Maine lawmakers pass nation's first statewide ban on large data centers
Source: Washington Post
April 14, 2026 at 5:55 p.m. EDT
Legislators in Maine on Tuesday passed the nation’s first statewide ban on large data centers, part of a growing backlash to the energy-intensive facilities that fuel the rise of artificial intelligence. The measure would block the creation of new data centers that draw more than 20 megawatts of power until the fall of 2027 and establish a mechanism to study their impact on the electrical grid.
Maine’s moratorium was approved in final votes Tuesday by both houses of the state legislature. The bill will now go to Gov. Janet Mills (D) for signature. A spokesman for Mills did not immediately respond to a query about whether she plans to approve the legislation. Mills has said she wants an exception for a data center on the site of a defunct paper mill, but legislators earlier rejected such an amendment.
Battles over data centers have erupted across the country, from small towns to big cities, emerging as a rare source of bipartisan alarm. At least 12 other states led by both Democrats and Republicans are considering their own temporary bans. Data centers house computer servers crucial to the internet, cloud computing and more recently AI. The average newly planned data center uses as much electricity as a city of 500,000, according to a Washington Post analysis, and some supersized facilities now under construction use far more.
A broad range of communities are voicing concern over how data centers consume electricity, water and farmland. Last year, local resistance stymied proposed data centers representing $152 billion in potential investment, according to Data Center Watch, a research project by an AI security firm.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/04/14/maine-bans-data-centers/
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