Maine just became the first state to hit pause on hyperscale data centers. The legislature passed a moratorium freezing construction approvals for any facility needing more than 20 megawatts of power for the next 18 months. That's the scale required to train and run AI models. The move comes as Maine residents watch their electricity bills climb, up 58 percent on average over five years. Democratic state Rep. Melanie Sachs, who sponsored the measure, told the Associated Press that "the tradeoffs have not been shown to be of benefit to our ratepayers, water usage or community benefit in terms of economic activity." And Maine is not alone. At least twelve other states are weighing similar moratorium bills. Dozens of municipalities have already passed their own restrictions. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a proposal for a nationwide freeze in late March. Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First calls it a "seismic shift in public opinion." A year ago, nobody was entertaining a moratorium. Now a quarter of states are.
The industry insists data centers bring jobs and investment. Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition warned that Maine's moratorium "would deprive local communities of the opportunity to compete for investment and jobs." But Arjun Krishnaswami from the Federation of American Scientists says tech companies have failed to show they're taking the risks of their expansion seriously. The deals are hard to evaluate. Developers operate through LLCs and code names, demand non-disclosure agreements, and shield financial details from regulators.
"As long as they're acting like they have to come in the dark of night, it just makes you ask, what are they hiding?" said LeRoy. "And the answer is, it's a bad deal."
The environmental toll is mounting too. The NAACP is suing Elon Musk's xAI for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act by using gas-burning turbines to power data centers in Memphis. Meanwhile, data center construction represents roughly 3 percent of US GDP growth, and electricity demands from AI facilities could increase as much as 165 percent by 2030. Krishnaswami notes that tech companies care more about speed than electricity prices, which gives policymakers power to charge premiums that fund clean energy or bill reductions. So far, that power is going unused.