Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers • Hacker News Board

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#201

Post by kube-system » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:20 PM UTC

SamDc73 wrote: post #178

lbarrow wrote: post #17

For people who support this kind of ban, I'd ask if you would support a similar ban on new factories for, say, car parts. Like data centers, factories use a lot of power -- which drives up electricity bills -- and their construction can have local environmental impacts. Data centers have a reputation for not providing too many local jobs, but modern factories are often highly automated and also don't provide too many…

yeah, another way to put it: if you don't want factories, that's fine; just don't buy manufactured stuff .. the same with data centers, if you don't want data centers then don't go on the Internet because by doing so you're becoming part of the problem.

It isn't necessary to evenly distribute industry across the entire country out of pettiness.

Maine doesn't tell Iowa they should grow their own lobsters, they simply trade them.

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#202

Post by no_wizard » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

mediaman wrote: post #150

bigfatkitten wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a data centre brings absolutely no economic benefit whatsoever to its local community, unlike something like an auto plant that creates entirely new supporting industries to support it and its employees.

Loudoun County in Virginia generates $1 billion in property tax revenues from data centers. It funds half of all of their expenditures. Can you imagine having half of your total municipal government budget being paid for by data centers? Their citizens pay much lower property tax rates, and get much better schooling and police. Henrico County (also VA) took $60 million in unexpected new revenues from data centers and…

They’re an anomaly that benefits from a number of factors like being close to the government for contracting, early data centers built there and they tended to congregate and dumb luck.

They’re an outlier and don’t really prove much of anything.

Oregon has lots and lots of data centers and not much to show for it on any front, other than higher electric prices for consumers

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#203

Post by tt24 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

alex43578 wrote: post #11

piker wrote: post #3

Such a law illustrates the beauty of federalism. Texas and other states can have them if they want them! Maine has not nearly as much space and much more natural beauty to protect [per square mile], so it can and maybe should have a different set of rules. That's cool.

[flagged]

Strange that suddenly they don’t seem to like this concept so much anymore :)

“I support the right of $state to ban $thing”

Wait, not like that!

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#204

Post by pixl97 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

inglor_cz wrote: post #60

shaky-carrousel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I would support a ban on new factories for, say, slot machines.

Slot machines are (ab)used by relatively few people. OTOH the proportion of Mainers who already use or (say by 2030) will be using AI routinely in their daily lives is likely around 50 per cent. Which makes the initiative a bit of an exercise in political posturing and hypocrisy. Reminds me a bit of all the anti-nuclear countries of Europe which nevertheless do not mind importing nuclear-generated power from their ne…

>who already use or (say by 2030)

Luckily it's only a memorandum and not a ban then.

>do not mind importing nuclear-generated power from their neighbours if needed.

Which does put some distance between you and whatever disaster occurs because someone thought pocketing $5 was more important than safety.

You're also assuming there won't be a massive crash in the next year or two would leave a lot of stranded assets around. If there's not, then they'll build DC's then.

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#205

Post by fc417fc802 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #146

bitexploder wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they are simply not taxed enough to benefit the community. If the local municipality is bearing a lot of these hidden costs, then perhaps the taxes need to be higher and directed at efforts that mitigate the worst of the problems. Water management solutions, air pollution management. Are there ways to mitigate the noise pollution? It seems like they should be taxed /more/ to help offset the negatives. There i…

Almost anything can be mitigated at some cost - but it has to be determined what those mitigations are, and then demand them. Many municipalities are unequipped to deal with a "datacenter" because on paper it is the same as an office building (that draws a lot of power), where it should be treated like an industrial site (rail yard, factory).

They get their own unique third category as unlike industrial sites there's no hazardous chemicals and even the noise pollution is substantially different in nature.

The old datacenters are analogous to office buildings that emit some unusual noise and consume large amounts of electricity.

The new ones (ie gigawatt class) consume enough electricity for ~1 million households and at minimum enough water for 100k households (but possibly many times that).

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#206

Post by unethical_ban » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

Hate to sound all California, but some restrictions on datacenters and similar power/water users seem reasonable. Datacenters in particular vs. factories because of the nature of datacenter inputs and outputs.

---

Will the DC cover the costs of its own expanded power generation needs? Are residential and small business users protected?

Can the water system handle the increased usage in a given area?

What physical discharges are created? Waste heat air, waste heat water, etc?

What kind of noise will be generated? Are there limits on use of onsite fossil fuel power generation?

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#207

Post by Eji1700 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC

BlueRock-Jake wrote: post #84

I feel like this is always the case with new technology. People had the same reaction to the invention of the printing press. New is scary. It doesn't mean there aren't valid concerns, but unfortunately this feels a bit like an inevitability. The focus shouldn't be on stopping it, but how to maximize the gains and minimize the losses to the local communities where these are being built.

You're not doing your side any favors by using the printing press of all things as your comparison. People very legitimately don't want things like fracking in their area even IF it brings a boatload of jobs due to the costs on communities.

Datacenters might not be as potentially destructive, but they're also a massive net negative for the community in many real world ways. If you want them to "maximize gains", then the answer is "tax them more" which, shockingly, turns into a functional ban because somewhere else is taxing them less.

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#208

Post by romaniv » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:26 PM UTC

lbarrow wrote: post #17

For people who support this kind of ban, I'd ask if you would support a similar ban on new factories for, say, car parts. Like data centers, factories use a lot of power -- which drives up electricity bills -- and their construction can have local environmental impacts. Data centers have a reputation for not providing too many local jobs, but modern factories are often highly automated and also don't provide too many…

>For people who support this kind of ban, I'd ask if you would support a similar ban on new factories for, say, car parts.

If car parts factories produced nothing, employed no one and were made with equipment that will get outdated in a couple of years... Oh, gee, I dunno, it's a tough one.

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#209

Post by YetAnotherNick » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:28 PM UTC

efromvt wrote: post #96

fr4nkr wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major data centers being built for AI are much more energy-hungry than car manufacturing, and they're being built at a pace that the US energy grid simply cannot accommodate in the short term... or quite possibly even the long term, considering the US's extreme aversion to expanding nuclear power. Also, you can call it Luddism if you want, but a car factory is going to bring a lot more net benefit to the average…

I wonder why this doesn’t get us frustrated with the grid, not data centers. Delays on interconnects for renewables and offshore wind both seem pretty self inflicted.

Also power is not at all a limited resource as many top voted post on HN thinks it to be. Increased demand decreases the price of power not increases it in the long term.

And in any case ban doesn't make any sense. Instead they could charge different for grid electricity usage, and make the datacenter pay for grid expansion when they start building it.

Re: Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

#210

Post by order-matters » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 9:28 PM UTC

scoofy wrote: post #200

marcosdumay wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Data centers are a net negative wherever they are. They really shouldn't be. There is a need for them and they aren't inherently damaging. There's no reason they can't be placed under some environmental regulations that cancel all their negatives, at least on some places. And they would still pay taxes. But no, datacenter owners are using their connections to remove any regulation instead.

Obviously the solution is to tax them instead of ban them so they end up dispersing income to the surrounding areas. The entire point though is that they won't get built where they are taxed, and eventually, through regulatory capture or governance capture, they'll get built without having to compensate for their exteralities. The cynicism of residents is reasonable. They've have to be highly educated to actually und…

>The entire point though is that they won't get built where they are taxed

I dont think this is entirely true. Maybe not the first wave of data centers, but there are a lot of factors that go into the cost calc and its possible that it would still be worth it to build them even if taxed.