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Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers
- shevy-java 6mo agoGood. But will RAM prices go down again? I don't want to pay 2.5x as much as I did ~2 years ago, for the same piece of hardware ...
- Imustaskforhelp 6mo agoThere are multiple factors at here which have now gone beyond datacenters. 1. Iran war has made the prices of both helium gas and energy to asian countries higher which is making ram production more expensive. 2. Samsung workers are in a protest (15 thousand workers) 3. Jevon's paradox (even after turboquant, we might be just scaling things up in demand perhaps) 4. Some providers have already signed up/locked up more expensive deals so there is a more baseline of higher
- Dylan16807 6mo agoDo you have numbers for helium? Sure I've seen it mentioned, but is it even 1% of production cost right now?
- piker 6mo agoSuch 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.
- seniorThrowaway 6mo agoDon't know why people think Texas doesn't have natural beauty. It's a huge state.
- piker 6mo agoYeah, sorry that wasn't intended as a slight to Texas. Texas just does have a lot of barren landscape where datacenters wouldn't offend as much. I modified it to make that clear. Also, energy is playing a role here.
- bastardoperator 6mo agoI've been watching a series on YT that is specifically about rural towns in Texas that are being abandoned or on the brink of total collapse. Much of it has to do with highways and routing around these communities decades ago. I don't know if a datacenter is the answer, but it has to be better then what looks like a post apocalyptic America.
- bombcar 6mo agoReviving Radiator Springs with a datacenter! The plot of Cars 4. Those small towns are often positioned such that even if you plopped a billion dollar datacenter on top of them, it wouldn't change much, as even with second and third order effects it's adding 100-200 total population.
- ryandrake 6mo agoIs that really the primary concern about datacenters? Their aesthetics? I thought the major problem with them was that they muscle in on valuable resources like water and electricity, consuming what would otherwise be used by people, and driving the prices up.
- nemomarx 6mo agoTaking up land is one of the resources they use - consider cutting down trees to clear space for a large one, or the habitats that might have been in that space. That's not really an aesthetic thing.
- jandrewrogers 6mo agoData centers use a lot of electricity but negligible water.
- alex43578 6mo ago[flagged]
- culi 6mo agoAnd abolishing ICE! Why should states be forced to host armies they don't agree with?
- tt24 6mo agoStrange that suddenly they don’t seem to like this concept so much anymore :) “I support the right of $state to ban $thing” Wait, not like that!
- culi 6mo agoStates don't have "rights", people do. I don't support any state's power to take away any human's rights. And bootlickers who do shouldn't have the chance to act out their fascistic fantasies
- alex43578 6mo agoIt's reasonable to believe that a blanket ban on data centers constitutes a regulatory taking, and therefore run afoul of people's property rights. A data center doesn't pose some unreasonable risk to the public interest to justify this degree of action.
- culi 6mo agoThis is far from a blanket ban.
- alex43578 6mo agoIt’s a ban on any DC over 20 megawatts, regardless of site or situation - that’s a blanket ban because there’s no exceptions or justifications for the ban to apply to every large DC, regardless of location. From what I can tell, case law on takings via this kind of regulation is “case by case”, without a clear test for when it crosses over the line into an unreasonable imposition on property rights.
- Acrobatic_Road 6mo agoThey sure have a right to enact policies that keep them economically & demographically irrelevant. https://cdn.xcancel.com/pic/orig/638FA4CD35438/media%2FF5jNtheXMAAJl7s.jpg https://cdn.xcancel.com/pic/orig/638FA4CD35438/media%2FF5jNt...
- bdangubic 6mo agoData Centers would have made them sooooooo rich, very silly policies indeed, they’d be swimming in money
- harimau777 6mo agoI 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.
- Acrobatic_Road 6mo agoThere's this thing called taxes...
- alphager 6mo agoThat 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.
- bdangubic 6mo agoI live in Northern VA, the world capital of data centers and can co-sign this. they bring absolutely nothing other than our electric bills have literally doubled in the last 24 or so months
- 6mo ago
- pj_mukh 6mo agoThis 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 <anything>. 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-removing-referendum-requirement-for-nuclear-plants-fails-early-test-in-maine-house https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2025-04-08/bill-removin... [2]: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/maine-voters-reject-quebec-hydropower-transmission-line-2021-11-03/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/maine-voters-reject-q... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_median_age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...
- culi 6mo agoIt's the opposite of NIMBY. It's smart thoughtful policy and it is NOT a simple ban. Nobody bothers to read passed the title but the main piece of this legislation is the creation of the Maine Data Center Coordination Council. Alongside it is a temporary (until Nov 2027) moratorium on data centers over 20 megawatts. This seems to be in place so they could establish a proper legal and environmental framework for building out data centers in the future. This is exactly the kind of approach to legislation we should all hope our local representatives are competent enough to do.
- pj_mukh 6mo agoAppointing a council of elders who will think through every imagined horror before approving a project (or a “framework”) is basically the textbook definition of NIMBY-ism. Every NIMBY thinks they’re being optimally thoughtful (tm), except the answer is always the same, two years of environment studies, followed by a loud resounding “No”. Why would they approve anything? They have no incentive to.
- 6mo ago
- mancerayder 6mo agoIsn't it cheaper to cool a datacenter in a more temperate/cool region than one that has a 9-month-long summer? Why would anyone want to go to Texas to build a datacenter and worry about the cooling, when they could pick any other state?
- stogot 6mo agoLong summers = tx actually has lots more Solar, but also biz friendly laws, biz friendly taxes, lots of corp HQ, cheap land, own power grid (for better or worse), cost of labor, etc.
- OkayPhysicist 6mo agoBecause the other big expense in a datacenter: electricity. Texas has really cheap electricity compared to the rest of the country, sitting at second cheapest after North Dakota.
- adamsb6 6mo agoMaine banning datacenter construction is is a bit like Texas banning lobster fishing.
- hammock 6mo agoNo because they have a big interconnect being built from Canada right now that people want to tap into
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- 9cb14c1ec0 6mo agoI live in Maine. Commercial power is crazy expensive. I don't know why you would build an AI datacenter here in the first place. As an obsessive self-hoster, I've researched building one, and there is no universe in which it makes sense. New Hampshire and Massachusetts are so nearby latency-wise.
- dpe82 6mo agoPower is not the most expensive part of data center lifetime cost; especially these days when you're filling them with several billion dollars of nvidia chips. It's still an important consideration of course, but not the only one.
- jeffbee 6mo agoI don't know if that's really true. Given realistic life cycles of equipment (~10 years, not 3 as commonly believed) the operating power is going to be 75-80% of the TCO, or more.
- jsnell 6mo agoI don't see how that number could possibly be realistic. A H100 cost 30k when new, and uses 500W of power. 500W for a year is about 4500kWh, which at $0.10/kWh is $450/year if run at full utilization (unrealistic). TCO of an AI data center should be entirely dominated by capex depreciation.
- _2d30 6mo agoIn fairness your calculation looks at the most expensive element of the DC but ignores all of the associated parts required to utilize the H100: CPU, memory, cooling, etc. No to say that that flips the calculation (I don't have the answer), but it does leave a lot of power out.
- dpe82 6mo agoLet's be generous and pretend the rest of the hardware is free but double the energy budget of the H100 to account for all of it along with cooling. You're still at only $1k/yr; $10k over 10 years, or 25% of the TCO (ignoring all other costs).
- gib444 6mo agoWill 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?
- 9cb14c1ec0 6mo agoThere are already no jobs, it is already a barren backwater as compared to most other states. Other than the tourism options, Maine doesn't have a lot going.
- SpicyLemonZest 6mo agoIf Maine passes this moratorium, and then starts accusing developers of malicious compliance for cancelling their projects instead of redesigning against the 20 megawatt limit, I'll definitely line up to make fun of them. My sense is that this isn't what's happening, and the Maine legislators understand and intend for this policy to discourage datacenter investment altogether.
- Acrobatic_Road 6mo agoWith low fertility and little reason for anyone to move there the northeast will turn into a barren backwater.
- blululu 6mo agoIf 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.
- gulfofamerica 6mo ago[dead]
- xnx 6mo agoDid any major data centers want to locate in Maine, or is this just an empty gesture?
- simlevesque 6mo agoEmpty ? Why call it that? It's proactive. Also it's naive to think they announce their intention to move somewhere. They try to cover it and never tell a soul until it's a done deal.
- tombert 6mo agoI think legislation like this is much more about making sure that they're never even considered by the big AI companies. OpenAI and Anthropic, when looking to build a new center, will see that there would be headaches trying to get a datacenter built, so they instead just focus on one of the other 49 states.
- culi 6mo agoI think they're playing it safe. Data centers are at their peak of their hype cycle and it totally makes sense for Maine to place a temporary moratorium (it expires Nov. 2027) on new centers until the industry is a bit more stable
- tacostakohashi 6mo agoThis is a big win for the progressive community. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/25/datacenters-bernie-sanders-aoc https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/25/datacenters-... Nice to see some success for their ideas.
- taormina 6mo agoIf they think this is progress, I call that a catastrophic failure. The other party has nearly started WW3, but let’s make sure that a state no one wanted a data center in can’t have one. Great strides for the progressive community. A single non-win.
- tacostakohashi 6mo agoThe progressive community is not about progress, it's about being progressive.
- chasd00 6mo agoWas Maine ever at risk of being overrun with data centers? Regardless, if the ban is what Maine voters want then more power to them.
- smarf 6mo ago> more power to them that seems to be the idea!
- rockemsockem 6mo agoExcept that's wrong because greater electricity demand stimulates greater investment and leads to lower prices.
- nemomarx 6mo agohttps://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678/ https://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers... It seems like that has pretty substantial time lag. Maybe require the ai companies to build power plants before they're allowed to build data centers in a certain region?
- rockemsockem 6mo agoSounds like a great idea
- dymk 6mo agoLike how demand for RAM and hard drives drove prices of those down, because of all that greater investment, right?
- rockemsockem 6mo agoYes. Are you actually being serious? Look at the last 60 years.
- lbarrow 6mo agoFor people who support this kind of ban, I'd ask if you would support a similar ban on new factories for, say, car parts. Like data centers, factories use a lot of power -- which drives up electricity bills -- and their construction can have local environmental impacts. Data centers have a reputation for not providing too many local jobs, but modern factories are often highly automated and also don't provide too many local jobs. If, given all that, you'd support factory construction but not data center construction, I'd be curious as to why.
- km3r 6mo agoWhy not just require factories /data centers invest in solar/wind/renewables to cover their power usage. Banning is so childish when there is easy solutions.
- swarnie 6mo agoImagine the additional space needed to power a scaled DC with solar. I think the number of people opposing the construction would increase when they release its half the county. But what's an extra 500 acres between friends.
- bloppe 6mo agoIt still makes more sense to directly regulate the thing that actually matters. People don't really care about the presence of a DC in their state. They care about the effect it might have on energy prices and potentially the effect it might have on public land use. You can always regulate the electricity market and public land use directly, instead of regulating the construction of data centers which is more of a second-order effect. These approaches might very well result in the same outcome: fewer DCs, but it leaves the details up to dynamic market forces.
- butvacuum 6mo agoHorrifically pessimistic numbers for PV (winter in maine with conversion efficencies half what they are now)... comes out to about a 50x50 mile square of panels to generate the entire USA's power demand from the most recent DOE numbers. Ignore that we can have wind, solar, and crops* in the same area. Turns out, btw, crops don't like high noon beating down on them. As a result we can reduce water usage and get nearly the same crop yield if part of the field is covered with panels- at least according to some studies.
- dwa3592 6mo agoI don't think a blanket (ban or acceptance) anything is a good approach for this issue.
- culi 6mo agoIt's far from a blanket ban. Nobody here reads passed the (admittedly, misleading) title It's a temporary moratorium (on data centers requiring over 20 megawatts) until 2027 to give them time to research and plan for how to do 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. This seems like smart and thoughtful policy and exactly the kind of stuff we should hope for from our elected officials.
- 6thbit 6mo agoSo what's the current data centers footprint in Maine? Does the move benefit companies with existing DCs whose competition can no longer establish a region there?
- didgetmaster 6mo agoHow long until the AI companies start charging more to people who use AI services, but live in areas that do things like this? NIMBY causes energy prices to go up in areas that won't allow drilling, refining, nuclear or nat gas development, or power lines. When will the same happen for things like AI services?
- yfw 6mo agoLol the corpos having too much power over consumers is because the local residents wont submit? You assume the company cant charge higher anyway out of the goodness of their hearts? This is what unregulated capitalism looks like with no govt oversight.
- bluGill 6mo agoAI results are generally easy to transport - just a few bytes over some fibre. Electric is harder to ship, there is only so much you can put in a wire (even high voltage DC). Widgets (car parts...) are even harder to ship and take longer which is why big things often get final assembly locally.
- Dylan16807 6mo agoThe most expensive AI stuff is the least latency sensitive. A coding agent could be on a different continent and you wouldn't really notice.
- recursive 6mo agoHonestly would be kind of cool if a locality actually had that much power. It could lead to an enclave of people who still value thinking for themselves. In practice I doubt bigcorps would turn down the customers.
- unclad5968 6mo agoWhy would anybody outside of tech care if the cost of AI goes up?
- dmitrygr 6mo agoThe people (through their elected representatives) have a right to do this. It is stupid, in my opinion, but they have every right to do so. If this is what they want, they should have it. Personally, I see little reason to ban new taxpayers with few-to-none negative externalities from moving into your state, but what do i know?
- mystraline 6mo agoOne 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 barriers are also of utmost importance too. We need more compute. Plain banning is not the way. Demanding highly ecological and conserving solutions is.
- yxhuvud 6mo agoFor cooling you can also use a heat exchanger and dump it into a river or an ocean or so.
- culi 6mo agoIt'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
- cosmic_cheese 6mo agoThis is a natural response to the excessive pushiness and underhandedness that's been used to build many of these new datacenters, often in direct conflict with the wishes of the locals. Maybe the firms paying to get them built should take a more diplomatic approach instead of trying to railroad projects through.
- ronsor 6mo agoIronically railroads almost always got their way in the past.
- marcosdumay 6mo agoRailroads were incredibly useful for the entire population.
- johnsimer 6mo agoAI is incredibly useful for the entire population
- marcosdumay 6mo agoIs that why the US's GDP is currently booming into infinity? Or is it only responsible for their unprecedented median standard of living?
- justonceokay 6mo agoYou don’t understand it hasn’t trickled down yet
- marcosdumay 6mo agoNew products do often spread from rich people into the general population. That's just irrelevant, because people react to what those things are today, not what they can hypothetically be in the future.
- cm2012 6mo agoThis has gotta be the dumbest issue in politics today. By far, the biggest use of data centers right now is on streaming Netflix and YouTube and stuff, but you don't see any protests about that.
- jeffbee 6mo ago[flagged]
- t1234s 6mo agoThe people that ban this are they types that think the internet comes from their phone or electricity comes from the wall outlet.
- WarmWash 6mo agoIf it meant that residents couldn't use AI, then the bill would be certainly dead. Given that, the bill is just for show, and not actually serious.
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoWhat does this have with the use of AI? You can use the services of data centers thousands of miles away.
- WarmWash 6mo agoThat's why we ship our "recycling" to the third world. Enjoy the upsides while exporting the downsides to someone else. My comment is a statement on hypocrisy, and how if people had to bear the full cost of their decisions, they would decide differently. Maine is codifying this hypocrisy for shallow minded political points.
- unethical_ban 6mo agoI shouldn't drive a car if I don't want an oil derrick in my backyard.
- WarmWash 6mo agoDon't worry, atmospheric warming will do you in the same.
- josefritzishere 6mo agoIn terms of square footage there are few "businesses" which consume more resources (water, power, tax credits) and produce less onging local employment. More states and municipalities are going to do this, and rightly so.
- BlueRock-Jake 6mo agoI feel like this is always the case with new technology. People had the same reaction to the invention of the printing press. New is scary. It doesn't mean there aren't valid concerns, but unfortunately this feels a bit like an inevitability. The focus shouldn't be on stopping it, but how to maximize the gains and minimize the losses to the local communities where these are being built.
- franklinter 6mo agoYes but totally insane that so many on this site seem to approve such a ban.
- Eji1700 6mo agoYou're not doing your side any favors by using the printing press of all things as your comparison. People very legitimately don't want things like fracking in their area even IF it brings a boatload of jobs due to the costs on communities. Datacenters might not be as potentially destructive, but they're also a massive net negative for the community in many real world ways. If you want them to "maximize gains", then the answer is "tax them more" which, shockingly, turns into a functional ban because somewhere else is taxing them less.
- will4274 6mo ago> Datacenters might not be as potentially destructive, but they're also a massive net negative for the community in many real world ways No they aren't. Datacenters are air conditioned buildings that consume a moderate amount of power and generate a moderate amount of tax revenue through a small number of middle class jobs. They use a negligible amount of water compared to golf and farming and produce a negligible amount of heat compared to cars.
- hackable_sand 6mo agoWhy is consent so scary to you guys?
- lotsofpulp 6mo ago
- mlsu 6mo agoThis 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 many jobs as a car parts factory, so it's silly to ban the one and not the other when you can just as easily examine the externalities of the datacenter and blah blah blah" But you will be missing the point, which is that people see building car parts as a solid, upstanding thing which has tangible and direct benefits to people; whereas building an AI datacenter means allowing some rich California surveillance czar to suck the water and power from your local community so that they can steal your job, fracture your community, and impoverish your family. One is good and one is bad and the voter's choice is to do the good thing and not the bad thing. Even if car parts factories pollute more than datacenters do.
- culi 6mo agoFFS 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.
- pb7 6mo ago[flagged]
- givemeethekeys 6mo agoWhy not mandate that all data centers must be completely off the grid instead?
- unethical_ban 6mo agoSo they install noisy, loud fossil fuel generators that pollute the surrounding area.
- givemeethekeys 6mo agoThat certainly is one way to do it, but I'm certain not the only one.
- culi 6mo agoMaybe 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.
- joshfraser 6mo agodata centers drive up the cost of power. basic supply and demand. instead of blocking data centers, we need to scale up energy production. the solution is to get rid of all the red tape that makes it so impossible to build in America. quality of life metrics are highly correlated to the availability of energy.
- chris_va 6mo agoThe actual language (I think): https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0207&item=2&snum=132 https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=H... It explains the intent (to protect consumers/grid from price changes and fluctuation), and bans 20MW+ loads. They forgot to define load, so a behind-the-meter datacenter (zero net load on the grid) still would likely not get permitted even though it does not violate the intent of the law, which is a bit odd.
- culi 6mo agoThe moratorium is also only until Nov 2027. I think the moratorium is a small part of this bill. I think the most important part is the creation of the Maine Data Center Coordination Council. The title on this very partisan site is quite misleading.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- n1tro_lab 6mo ago[dead]
- anon291 6mo ago[flagged]
- midtake 6mo agoBan all data centers until they run off SMRs. Then you'll see nuclear take off like a rocket.
- djoldman 6mo agoFrom the bill text establishing a council to figure it out: > The council shall evaluate issues related to data centers located or proposed to be located in the State, with the goals of protecting ratepayers, maintaining electric grid reliability, minimizing environmental impacts and enabling responsible and appropriately sited economic development. https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0207&item=2&snum=132 https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=H...
- unethical_ban 6mo agoHate to sound all California, but some restrictions on datacenters and similar power/water users seem reasonable. Datacenters in particular vs. factories because of the nature of datacenter inputs and outputs. --- Will the DC cover the costs of its own expanded power generation needs? Are residential and small business users protected? Can the water system handle the increased usage in a given area? What physical discharges are created? Waste heat air, waste heat water, etc? What kind of noise will be generated? Are there limits on use of onsite fossil fuel power generation?
- JuniperMesos 6mo ago> The bill gained traction after residents in Wiscasset and Lewiston successfully opposed data center proposals over water usage and safety concerns. "Water usage" and especially "safety" are bullshit arguments against building new data centers - in particular the idea that data centers use a lot of water was popularized by the freelance prestige journalist Karen Hao, who got a lot of her facts egregiouly, sloppily wrong in her reporting about AI data centers. This is either retarded environmentalism unconcerned with facts; or the actual motivation to prevent data center construction is some kind of more nebulous distrust of big tech or AI companies or concern that AI will take people's jobs.
- khana 6mo ago[dead]
- dyauspitr 6mo agoWhy? Why are progressive being regressive about this? What exactly is so wrong with data centers? They use electricity? Then just demand more power plants not some NIMBY bullshit that will just result in data centers being made in other countries. It’s not like they’re polluting anything. What exactly is so terrible about servers running quietly in a building.
- adolph 6mo agoSeems like a reasonable temporary measure for a state with poor infrastructure. ...temporarily blocking permits for any new data center requiring more than 20 megawatts. The measure runs until November 2027, buying time for a new Data Center Coordination Council to study how these facilities strain Maine’s aging electrical grid.
- goofy_lemur 6mo agoMaybe a better solution is to require them to be built with 100% renewable electricity or something?
- mapotofu 6mo agoI keep seeing people mention NIMBY. Maine is NOT California. For Mainers, Maine IS the backyard. They also have explicit laws saying you can break into someone’s cabin if they aren’t there and your life depends on it, and laws against billboards. They live life differently than you and the parallels are not there. Most people there seriously don’t give a shit about AI. They care about maintaining the peace, quiet, and purity of their land. Because they enjoy it. Many of you miss the perspective because you’ve never been there.
- perrygeo 6mo agoI understand the resistance to data centers. They have local environmental impacts, raise energy prices, and generally funnel wealth away from the area. But that's not inherit - it's the result of policies and subsidies. Instead of banning, why not put the REAL price tag on it? Require local employment. Stop subsidizing infrastructure. Start taxing them. If a data center came in and provided jobs, paid their own way without handouts, and lowered electricity costs, it might be a different story. It's not data centers per se. It's the crony capitalism that subsidizes them and lets them extract wealth without oversight. Regulate it properly and the negative characteristics go away. And yes, putting the actual price tag on it might scare away most investors - an effective ban. But that's the market working efficiently on price signals.