Maine pushes for America's first bill to suspend data center construction as concerns over electricity prices and water usage intensify

Maine is pushing a piece of legislation that would put large data center project development on hold, which would make it the first state in the U.S. to issue a statewide “pause order” of this kind.

The Maine House of Representatives passed a bill last month that would pause the approval of data center projects with installed capacity exceeding 20 megawatts, until November 2027.

At present, the state Senate is reviewing this proposed pause order. Democratic Governor Janet Mills has said she supports it, but wants to make some changes. The bill would also establish a state-level commission to assess the economic opportunities brought by data centers, as well as risks to power users, grid reliability, and the environment.

Maine Governor and Democratic U.S. senator candidate Janet Mills.

The industry group, the Associated Builders and Contractors of America, says this would be the first statewide data center construction pause order in the nation. As concerns rise that data centers could drive up energy prices and squeeze water supplies, opposition voices are also growing. Democrats are seizing on this issue to strengthen their “affordability” message in the midterm elections in November; meanwhile, some Republicans are also wary of the rapid, explosive growth of data centers.

According to Data Center Map, Maine currently has only 9 data centers. By comparison, Virginia has nearly 600, Texas has more than 400, and Georgia has more than 200. But since land costs in Maine are relatively low and water resources are abundant, it could be attractive to developers going forward.

Maine’s electricity rates are already among the highest in the U.S. Supporters of the pause hope to prevent consumers from shouldering additional burdens. Lawmakers are also concerned that data centers in the future could put pressure on water supply.

An analysis found that in areas where large data center activities are concentrated, monthly electricity bills could increase by as much as 267% compared with five years ago. A report released in January by water technology company Xylem and research organization Global Water Intelligence estimates that by 2050, construction related to artificial intelligence will add a water demand of 300 trillion liters per year. Thanks to advances in cooling technology, the incremental water demand directly contributed by data centers accounts for only about 4%; most of the growth in water demand will come from semiconductor factories and power generation facilities.

大量资讯、精准解读，尽在新浪财经APP

责任编辑：刘明亮