Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

shevy-java

Good. But will RAM prices go down again? I don't want to pay 2.5x as much as I did ~2 years ago, for the same piece of hardware ...

piker

Such a law illustrates the beauty of federalism. Texas and other states can have them if they want them! Maine has not nearly as much space and much more natural beauty to protect [per square mile], so it can and maybe should have a different set of rules. That's cool.

9cb14c1ec0

I live in Maine. Commercial power is crazy expensive. I don't know why you would build an AI datacenter here in the first place. As an obsessive self-hoster, I've researched building one, and there is no universe in which it makes sense. New Hampshire and Massachusetts are so nearby latency-wise.

gib444

Will a US state get the same kind of criticism a European country gets about push-back against big tech? Maine will go bankrupt? Maine will turn into a barren backwater? There will be no jobs?

xnx

Did any major data centers want to locate in Maine, or is this just an empty gesture?

tacostakohashi

This is a big win for the progressive community. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/25/datacenters-... Nice to see some success for their ideas.

chasd00

Was Maine ever at risk of being overrun with data centers? Regardless, if the ban is what Maine voters want then more power to them.

lbarrow

For people who support this kind of ban, I'd ask if you would support a similar ban on new factories for, say, car parts. Like data centers, factories use a lot of power -- which drives up electricity bills -- and their construction can have local environmental impacts. Data centers have a reputation for not providing too many local jobs, but modern factories are often highly automated and also don't provide too many local jobs. If, given all that, you'd support factory construction but not data center construction, I'd be curious as to why.

dwa3592

I don't think a blanket (ban or acceptance) anything is a good approach for this issue.

6thbit

So what's the current data centers footprint in Maine? Does the move benefit companies with existing DCs whose competition can no longer establish a region there?

didgetmaster

How long until the AI companies start charging more to people who use AI services, but live in areas that do things like this? NIMBY causes energy prices to go up in areas that won't allow drilling, refining, nuclear or nat gas development, or power lines. When will the same happen for things like AI services?

dmitrygr

The people (through their elected representatives) have a right to do this. It is stupid, in my opinion, but they have every right to do so. If this is what they want, they should have it. Personally, I see little reason to ban new taxpayers with few-to-none negative externalities from moving into your state, but what do i know?

mystraline

One could absolutely design data centers that were energy positive and ecologically decent (with respects to pollution). For a known amount of data enter power, dedicate 125% of power in solar and battery. Need cooling? Use liquid geothermal loops. Or radiate energy back into space. We know frequencies that do not reflect in atmo. Acoustic pollution is another area. Acoustic tiles, building plans, and natural noise barriers are also of utmost importance too. We need more compute. Plain banning is not the way. Demanding highly ecological and conserving solutions is.

cosmic_cheese

This is a natural response to the excessive pushiness and underhandedness that's been used to build many of these new datacenters, often in direct conflict with the wishes of the locals. Maybe the firms paying to get them built should take a more diplomatic approach instead of trying to railroad projects through.

cm2012

This has gotta be the dumbest issue in politics today. By far, the biggest use of data centers right now is on streaming Netflix and YouTube and stuff, but you don't see any protests about that.

t1234s

The people that ban this are they types that think the internet comes from their phone or electricity comes from the wall outlet.

WarmWash

If it meant that residents couldn't use AI, then the bill would be certainly dead. Given that, the bill is just for show, and not actually serious.

josefritzishere

In terms of square footage there are few "businesses" which consume more resources (water, power, tax credits) and produce less onging local employment. More states and municipalities are going to do this, and rightly so.

BlueRock-Jake

I feel like this is always the case with new technology. People had the same reaction to the invention of the printing press. New is scary. It doesn't mean there aren't valid concerns, but unfortunately this feels a bit like an inevitability. The focus shouldn't be on stopping it, but how to maximize the gains and minimize the losses to the local communities where these are being built.

mlsu

This shouldn't be read as a carefully considered policy with upsides and downsides. It's obviously silly to just ban datacenters from a policy perspective. Read this instead as, people hate this shit. They don't want datacenters, they don't want AI, they don't feel like those things are doing anything for them. You will win the policy debate by saying: "a datacenter uses just as much electricity and provides just as many jobs as a car parts factory, so it's silly to ban the one and not the other when you can just as easily examine the externalities of the datacenter and blah blah blah" But you will be missing the point, which is that people see building car parts as a solid, upstanding thing which has tangible and direct benefits to people; whereas building an AI datacenter means allowing some rich California surveillance czar to suck the water and power from your local community so that they can steal your job, fracture your community, and impoverish your family. One is good and one is bad and the voter's choice is to do the good thing and not the bad thing. Even if car parts factories pollute more than datacenters do.