Maine governor vetoes invoice quickly banning giant knowledge facilities within the state

The governor of Maine, Janet Mills, has vetoed a bill that halts the development of huge knowledge facilities within the state till the autumn of 2027. Whereas the invoice passed both houses of the Maine’s legislature on April 14, and Mills has suggested she’d assist a short lived moratorium, the governor needed a invoice that may exempt an existing data center project in Jay, Maine.

The bill particularly blocked the development of knowledge facilities that devour 20 megawatts of energy or extra and directs state businesses and different entities to not problem permits except proposed tasks fall beneath these power wants. Passing the invoice would additionally require the creation of a “Maine Knowledge Heart Coordination Council” that may “present strategic enter, facilitate coordinated state planning concerns and consider coverage instruments to deal with knowledge middle alternatives and associated advantages and dangers to the State.”

Whereas Mills killed this try at knowledge middle 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 collaborating in Maine’s enterprise growth tax incentive applications.

Maine is much from the one state pursuing knowledge middle bans or short-term blocks. There are not less than 12 different states exploring comparable laws, like New York, the place lawmakers recently introduced a bill that may block the development of recent knowledge facilities for not less than three years. On the federal stage, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed a bill that may not solely create a moratorium on new knowledge middle development, but in addition any upgrades to current amenities.

Any need to decelerate AI growth or the infrastructure that makes it doable 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 recent AI framework even referred to as for the method of constructing and powering knowledge facilities to be streamlined in March.