No data-center application is pending in Talbot County. On August 11, council members Pete Lesher and Dave Stepp introduced Resolution 395, a proposed 12-month pause on processing, reviewing, and approving any future data-center filings so the county can write zoning with the Town of Easton and local utilities. Lesher has described the year as ideally joint with Easton; Easton’s council had already directed its lawyers to draft a town moratorium. Officials say the window is for a permanent framework: who pays for power, how cooling is handled, and what tax class a hall would sit in. The Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 already puts large-load customers on a special electricity rate — originally 100 MW and an 80 percent load factor; the 2026 RELIEF Act lowered that to 25 MW and 60 percent. Under the 2026 Utility RELIEF Act (HB 1532, Chapter 353), investor-owned utilities and cooperatives must submit large-load specific rate schedules to the Public Service Commission for approval — that PSC-approved tariff process, not a local ordinance, is how Maryland allocates those utility costs if a campus is ever proposed.