GoKawiilAl is a long time tech writer with a penchant for all things nerdy. While he writes for Gadget Review, he manages a team of review writers, ensuring their content is nothing short of perfect.
Al is a long time tech writer with a penchant for all things nerdy. While he writes for Gadget Review, he manages a team of review writers, ensuring their content is nothing short of perfect.
Your AI chatbot sessions and cloud-stored photos might get more expensive if other states follow Maine’s lead. Lawmakers there just advanced the nation’s first statewide moratorium on large data centers, citing concerns that the AI boom is pushing electricity costs even higher in a state already suffering America’s priciest power bills.
The Democratic-controlled legislature advanced bill LD 307, temporarily blocking permits for any new data center requiring more than 20 megawatts. The measure runs until November 2027, buying time for a new Data Center Coordination Council to study how these facilities strain Maine’s aging electrical grid.
Political Theater Meets Policy Reality
Gov. Janet Mills supports the pause while developers scramble for exemptions.
The bill gained traction after residents in Wiscasset and Lewiston successfully opposed data center proposals over water usage and safety concerns. Projects now in limbo include facilities planned for:
Jay (at an old paper mill site)
Sanford
Loring Air Force Base
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