The Maine legislature this week passed a statewide ban on the development of certain datacenters for the next months.

The legislation bars data centers using more than 20 megawatts of power, according to The Hill. It comes amid growing backlash to the development of such facilities over concerns about their effects on local energy costs and the environment.

Data centers have become contentious in recent years, largely due to their perceived impact on energy costs. Polling data has shown broad support for requiring data centers to produce their own energy, independent of local grids, as a countermeasure.

A recent study from the Institute for Energy Research (IER), however, has suggested that those concerns may be overblown, after it found no statistically significant correlation between data centers and rising costs.

Gov. Janet Mills, D- Maine, has yet to sign the legislation into law.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.