Federal regulators have cleared the sale of Charles County’s Morgantown Generating Station to a bitcoin-mining company planning to convert the site into a massive data center campus, though the approval leaves the project’s most contested questions — including how much of the plant’s power will stay on the regional grid — unresolved for now.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled July 29 that the ownership transfer of Morgantown Power LLC from GenOn affiliate Lanyard Power Holdings to Chesapeake Data LLC, a subsidiary of Easton-based TeraWulf Inc., is “consistent with the public interest.” The 34-page order authorizes only the change in ownership itself; FERC was explicit that its decision does not permit data center construction, new or repowered generation, power sales behind the meter, or any changes to the plant’s interconnection and capacity rights within the regional PJM electricity market.
Morgantown Power owns four operating oil-fired generating units with a combined capacity of about 216 megawatts on roughly 260 acres in Newburg, along the Potomac River south of Washington. Two coal-fired units at the site were retired in 2022, five years ahead of schedule, after GenOn cited unfavorable economics and the rising cost of environmental compliance. TeraWulf, which has built its business mining cryptocurrency and more recently pivoting toward AI-focused data centers in New York and Texas, announced the Morgantown acquisition in February and has said it envisions an initial 500-megawatt buildout at the site, eventually scaling toward 1 gigawatt of data center load, while aiming to remain a “net-positive energy supplier” to Maryland’s grid.
The proceeding drew sustained opposition from environmental and consumer groups. Public Citizen, the Sierra Club, Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel, and the Charles County Against Data Centers Coalition all intervened, joined by dozens of individual residents who filed comments raising concerns about air and water pollution, electricity rates, and the county’s ability to absorb a large new industrial load. PJM’s Independent Market Monitor separately urged FERC to condition its approval on a commitment that Morgantown’s existing capacity would not be withdrawn from the regional power market to serve data center load instead — a step FERC declined to take, finding that TeraWulf’s lack of other generation in the PJM market gives it no incentive to withhold Morgantown’s output for its own benefit.
A separate fight played out over TeraWulf’s relationship with Google. A coalition led by Public Citizen argued the company had concealed that Google holds warrants for roughly 14% of TeraWulf’s equity tied to data center financing arrangements in New York and Texas, and asked FERC to reject the application outright over the omission. TeraWulf countered that unexercised warrants confer no current ownership or control, and FERC agreed, denying the motion to dismiss while warning Morgantown it must notify the commission if that relationship changes in the future.
FERC also sided with TeraWulf on a separate dispute over the confidentiality of the deal’s purchase price, rejecting Public Citizen’s push to make that figure public. The commission found the price qualifies as commercially sensitive financial information under federal disclosure law, consistent with how FERC has ruled in past cases involving Maryland power plant sales.
What happens next unfolds on three separate tracks. At the federal level, TeraWulf must complete the purchase and notify FERC within 10 days of closing, and Morgantown Power must alert the commission within 30 days of any material change to the facts underlying this week’s approval — including, notably, any future shift in TeraWulf’s relationship with Google. Any subsequent plans to add data center load, build new generation, construct natural gas infrastructure — Public Citizen has flagged a proposed pipeline running more than 20 miles along an existing CSX rail corridor — install battery storage, or alter Morgantown’s participation in PJM’s capacity market would each require separate federal filings and review, giving opponents additional opportunities to intervene down the road.
At the state level, Maryland regulators have not yet weighed in substantively. Gov. Wes Moore’s administration drew criticism in December when Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain sent TeraWulf a letter described by the company as supportive; the governor’s office has since said the letter applied narrowly to environmental cleanup commitments at the site and does not entitle TeraWulf to expedited treatment in future state permitting. Any repowering or expansion of the Morgantown units would likely require air and water permits from MDE, and Travis Slocum of Public Citizen said this week that Moore should now publicly clarify what, if anything, his administration has committed to the company. Spokespeople for the governor and MDE did not immediately comment following FERC’s ruling.
At the county level, Charles County government has said it plays no formal role in approving the ownership sale itself; Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling noted in February that private-sector transactions of this kind do not require county notification or sign-off. But local zoning, site-plan and environmental review authority would come into play once TeraWulf seeks to actually build data center facilities or expand generation on the property, giving county officials and residents a more direct avenue to weigh in as the project moves from an ownership change to a construction proposal. County leaders have not announced a formal review process for that later stage, and no timeline for TeraWulf’s next filings has been made public.
