Executive Order No. 658, "Establishing Requirements for Responsible Data Center Development and Operations in Massachusetts to Protect and Support Ratepayers, Communities, and the Environment," was signed by Governor Maura Healey on September 8, 2026 and took effect on the date of signing. It conditions state permits for data center projects with peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts on two showings by the applicant, and directs several Massachusetts agencies to develop protocols, rate structures and guidance addressing the electricity, water and greenhouse-gas consequences of data center development (Massachusetts Executive Order No. 658 (data center development, September 2026)).
Status and background
The order is the second step in a sequence the Healey administration began in June 2026. On June 25, 2026 the Governor released a Statement of Expectations for Responsible Data Center Development and Operations in Massachusetts, which the order calls the "Framework," and paused acceptance of applications for the data center sales-and-use tax exemption established by section 6(zz) of chapter 64H of the General Laws. Executive Order 658 converts the Framework from a statement of principles into a permitting precondition and assigns implementation deadlines to named agencies (Massachusetts Executive Order No. 658 (data center development, September 2026)). The Framework is written throughout in the hortatory voice and states that it "supplements, and does not replace, existing state and local siting, permitting, and regulatory requirements," so its binding force derives entirely from the order's incorporation of it (Healey-Driscoll Statement of Expectations for Responsible Data Center Development and Operations in Massachusetts). The June 25, 2026 date is the one the order's own account and contemporaneous records give; the Framework as published on mass.gov carries no date on its face.
The order states that it remains in force until amended, superseded or revoked by a subsequent executive order, and that nothing in it requires action inconsistent with applicable state or federal law.
Scope and definitions
Section 13 defines a data center by reference to 400 CMR 9.00 — "a building or series of buildings that houses and supports the high-performance servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and related computing infrastructure and equipment necessary for storing, processing, and distributing data and applications" — and limits the order to facilities built or expanded after the effective date whose peak electric demand exceeds 25 megawatts, or, for an expansion, that add 25 megawatts of peak demand.
The Secretaries of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Executive Office of Economic Development (EOED) may jointly approve an exemption from the 25-megawatt threshold for a data center directly tied to an accredited college or university engaged in academic research, to the provision of medical care, or to a state-sponsored program.
The order's trigger and the Framework's are different, and the Framework is the broader of the two. Section 1 of the order attaches to covered projects by peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts. The Framework applies to data center development generally, and directs its most specific expectations at developers seeking the sales and use tax exemption under M.G.L. c. 64H, § 6(zz) — a different hook from the megawatt threshold. The 25-megawatt figure appears in the Framework itself only in an unrelated context, as the Energy Facilities Siting Board threshold for onsite generation facilities under M.G.L. c. 164, § 69G (Healey-Driscoll Statement of Expectations for Responsible Data Center Development and Operations in Massachusetts).
Permitting conditions
Section 1 bars the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), the Energy Facilities Siting Board, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office and other relevant permitting agencies from issuing any permit or authorization for a covered project unless the applicant has both demonstrated conformance with the Framework — including its provisions on air quality and public health, water use, and community engagement — and submitted a community benefits agreement with key stakeholders aligned with the Standards and Guidelines for Community Benefits Plans and Agreements established by the Office of Environmental Justice and Equity (OEJE) within EEA.
The order routes the community benefits agreement through OEJE alone: an applicant must consult OEJE before filing, must provide the agreement to OEJE for review and comment before submitting it to agencies, and must submit OEJE's written feedback alongside it. OEJE is designated the sole state entity determining conformance, and applicants are not required to submit the agreement to any other permitting agency for comment.
Section 1 also prohibits permitting agencies from using non-disclosure agreements with a data center project, except as otherwise provided by law.
Electricity, ratepayers and the grid
Sections 3 through 6 address the electricity consequences separately from the permitting conditions.
Section 5 directs MassDEP to develop protocols ensuring that covered projects have procured sufficient incremental new clean electricity generation to meet their annual electric consumption, with the procured electricity qualifying under the Clean Energy Standard at 310 CMR 7.75, and to determine whether the Clean Energy Standard regulation must be amended or new regulations made under chapter 21N, section 3(c) to adopt them. By December 31, 2026 MassDEP must act to establish an alternative compliance payment mechanism for data centers that do not procure sufficient incremental clean electricity; funds collected through it are credited to a Ratepayer Protection Fund and used to mitigate electricity supply costs for all ratepayers.
Section 3 directs the Department of Public Utilities to continue developing large-load rate schedules under Executive Order 654, with the stated aim that other ratepayers not pay for distribution grid upgrades or associated infrastructure needed to support data center demand.
Executive Order 654, signed March 16, 2026, is an energy supply order that contains no reference to data centers or to artificial intelligence (Massachusetts Executive Order 654 — To Secure Massachusetts' Energy Future (March 16, 2026)). The provision the later instruments attach to is its Section 3(4), which directs the DPU to "[i]nvestigate strategies to ensure energy independence and affordability for Massachusetts electric customers and promote safe and reliable operation of the electric grid with the growth of large commercial customers," and makes that investigation contingent on parameters identified by EEA and the Executive Office of Economic Development. Executive Order 654 imposes no large-load interconnection requirement of its own: its Section 5 disclaims any cause of action or right to judicial review, and its directions run to state agencies rather than to applicants. The chain by which the Commonwealth's data center policy reaches a private party therefore runs through three derivative layers — a hortatory Framework, this order's incorporation of it as a permitting condition, and a DPU proceeding whose scope Executive Order 654 set in motion. Section 4 directs the DPU to have the electric distribution companies eliminate speculative data center projects from interconnection queues through fees, deposits or other requirements, so that study and interconnection resources are not consumed by projects that will not be built and so that housing, other businesses and distributed energy resources retain queue viability.
Section 6 directs EEA and MassDEP to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions from covered projects as part of the Clean Energy and Climate Plan under chapter 21N, section 3(c), to promulgate regulations under chapter 21N, or to institute other programs to reduce data center emissions.
Water, reporting and municipal guidance
Section 7 directs MassDEP to develop protocols requiring covered projects to protect water quality and quantity, including by demonstrating compliance with applicable state water, wastewater and stormwater requirements.
Section 8 directs EEA to establish guidance for annual reporting and disclosure by operating covered data centers consistent with the Framework, and requires permit applicants to attest that they will submit those disclosures. The Framework's own transparency expectation is wider than the order's: Section 8 of the Framework asks that state agencies, municipalities and communities "avoid signing non-disclosure agreements" regardless of whether a project receives the tax exemption, and lists the categories to be disclosed on permitting and reported regularly thereafter, including peak electric and gas demand, water sourcing and consumption, hazardous-substance inventories, and whether a facility has more than one grid interconnection request (Healey-Driscoll Statement of Expectations for Responsible Data Center Development and Operations in Massachusetts). Section 12 requires EEA, with EOED and the Executive Office of Technology, Service and Security, to report annually to the Governor beginning in September 2027 on policy, regulatory and legislative changes supporting responsible data center development.
Section 9 requires EEA and EOED to publish a Municipal Guidance Document for Data Center Development by December 31, 2026 to support municipal leaders, community organizations and residents evaluating proposed projects, developed with input from municipalities, regional planning agencies, utilities, water resource agencies, organized labor, environmental justice organizations, businesses, the Attorney General's Office and the public.
Section 11 directs state departments and agencies to encourage developers of covered projects to use project labor agreements or labor peace agreements, local hiring, workforce training and registered apprenticeship programs.
Reception and coverage
Coverage on September 8 and 9, 2026 framed the order around local approval and ratepayer protection. WBUR reported it as subjecting proposed data centers to local approvals (Source: wbur.org). NBC Boston reported that under the order data centers will need local community support to secure state permits, and that facilities will be required either to supply their own clean energy or pay into a ratepayer protection fund, which Healey said would protect residents from higher utility bills (Source: nbcboston.com). TechCrunch reported it as new clean power rules for data centers (Source: techcrunch.com).
Two features of the order's structure are not reflected in that coverage. The clean-electricity procurement requirement is a Section 5 direction to MassDEP to develop protocols, not one of the two Section 1 preconditions to a permit; and Section 5 requires incremental new clean generation sufficient for the facility's annual consumption without imposing any proximity condition on where that generation is located.
Relation to other Massachusetts AI measures
Executive Order 658 addresses the energy, water and siting consequences of computing infrastructure. It is a separate track from the frontier-AI safety language in the Massachusetts economic development bill, which would enact chapter 93M of the General Laws and has been before a conference committee since July 2026; the two share an administration but not a subject (Massachusetts economic development bill — AI safety provisions (2026)).
Open questions
- Whether MassDEP's alternative compliance payment mechanism, due by December 31, 2026, will be priced high enough to make procurement the cheaper path, which the order does not specify.
- How long the June 25, 2026 pause on data center sales-and-use tax exemptions under chapter 64H, section 6(zz) remains in effect; the order recites the pause but does not lift or extend it.
Relationships
- depends-on: Massachusetts Executive Order No. 658 (data center development, September 2026) — the order's full text.
- depends-on: Massachusetts Executive Order 654 — To Secure Massachusetts' Energy Future (March 16, 2026) — the March 2026 energy supply order whose Section 3(4) DPU investigation this order's large-load rate work continues.
- depends-on: Healey-Driscoll Statement of Expectations for Responsible Data Center Development and Operations in Massachusetts — the Framework every Section 1 permit determination turns on.
- instance-of: Data Center Siting / AI Power Politics
- related: AI Environmental Impact
- related: Pennsylvania Executive Order 2026-05 (Data Centers)
- related: Massachusetts economic development bill — AI safety provisions (2026)
- regulated-by: Compute Governance