The governor of Maine, Janet Mills, has vetoed a invoice that halts the development of huge knowledge facilities within the state till the autumn of 2027. Whereas the invoice handed each homes of the Maine’s legislature on April 14, and Mills has prompt she’d help a brief moratorium, the governor wished a invoice that may exempt an current knowledge heart challenge in Jay, Maine.
The invoice particularly blocked the development of information facilities that eat 20 megawatts of energy or extra and directs state companies and different entities to not difficulty permits until proposed tasks fall below these vitality wants. Passing the invoice would additionally require the creation of a “Maine Information Middle Coordination Council” that may “present strategic enter, facilitate coordinated state planning concerns and consider coverage instruments to deal with knowledge heart alternatives and associated advantages and dangers to the State.”
Whereas Mills killed this try at knowledge heart regulation, she mentioned she would signal an government order calling for the creation of a council just like the one proposed within the invoice. She additionally signed LD 713, a invoice that prohibits knowledge facilities from taking part in Maine’s enterprise growth tax incentive applications.
Maine is way from the one state pursuing knowledge heart bans or non permanent blocks. There are at the least 12 different states exploring related laws, like New York, the place lawmakers lately launched a invoice that may block the development of recent knowledge facilities for at the least three years. On the federal stage, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed a invoice that may not solely create a moratorium on new knowledge heart building, but additionally any upgrades to current amenities.
Any want to decelerate AI growth or the infrastructure that makes it attainable runs counter to the calls for of tech firms, and the angle of the Trump administration, who’s actively encouraging quicker AI buildout within the US. President Donald Trump’s latest AI framework even known as for the method of constructing and powering knowledge facilities to be streamlined in March.
