Overview
- Texas lawmakers describe plans to study or pause new projects as they field rural concerns about water, power, and noise, while Republicans there cite a White House push for a national AI standard with a ratepayer protection pledge.
- Maine’s Legislature passed a statewide pause on new data centers, but Governor Janet Mills vetoed it, and in Washington Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a national moratorium with Missouri’s Josh Hawley introducing a similar bill.
- Local resistance has turned sharply bipartisan, with residents from Michigan to Wisconsin warning about higher electric bills, heavy water use, and few lasting jobs, and a Wisconsin poll finding 70% say the downsides outweigh the benefits.
- The build timeline is out of sync as data centers can rise in about two years while grid upgrades often take five to ten, and Northern Virginia’s 2024 voltage jolt forced about 60 facilities offline in a sign of mounting strain.
- Analysts say data centers drew roughly 4% to 6% of U.S. power last year and could approach double digits by 2028–2030, fueling debates over who pays for new wires and substations and warnings that slow grid growth could hand AI advantages to countries that can expand power faster.