Maine's legislature voted on April 14 to pass LD 307, a moratorium that bars the state, local governments, and quasi-governmental agencies from issuing permits for data centers drawing 20 megawatts or more of electricity. The ban runs through November 2027. The House passed the measure 79-62, and the Senate followed at 21-13.
No other US state has enacted a binding restriction like this. At least 12 others, including New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, have introduced similar moratorium bills in 2026. Maine is the first to push one through both chambers.
20 Megawatts Is a Low Bar
The 20-megawatt threshold catches more than hyperscale AI facilities. A single Bitcoin mining operation typically draws between 20 and 100 megawatts, depending on its fleet size. Marathon Digital's largest site in Texas draws over 200 MW. Even a mid-tier mining facility with a few thousand ASICs crosses the 20 MW line.
The moratorium does not specifically target crypto mining. Its language covers any data center, whether it runs AI training workloads, cloud computing, or SHA-256 hashes. But the practical effect is the same: if you need 20 MW or more, Maine will not issue you a construction permit until at least November 2027.
Dynamics 2K, a Colorado-based company that set up a Bitcoin mining operation in Lewiston, Maine, drew local attention in early 2026 for its power consumption. A proposed $550 million data center at the former Androscoggin Mill site in Jay would also be blocked. The developer told the Portland Press Herald that a pause of this length would effectively kill the project.
Electricity Bills Drove the Vote
Maine residents pay roughly 24 cents per kilowatt-hour, well above the national average of about 17 cents. That number has been climbing, and the state's power grid infrastructure is aging. Lawmakers pointed directly to constituent complaints about monthly electricity bills running into the hundreds of dollars.
The argument that carried the vote was straightforward: if Maine's grid is already strained and expensive, permitting facilities that consume as much power as 15,000 to 20,000 homes would make it worse. The moratorium buys time to study the problem, not solve it.
LD 307 also creates the Maine Data Center Coordination Council, tasked with evaluating the economic opportunities and energy impacts of data center development during the pause. The council is supposed to produce policy recommendations before the moratorium expires.
Gov. Mills Has Not Signed Yet
Governor Janet Mills has expressed concerns about the bill's breadth. She pushed for exemptions for projects already in the planning pipeline, but the legislature did not include them. Mills has not committed to signing or vetoing LD 307 as of April 15, 2026.
If she signs it, the moratorium takes effect immediately. If she vetoes it, the 79-62 and 21-13 margins are close to, but may not reach, the two-thirds majority needed for an override in both chambers.
The Domino Effect Is Already Moving
Maine's vote did not happen in isolation. At least 12 states have filed their own data center moratorium or restriction bills in 2026, according to Good Jobs First. Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin all have active proposals in various stages.
Bangor, Maine, separately passed its own 180-day moratorium on data center development on April 14, adding a local layer on top of the state-level ban.
The federal government has taken a different approach. In March, President Trump got Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI to sign the voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge, committing to fund their own power generation for AI data centers. Senators Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation that would codify similar requirements nationwide.
The gap between the federal strategy (voluntary pledges, tech companies self-financing) and the state strategy (outright bans) is widening. For Bitcoin miners, the state-level approach is the one with teeth.
What This Means for Mining Economics
Bitcoin mining companies have spent the past two years diversifying into AI hosting precisely because it pays better per megawatt. Riot Platforms, Bitdeer, and MARA Holdings have all announced AI data center conversions or expansions. Maine's moratorium does not distinguish between a rack of GPUs running inference and a rack of ASICs running proof-of-work. Both get the same answer: no.
US-based miners collectively operate more than 4 gigawatts of capacity, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. If the moratorium model spreads to states with active mining operations, like Texas, Georgia, or New York, the hashrate migration could accelerate toward jurisdictions with cheaper power and fewer restrictions: Paraguay, Kazakhstan, and parts of Scandinavia.
The immediate impact on Bitcoin's network is minimal. Maine is not a major mining hub. But the signal matters: a state legislature voted, with binding legal force, to block the category of facility that mining requires. Twelve more are considering the same move.
Overview
Maine passed LD 307 on April 14, 2026, becoming the first US state to enact a binding moratorium on data centers drawing 20 megawatts or more. The ban runs through November 2027. The House voted 79-62, the Senate 21-13. Governor Mills has not yet signed the bill. Bitcoin mining operations, which typically draw 20 to 100+ MW, fall squarely within the threshold. At least 12 other states have introduced similar moratorium bills in 2026, and Bangor passed its own local ban the same day. The moratorium does not affect existing facilities.
