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

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

#301

Post by culi »

mystraline wrote: post #31

One could absolutely design data centers that were energy positive and ecologically decent (with respects to pollution). For a known amount of data enter power, dedicate 125% of power in solar and battery. Need cooling? Use liquid geothermal loops. Or radiate energy back into space. We know frequencies that do not reflect in atmo. Acoustic pollution is another area. Acoustic tiles, building plans, and natural noise b…

It's not plain banning. It's a moratorium until 2027. I think it's sensible policy given this craze is at the peak of a hype cycle and there's been a lot of investigative reporting on shady deals around hyperscaler infrastructure

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

#302

Post by tejtm »

unicornporn wrote: post #101
beastman82 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing the population of Lewiston would welcome an employer of 30 jobs

Are you saying that those thirty job will go to people currently living in Lewiston? If so, thirty jobs are on the plus side. What's on the minus side?

that would translate to three townees for janitors the rest would be durn furiners from away *

* further down east than Lewiston but, there was a time I was the damm foreigner from the big city.

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

#303

Post by kube-system »

pj_mukh wrote: post #291
kube-system wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about this particular situation (NH and MA seem to have expensive power as well), but you can have significantly different costs on one side of the line or the other for regulatory reasons. State regulations can affect the cost of business significantly, and electricity is no exception.

Fascinating. First you NIMBY the power, then you cite the power shortages to NIMBY the data centers. Win. Win.

There's a lot more that contributes to power costs than NIMBYism.

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

#304

Post by alphager »

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #286
harimau777 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm? On the chance that it isn't, how would that make them rich? The profit from the data centers goes to the owner not to the people in the community or rest of the state.

There's this thing called taxes...

That are paid (if not avoided) at the location of the owner, not the location of the dc.

Datacenters really aren't that good for the locals. Low property tax, just tens of jobs but very high infrastructure needs.

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

#305

Post by fc417fc802 »

bombcar wrote: post #260
fc417fc802 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 househ…

Where does the water go afterwards? Is it evaporated? Sewer?

I believe evaporative cooling is the norm (thus my "possibly many times that" remark doesn't apply) however theoretically they could provide hot water as a utility or (as you say) just dump it into the sewer. If located next to a river or the ocean they could conceivably dissipate it that way but I'm not aware of any examples.

It's the sort of externality that could be solved with a well placed megaproject. A related question to my mind is why we're building such expensive strategic assets in the open rather than under a mountain.

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

#306

Post by culi »

mlsu wrote: post #95

This shouldn't be read as a carefully considered policy with upsides and downsides. It's obviously silly to just ban datacenters from a policy perspective. Read this instead as, people hate this shit. They don't want datacenters, they don't want AI, they don't feel like those things are doing anything for them. You will win the policy debate by saying: "a datacenter uses just as much electricity and provides just as…

FFS did anybody in this thread read passed the title?

It's not just a plain ban. It's a moratorium until 2027 for data centers requiring over 20 megawatts. The temporary moratorium gives it time to build the infrastructure necessary to roll out data centers in an environmentally responsible way:

> The bill also creates the Maine Data Center Coordination Council, and instructs the council to provide strategic input, facilitate planning considerations and evaluate policy tools to address data center opportunities.

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

#307

Post by pj_mukh »

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.

This is a recipe for creating dead retiree states. Just NIMBY everything, NIMBY the power sources[1] [2], then complain about a lack of power so NIMBY any type of new industrial .

Now do this for housing, new sources of water anything a person younger than 40 would need and you basically get a state full of retirees..and oh would you look at that! [3].

Now the question is, why wouldn't all states eventually do this with the way our population pyramid is looking? It's basically rabid conservation and tragedy of the commons writ large.

[1]: https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2025-04-08/bill-removin...

[2]: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/maine-voters-reject-q...

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

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

#308

Post by jmalicki »

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #286
harimau777 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm? On the chance that it isn't, how would that make them rich? The profit from the data centers goes to the owner not to the people in the community or rest of the state.

There's this thing called taxes...

There aren't taxes on datacenters in Texas. They gain virtually nothing from them!

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/08/texas-data-centers-s...

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

#309

Post by blululu »

gib444 wrote: post #5

Will a US state get the same kind of criticism a European country gets about push-back against big tech? Maine will go bankrupt? Maine will turn into a barren backwater? There will be no jobs?

If it were a different state maybe but:

>Maine will go bankrupt? No it’s a bunch of poor old stock Yankees. They have no money but they are still fiscally solvent. >Maine will turn into a barren backwater? It’s already a backwater. The goal is to keep it that way. >There will be no jobs? Unless working as a fisherman for half the year or a bartender for 3 months in the summer is counted as a job then nothing changes.

Maine has always been out of the way and poor. I doubt this bill will change much one way or the other. As per the local idiom: you can’t get there from here.

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

#310

Post by culi »

givemeethekeys wrote: post #106

Why not mandate that all data centers must be completely off the grid instead?

Maybe they will. They are not banning them permanently. They are placing a moratorium until 2027 so they can research and plan for how to do data centers responsibly

> The bill also creates the Maine Data Center Coordination Council, and instructs the council to provide strategic input, facilitate planning considerations and evaluate policy tools to address data center opportunities.

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