Big premiere in the United States: Maine votes for a moratorium on giant data centers

The idea, notably championed by Bernie Sanders, emerged at the end of 2025 and is now the subject of concrete projects in several states.

The state of Maine became the first American state to vote on a moratorium on the construction of large data centers on Tuesday, April 15, a unprecedented measure driven by the surge in electricity prices and environmental concerns raised by the boom in AI-related infrastructure projects.

For the measure to take effect, the text adopted on Tuesday by the state’s lawmakers must still be enacted by the Democratic governor, Janet Mills. Supportive of the moratorium principle, she had requested an exemption for a specific project but was not followed by the legislators on this point. Whether or not the text is enacted, its adoption by the local legislative power sends an initial signal for 11 other states whose lawmakers are considering similar texts, illustrating the growing political opposition in the country to infrastructure projects led by tech giants. According to the NGO Good Jobs First, the other states affected are Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

In the United States, the idea of moratoriums on data centers gained traction at the end of 2025, notably championed by Vermont senator and Democratic figurehead Bernie Sanders.

Construction expenses for data centers in the United States have multiplied in two years, with projections for 2025 exceeding $60 billion compared to less than $7 billion in 2023, as reported by the professional data platform ConstructConnect in January.

The law passed in Maine prohibits local authorities, until the fall of 2027, from issuing permits for data centers with an electrical capacity exceeding 20 megawatts, a threshold corresponding to large-scale infrastructures built by Silicon Valley giants to keep up with their rush towards AI. The text also establishes a coordination council responsible for assessing the effects of these installations on the electrical network, the environment, and residents’ bills before any potential lifting of the moratorium.

Maine is one of the states with one of the highest increases in residential electricity rates in recent years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). In two cities in the state, data center projects were rejected at the end of 2025 by officials who accused the developers of concealing the extent of their water and electricity consumption, according to local press reports.

Ireland has just lifted a 4-year moratorium.

Governor Janet Mills, on the other hand, demanded an exemption for a project to convert an old paper mill, amounting to an investment of about $550 million. Janet Mills has ten days to sign the promulgation, veto it, or let the text take effect without her signature.

Elsewhere in the world, a precedent has been observed on the other side of the Atlantic.

Ireland implemented a moratorium on the construction of new data centers in the Dublin region starting in 2021, due to pressure on the EirGrid electricity grid from the new installations. This moratorium was lifted in early 2026, accompanied by strengthened regulatory framework.