First Statewide Information Middle Ban Handed by Maine Legislature

On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled state legislature in Maine handed a ban on giant information facilities. It wasn’t precisely shut. The state’s Home handed it 79-62, and the Senate handed it 21-13—alongside celebration strains with just a few exceptions, according to the Wall Street Journal. Governor Janet Mills’ signature continues to be wanted earlier than it turns into legislation, and the Journal says she has signaled curiosity in signing such a ban beneath sure circumstances.

This ban handed regardless of—or maybe due to—comparatively low information middle exercise in Maine. Business Insider maps seemingly information facilities building by monitoring allow requests for sure mills, and Maine seems to solely have two such initiatives. Nevertheless, information middle demand drives up home energy costs, and the web site Electrical Selection ranks Maine fourth highest in electrical energy costs.

Insider additionally notes that comparable legislative efforts have stalled or failed outright in Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Plenty of other cities and states are nonetheless contemplating legal guidelines like this one.

Maine’s ban has continuously been described as a ban on “giant” information facilities, however the threshold is 20 megawatts, which is definitely fairly low, and successfully blocks building of what’s generally often called an AI information middle. According to the Regional Plan Association, whereas information facilities used about two megawatts of electrical energy when the idea of an information middle was new, the common modern information middle makes use of about 40 megawatts.  

Maine’s invoice locations a moratorium on building till November of 2027, and likewise creates a council whose job can be to judge the price of information facilities on the folks of Maine.