. So I'm I'm against data centers. And I think I think the conversation has to start with educating people on what data centers actually are and understanding, you know, why is it such a hot topic? I think a lot of people like to say, you know, we need regulations around data centers or we need to go study it. I don't think we need to study it any further. I think I know the boom of AI kind of makes data centers on the on the front foot, but data centers have existed before AI. Data centers are used, you know, for servers. They, internet runs through them. As far as Virginia is concerned, and you know, I have to talk about Virginia because we share a power group with them. You know, I think a small percentage of the world's internet runs through Virginia because of how many data centers they have. So it's more than just the AI conversation. I think we have to really give people the big picture as to why this is such a hot topic. You know, you have a lot of companies lobbying for this. You have a lot of people who are going to benefit from the creation of data centers. More likely than not, it's not gonna be us everyday people. You know, so I think when you give people the context to actually have a discussion, you find that people are finding themselves, actually, I don't want a data center. You know, I want something else. And I'm a and I think that my biggest philosophy is if the people don't want it, then we shouldn't have it. And I think we've spent a lot of time getting enough no's to where we could say, you know, let's move the discussion somewhere else. I don't think we need to spend another 365 days talking about if we need data centers. I think we hear that it's it's contentious, but I think we're hearing more no's. I think we just need to move on, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Would you support um the state of Maryland passing or would you sponsor um legislation putting in a moratorium so we have no no more new data centers within the state?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

I would definitely support it. And I'm I would be happy to, you know, put the chat forward. I I think we hear a lot of people say, yeah, I support that. And especially in the legislative space, it was like, well, go try to put the bill on the floor. Obviously, it's not as easy as just bringing it to the floor, but I want to see more legislators putting bills on the floor. I think when we're talking about what we're gonna fight for, what we're gonna represent, let's do our legislative job and put the bill on the floor. So I definitely would be, I would definitely be a part of that.