Mills has pushed for an exemption defending a proposed $550 million undertaking on the former Androscoggin paper mill in Jay, arguing it might reuse current infrastructure with out straining the grid. Lawmakers rejected that exemption.
Mills’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A nationwide wave, an unanswered federal query
Maine is one in all not less than 12 states now weighing moratorium or restraint laws, alongside greater than 300 knowledge heart payments filed throughout 30-plus states within the present session, in accordance with legislative monitoring agency MultiState. The shared concern is vitality price. Knowledge facilities might eat as much as 12% of whole US electrical energy by 2028, in accordance with the US Division of Vitality.
On March 25, Senator Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launched the AI Data Center Moratorium Act in Congress, which might impose a nationwide freeze on all new knowledge heart development till Congress passes AI security laws.
The Trump administration has pursued a unique path from the legislative method being taken in states. On March 4, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed the White Home’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a voluntary dedication by hyperscalers to fund their very own energy technology quite than go grid prices to ratepayers.
The pledge, printed within the Federal Register on March 9, carries no penalties for noncompliance or auditing necessities.
