PRINCE FREDERICK — Calvert County government found out about Constellation Energy’s 20-year power deal with Amazon the same way residents did, and it has no say over whether the deal goes forward.
That was the county’s message in a statement read into the record at the start of the Board of County Commissioners’ Oct. 20 meeting. The statement said the county was not consulted or given advance notice before the agreement was announced, and that because it is a commercial agreement between two companies, it does not require county approval.
The county also said it had asked Constellation for answers after the announcement. According to the statement, Constellation confirmed the deal does not include building an Amazon data center at Calvert Cliffs or expanding the plant’s existing footprint, and that electricity from the Lusby plant will keep flowing to the regional grid. The county said ongoing communication with Constellation is essential given the plant’s importance to Calvert and that it values the long relationship between the two.
The statement was the county’s first formal public account of what it learned. It did not settle the debate in the room. Hours later, during public comment, residents who fought a proposed data center near the plant pressed commissioners to start environmental studies they say were promised in August, while two Calvert Cliffs employees asked the board not to undo the industrial zoning on Constellation’s land.
What the deal does
Constellation and Amazon announced the agreement Sept. 30. As the Chronicle reported at the time, Amazon will buy 690 megawatts of the plant’s output for 20 years. Constellation says the guaranteed revenue will pay for more than $3 billion in upgrades, including a 190-megawatt power uprate, and support relicensing the plant’s two reactors for another 20 years. The current licenses run out in 2034 and 2036.
The announcement came less than two months after Amazon Web Services dropped its plan for a data center campus on Constellation land beside the plant. On Aug. 18, commissioners voted unanimously for a six-month moratorium on new data center applications while the county decided its next steps.
Residents ask where the studies are
Pam Warner, speaking for Indivisible Calvert County, told commissioners the moratorium was adopted in part so the county could carry out environmental studies on data centers. She asked whether a longer, two-year moratorium the board is expected to take up in December will repeat the same stated purposes, and urged the board to direct staff to begin studies recommended by the county’s Environmental Commission now.
Warner argued the studies are more than a formality. She said data center developers elsewhere have sued over zoning changes, claiming they amount to a regulatory taking, and that documented public health, safety and environmental findings are what would let the county’s rules hold up in court. If the county never starts the studies its own ordinance called for, she said, developers could argue the stated purpose was a pretext.
Patrick Flaherty, speaking as an individual, thanked county staff for their professionalism and the board for moving ahead on data center zoning. He said nearly three months have passed since the moratorium and asked whether the board has directed staff to issue a request for proposals or otherwise begin the work. He also asked whether the absence of studies leaves the county legally exposed to developers who relied on earlier zoning changes.
Megan Sanger of Lusby, calling in, echoed both. She urged residents to attend the Planning Commission’s Oct. 21 meeting, where she said data center text amendments were on the agenda, and asked the county to keep giving residents updates on the studies regardless of who holds office in 2027.
Commissioners did not respond to the questions during public comment, which is typical of the board’s format.
Plant workers make their case
Two Calvert Cliffs employees followed with a different message.
Roberto Martinez, speaking as an individual, said he is a second-generation plant employee whose father started there in 1989. He said the deal gives Constellation a 20-year financial baseline, without adding subsidies paid by state taxpayers, that makes it worth investing billions in new capacity and a license extension. Instead of planning for shutdowns in 2034 and 2036, he said, workers can now plan for apprentices, graduating students and two more decades of tax payments to the county.
Stephanie Brown of St. Leonard, who said she was speaking on behalf of the plant and Constellation, told commissioners Calvert Cliffs contributes about $21 million a year in local taxes. She then walked the board through the company’s roughly 2,000-acre campus, which she described as four parcels:
- Parcel A, about 780 acres, where the power plant sits
- Parcel B, about 726 acres, just south of the plant
- Parcel C, about 382 acres, on the southern end of the campus
- Parcel D, about 152 acres, north of the plant
Brown said Constellation asked during the county’s 2024 comprehensive rezoning to put all of Parcel B in the industrial zone, and to move Parcels A and B into the newly created I-2 district. Parcels C and D, more than 530 acres combined, stayed in the Farm and Forest District as a buffer, she said. She noted the process included three public hearings in 2024, and the new zoning ordinance and map were approved Feb. 18, 2025, and took effect March 1, 2025.
That rezoning is the same change residents have challenged. In September, residents told commissioners that nearly 800 acres next to the plant was rezoned to heavy industrial without their knowledge.
Brown said the power deal covers upgrades to existing infrastructure, but the zoning matters for any new generation projects Constellation might bring to the site. She asked the board to consider how decisions about the plant’s zoning could limit that. She also acknowledged the relationship between Constellation and the community has been strained, said the company recently hired a community relations manager, and said repairing that relationship is one of her goals.
Decisions ahead, and a new board
The questions raised Oct. 20 will land on two boards. The Planning Commission was set to take up data center text amendments the following night, and the current moratorium expires in February unless commissioners extend it. Speakers said a longer moratorium is expected to come before the board in December, weeks after the Nov. 3 general election seats a new Board of County Commissioners.
The Amazon deal itself is not before either body. Any power uprate at Calvert Cliffs will need approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Constellation has until 2031 to file its renewal application for the plant’s first reactor.
