State-Level Tech Regulation

Maine's Legislature this month approved what lawmakers and advocates are calling the nation's first statewide moratorium on large AI-focused data centers, pausing new construction of high-consumption facilities while the state studies their impacts. The action, taken in Augusta, aims to give regulators time to assess effects on electricity costs, water supplies, and local communities before allowing hyperscale projects to move forward; Governor Janet Mills has pushed for carve-outs to preserve some economic development opportunities even as the pause was enacted.