Maine passes first statewide data center ban as AI infrastructure faces growing pushback

Maine becomes first US state to pass data centre construction ban

Legislators in Maine have passed the first statewide data centre ban in the US amid growing pushback across the country to the rapid rollout of infrastructure underpinning the build-out of AI. The bill, sponsored by Democratic state Representative Melanie Sachs, passed mostly along party lines but won support from some Republicans and will now be sent to the governor's desk for signing. Its passing comes less than a year after St Charles, Missouri, became the first city in America to pass a data centre moratorium -- which has since been copied by dozens of other US localities. States including Georgia, Oklahoma and Virginia have also put forward proposals for temporary data centre bans amid growing concerns over the energy costs of such projects and their environmental impact. Dozens of data centres with combined investments of $156bn have been blocked by local opposition in the past year, according to analysis by research firm Data Center Watch. At the national level, Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Congress member from New York, last month introduced a bill to pause US data centre construction. Maine is home to few data centres, but investors are looking to build more. A $550mn project is planned at the site of a former paper mill in the town of Jay. The state's legislation, closely watched by activists across the US, would prohibit construction of data centres using at least 20 megawatts of power until late 2027 so that environmental and economic impacts could be properly evaluated. Governor Janet Mills, who is facing a strong primary challenge from progressive Democrat Graham Platner, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the governor told local news outlet WMTW that she "agrees with lawmakers that the rapid growth of large-scale AI data centres warrants careful evaluation of impacts on public resources, the environment and Maine ratepayers, and she supports a moratorium as put forth in [the bill] to ensure those impacts are fully understood". The spokesperson added that Mills supported an exemption to the legislation for the Jay project. Maine's bill has also been watched closely by AI industry lobbyists. Nathan Leamer, a DC-based campaigner for Build American AI, which advocates for the industry's priorities, said the state was "kneecapping" its own economy by voting for the measure. "Beyond the tradesmen and skilled workers who will now look elsewhere for opportunities to build, Maine is also delaying economic opportunities that will come from increased capacity," he said. But Anirban Basu, chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade association for the construction industry, said the development was "unsurprising". "Maine suffers among the most elevated rates of electricity in the nation, rendering citizens more sensitive to one of the most important implications of data centre development," he said, adding that data centres "don't fit neatly with the state's conception of itself, which revolves around fishing, hunting and the great, unspoiled outdoors".

Maine Would Be First State to Pause New Data Centers, if Governor Signs Bill

The Democrat-controlled legislature passed the measure on Tuesday, but Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat running for Senate, has yet to say whether she will sign it. Lawmakers in Maine this week approved a statewide moratorium on new data centers, the first legislation of its kind in the nation, at a moment when the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence industry is under intense scrutiny. The fate of the moratorium now rests with Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat in a tough primary race for a United States Senate seat. She has ten days to veto the legislation, sign it into law or allow it to become law without her signature. At least a half dozen other states are also considering restrictions on how, when and where data centers may be built. Lawmakers are concerned about the facilities' use of water and electricity, the risks of pollution and the potential to drive up household energy costs, among other criticisms. The pushback comes as the Trump administration is pressuring states to stay out of regulation of A.I. President Trump has threatened to sue states and withhold funding if they pass laws restricting the industry's growth. "We remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution and are in a race with adversaries for supremacy within it," an executive order signed by Mr. Trump in December said. "To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation. But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative." Data centers contain computer servers used to store, process and transmit digital data. They require large amounts of electricity to run the equipment and large amounts of water to cool the heat it produces. The Maine legislation would pause for 18 months approvals of new data centers that require more than 20 megawatts of power; it would also establish a study group to examine the impact of such facilities and recommend legislative guardrails. Separate legislation, also approved, would make data centers ineligible for certain business tax exemptions. Both legislative chambers are controlled by Democrats. In Maine, a rural state hard hit by mill closures, limiting economic development -- even temporarily -- is complicated. Before the legislature finalized the measure, Governor Mills said that she would sign it if the pause included an exemption for a proposed data center in the rural town of Jay, which lost more than 200 jobs when its largest employer, a paper mill, shut down in 2023. The project in Jay, which has been welcomed by local officials, would take over the vacant mill property and tap its existing infrastructure, an approach that proponents said should be treated differently than new construction sites on open land. Developers have said it would use a tiny fraction of the water once used by the mill, with no wastewater discharge to the Androscoggin River, while providing millions of dollars in tax revenue. "I have to believe that sites like ours are where you would want" data centers, said Shiloh LeFreniere, the town manager in Jay, which has a population of 4,680 people and sits northwest of Augusta. "It's not creating any impact that wasn't there already." An amendment that would have allowed projects like Jay's to proceed was defeated in the House, 115 to 29. Construction had been slated to begin in July. Melanie Sachs, a Democratic state representative from Freeport who sponsored the data center legislation, said she understood the concerns in Jay; she grew up nearby and her father worked in its mill. She said the legislation would provide for a thoughtful process to ensure that all such developments are safe for residents. It would also provide clarity to data center operators about their obligations. "We have evidence from other states telling us to plan carefully, because of negative impacts including noise, light, emissions, spikes in the power grid," she said. "This bill is to make sure we meet the moment." In California, legislators enacted regulations for A.I. companies last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, followed up last month with a groundbreaking executive order that added new requirements for privacy and transparency. But in New Hampshire, where the legislature is under Republican control, lawmakers last month rejected a proposed one-year moratorium on data centers. In Vermont, the Democratic-controlled legislature is still weighing precautions. Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has shown openness to the industry, recently telling business leaders that the state needs to build A.I. infrastructure to drive economic innovation. As state leaders debate their options, public opinion polls show widespread skepticism about artificial intelligence, even among younger generations. Still, the growth of A.I. is inevitable, and data centers will be built somewhere, said Tony McDonald, one of the developers of the project in Jay. "People are afraid of A.I. -- I'm afraid of A.I. -- but guess what, it's coming," he said. Ms. LaFreniere, the town manager in Jay, said the economic fallout from the paper mill's closure has rippled through the region, hurting loggers who had supplied it with raw materials and small family businesses that had served its workers. Critics who say data centers do not hire enough workers underestimate the depth of need in places like Jay, she said. "When you're in a small community in rural Maine, 100 or 125 jobs -- or even half that -- is still a significant number," Ms. LaFreniere said. "We don't have a lot of new employers coming in."

Some Locals Are Using AI to Protest Against Data Centers

The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented data center buildout that has especially hit rural communities living near ample empty land where tech companies see fit to plop down these megastructures. Some residents of Ohio, a state that hosts the fifth-highest number of data centers in the U.S., have been advocating to stop the spread of these AI data centers into their local communities. And they are using AI to do this. That's according to a recent profile of two Ohioans in the Wall Street Journal. Social worker Jessica Sharp uses generative AI tools to transcribe meeting minutes with fellow activists and understand how to conduct legal research, all in the hopes of combating a giant data center complex that is being built just yards away from her backyard, where she is raising her 18-month-old daughter. "I'm going to use every tool in my arsenal to respond," Sharp told the WSJ. "They've had a multiyear lead time on this, and I'm just going to try to catch up." Elsewhere in the same state, near the Appalachian Mountains, realtor Jessica Baker uses ChatGPT to write records requests to fight against a data center planned in her community. “It’s threatening our way of life: we move slower out here, we appreciate the view out here, and we don’t want that to change if it’s not going to benefit the people who live here,†Baker said. The situation does seem a bit ironic, but only at first glance. The United States has been engaged in an unprecedented data center buildout to accommodate the skyrocketing compute demand expected from the gradual increase in the use of artificial intelligence. So every time someone relies on artificial intelligence chatbots to get something done, it only increases the burden on existing infrastructure and underscores the need for more. But new reports and studies detailing the impact data centers are having on local communities have sparked local opposition to any newly announced project, and the opposition might have some legitimate concerns. Studies have shown rising utility bills and above-average air pollution for people who live near a data center. A new pre-print study also claims that data centers create heat islands within a 6-mile radius, akin to heat islands seen in city centers, and have been linked to health problems. Changing temperatures in the vicinity of data centers would also be especially detrimental to agriculture, which rural communities, where a lot of these data centers are being built, rely on. An Amazon data center planned in Sharp's town, for example, is being built on vacant farmland, and the activist said she has concerns over the data center's impact on her family's future health. Numerous others are standing against the data center buildout because they are worried about the impact artificial intelligence will have on the fabric of society. Critics are worried about rising mental health problems that are allegedly linked to increased AI usage, AI acceleration of warfare and mass surveillance, or an AI-driven job market armageddon that some claim is already underway. Some of this opposition has translated to actual change, with data center cancellations due to local pushback quadrupling last year. Elsewhere, the pushback has turned violent. Last week, a local Indiana politician's home was shot at 13 times in the middle of the night, and the assailants allegedly left a note that said "no data centers." The politician is pushing for the construction of a data center in his district. A few days later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home in San Francisco was hit by a molotov cocktail. But not all of this pushback against the rapid data center proliferation is necessarily anti-AI. Most of the negative health and economic effects of data centers could be adequately addressed with more research and stricter regulations. For the heat island effect study, for example, the researchers concluded that advancements in software design and hardware could help resolve the issue. A similar thing could be said of AI's impact on society. Cornell associate professor of global labor John McCarthy told Gizmodo last year that AI's adverse impact on the labor market could be addressed effectively if "policy, education, and hiring norms adjust." The only problem is that the technology is advancing too rapidly to give everyone else enough time to catch up. A significant part of the national advocacy against the data center buildout is centered around calls for a moratorium, aka a temporary ban on data center project developments, until the effects of AI and the data centers that power it have on local communities, the economy, and the environment are understood. Right now, the technology is evolving so rapidly in an incredibly underregulated environment in the United States that science and policy are having a hard time catching up with it. The thinking goes that, if given the time to truly understand the impact of data centers, then the government can introduce some guardrails to ensure the responsible development of AI. Some local communities have already begun drawing up plans for city or state-level moratoriums on data centers, and on Tuesday, Maine became the first state to adopt a statewide moratorium that will pause large data center projects until October 2027. The Maine bill passed the state legislature on Tuesday evening and is now awaiting the approval of Governor Janet Mills.

Will Maine Governor Janet Mills Sign Nation's First AI Data Center Ban Into Law? - Decrypt

The decision comes as Mills faces a competitive Senate primary, adding political pressure to the outcome. Maine Governor Janet Mills, who is currently locked in a bitter Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat, will have to decide in the coming days whether to sign or veto the nation's first-ever ban on AI data centers. Earlier this week, Maine's state legislature became the first in the country to pass a temporary moratorium on data centers above a certain size. The ban would last for over a year, and the legislation would also create a council for vetting proposed projects at the town level. AI data centers, which can often be massive, have attracted plenty of controversy as they've popped up in local communities across the country with increasing speed. Complaints have focused on the loud noise generated by the buildings, as well as their sometimes significant impact on local energy prices. And yet, no state has yet managed to ban the construction of data centers, even for a limited period of time. Maine is not a particular hotspot for AI power sources, at least not yet -- but backlash against the controversial energy hubs was sufficient in the independent-minded, nature-loving state to see a ban sail through both chambers of the state legislature with little resistance. Now, Governor Mills will have to choose whether to sign the moratorium into law, or potentially veto it. Last week, Mills told reporters she wanted an exemption in the legislation for a proposed $550 million data center in Jay, a small town in the center of the state. "The people of Jay need those jobs, with appropriate guardrails on preserving water resources, electricity resources, local generation, and all those things," the governor said. Such an exemption was not included in the moratorium the state legislature ultimately passed. Potentially complicating the decision is the fact that Mills is currently locked in a bitter primary for a U.S. Senate seat against an upstart Democratic rival, Maine oyster farmer Graham Platner. Despite Mills' profile as the state's highest ranking official, Platner, who is running to the governor's left, now leads her in polling by a significant margin.

Maine to become first US state to bar major data centers

Legislators in Maine on Tuesday endorsed a moratorium on building large data centers, becoming the first US state to try and rein in rampant construction driven by the AI race. Data center construction spending in the United States has surged in recent years, with tech firms pouring tens of billions of dollars into building out infrastructure amid the race to lead in AI. The Maine law would prohibit local authorities from issuing permits for data centers with electrical capacity exceeding 20 megawatts. Legislators in Maine on Tuesday endorsed a moratorium on building large data centers, becoming the first US state to try and rein in rampant construction driven by the AI race. The bill was passed by the state house and senate and is on its way to the desk of Democratic Governor Janet Mills, according to its sponsor, Representative Melanie Sachs. It will become law if not vetoed by Mills. "This bill positions Maine to respond deliberately and responsibly to a rapidly evolving industry," said Sachs. "People and communities across the state have been asking the Legislature to take action and temporarily pause these projects, which could have significant impacts on ratepayers, our electric grid and our environment." A boom in generative artificial intelligence has sent data center demand skyrocketing, with dozens of projects springing up across the United States. The buildout comes at a cost, as the power-hungry facilities are straining local grids and driving up electricity bills. Data centers also typically have massive footprints, taking up land that could be used for housing, businesses, recreation or green space. Public sentiment is hardening, with a recent Quinnipiac University poll finding 65 percent of Americans oppose having a data center built in their community. If signed into law, the Maine bill would pause new data center construction until November of next year. It also calls for the creation of a council to assess risks and benefits of proposed data centers and provide input for planners. Currently, there are no large-scale data centers in Maine, but some projects have been disclosed in recent weeks, according to Sachs. Data center construction spending in the United States has surged in recent years, with tech firms pouring tens of billions of dollars into building out infrastructure amid the race to lead in AI. The Maine law would prohibit local authorities from issuing permits for data centers with electrical capacity exceeding 20 megawatts. Maine is among the US states that have seen home electricity bills soar in recent years, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Data center projects were rejected in two cities in the state last year by elected officials who accused developers of concealing how much electricity and water the facilities would use, local media reported. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)