Three states moved on data centers — the warehouse-sized server buildings that power AI and cloud services — in three different directions today. Maine's legislature came up short on a vote to pause new data centers across the state. Volunteers across Ohio are gathering signatures for a similar ban they want on the November ballot, written into the state constitution. And in Virginia, Brookfield — one of the world's largest investment firms — walked away from a planned data-center project. It's the first big developer to back out of a Virginia project this year.
The Maine House voted 72-65 Wednesday to override Gov. Janet Mills's veto of LD 307, short of the two-thirds majority an override requires. Had it passed, Maine would have become the first state in the country to put a temporary halt on new large data centers — anything bigger than 20 megawatts (roughly the electricity 16,000 homes use) — through November 2027, while a state council figured out how to regulate the industry. Mills signed an executive order the same day creating that council on her own terms, and told the state's energy department to look for ways to keep data-center power costs from being passed on to ordinary customers.
Bill sponsor Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport), before the vote: "This is not about being anti-development. It is about being pro-accountability. If a project is going to reshape our energy grid, impact our natural resources and potentially cost shift to ratepayers across the state then it must meet a high bar of transparency and proof."
Rep. Daniel Ankeles (D-Brunswick), at the close of debate: "This is not over."
Source: Maine Morning Star via States Newsroom.
A group of southern Ohio residents is gathering signatures for a state constitutional amendment that would block any new data center bigger than 25 megawatts — roughly the electricity 20,000 homes use. To make the November ballot, they need 413,000 valid signatures from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties by July 1. They're doing it entirely with volunteers, which makes the deadline tight: a 2024 ballot initiative on redistricting hit a similar threshold but had paid signature-gatherers behind it.
Austin Baurichter, a Brown County resident on the petition team: "I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think it was a doable task." Nikki Gerber of Adams County, also on the team: "I feel completely confident that we're going to get enough signatures."
For context: Ohio already has roughly 200 data centers — the fifth-most of any state — with 26 in Cincinnati and 23 in Cleveland. A single large data center can use as much electricity as 100,000 homes and up to 5 million gallons of water a day for cooling, according to the Office of Ohio Consumers' Counsel. The Ohio House has separately passed a bill to study the industry's impact, now in the state Senate.
Source: Megan Henry / Ohio Capital Journal via States Newsroom.
Three Virginia developments landed in the same news cycle. First, Bloomberg reported (picked up by the Virginia Mercury) that Brookfield — one of the world's largest investment firms — has pulled out of a major Virginia data-center project. It's the first big developer to back out this year. Two other states have seen similar walk-aways recently: Florida (a $13.5 billion project in St. Lucie County, withdrawn in February after public backlash) and Iowa (a $300 million wind project blocked by a county ordinance, upheld by the state supreme court last week).
Second, a new state law signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger directs Virginia regulators to look into how the state's biggest utilities calculate future electricity demand. The order responds to testimony from Google and other data-center companies that Virginia's largest utility, Dominion Energy, is letting speculative projects clog up the line for grid connections. The waiting list now totals 25,000 megawatts of approved projects plus another 75,000 megawatts with no scheduled connection date — far more electricity than the entire state of Virginia currently uses at peak.
Third, the Virginia House budget would tighten the state's data-center sales-tax break — a 5.6% exemption that costs Virginia an average $1.6 billion a year in lost revenue. Starting in July 2027, data centers would only qualify if they don't share a site with fossil-fuel power plants, buy renewable-energy credits, and use clean backup generators. Del. Rip Sullivan (D-Fairfax), whose bill supplied much of the language: "It preserves the tax exemption while creating an incentive for the industry to become part of the solution to the challenges its growth in Virginia have caused for our communities and our grid."
Source: Charlotte Rene Woods / Virginia Mercury via States Newsroom; Bloomberg, picked up by Virginia Mercury Morning Headlines.
FirstEnergy — the utility that delivers electricity to most of northern and northeastern Ohio through Ohio Edison, the Illuminating Co., and Toledo Edison — plans to ask state regulators on May 22 for three years of annual rate increases. Average residential customers would pay an extra $4.26 to $5.30 a month each year, depending on which company serves them, starting in 2027 and continuing through 2030. By the third year, monthly bills would be roughly $13–16 above current rates.
It's the first major rate-increase request filed under HB 15, the law Gov. Mike DeWine signed last year that lets utilities ask for several years of increases at once instead of going back to regulators each year.
Torrence Hinton, FirstEnergy Ohio president, in a company statement: "Our [three-year rate plan] is about careful and balanced planning. We're focused on upgrading the electric system customers rely on every day, and we know affordability matters."
The May 22 filing will be the first test of how the state's Public Utilities Commission handles HB 15, and it will draw pushback from groups that represent residential customers (the Ohio Consumers' Counsel) and large industrial users.
Source: Patrick Williams / Akron Beacon Journal, printed in Alliance Review.
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