Citing grid resilience and environmental concerns, Maine State Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport) has pushed a bill to pause datacenter building in Maine for two years. If successful, it would be the first statewide ban on data centers in America. Maine Public Radio reports:
Maine lawmakers are considering a two-year pause on building large new data centers in the state.
State Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, added the moratorium to her bill proposing a broad-based data center “coordination council” that would study benefits and risks of data centers in Maine and offer recommendations to local governments, utilities and state agencies.
“These data centers as we have seen in other states have impacts for grid resilience, they have impacts for environmental resources, so we just wanted to take a proactive approach and do it unlike any other state has so far,” Sachs said in an interview.
The state’s governor, Janet Mills, is prepared to sign the legislation if it lands on her desk. The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) explains on its website that Maine isn’t alone in exploring bans on data centers. Madyson Fitzgerald of the NCSL writes:
As communities’ concerns grow over rising electricity prices and the environmental effects of data centers, some local and state officials want to halt development of the facilities.
Lawmakers in at least 11 states—Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin—have introduced legislation this session that would temporarily ban data centers, according to Good Jobs First, a watchdog group that focuses on economic development incentives.
While some of the measures would establish an indefinite moratorium, others would ban new data centers for several years. The Vermont measure, for example, would ban new data center projects through July 2030.
The New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and Vermont bills would also require state agencies to study the impacts of data centers on local economies, the environment and more.
Over the past month, state lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Minnesota have also announced plans to introduce moratoriums on data center development.
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