On September 8, Massachusetts became the third state in three months to tell data centers the party is over.
Governor Maura Healey signed an executive order: any data center bigger than 25 megawatts must bring its own clean power, fund new clean generation nearby, or pay into a Ratepayer Protection Fund.
How big is 25 megawatts
A 25-megawatt data center uses enough electricity to power roughly twenty thousand homes. Continuously. For AI training and cloud services that never sleep.
Massachusetts already requires all industry to use some clean energy — 40% by 2030, rising over time. But Healey's office clarified data centers must hit one hundred percent clean energy from day one.
Towns get veto power
The order also requires local approval before state permits. A town can now kill a project before it reaches Boston. And developers can't hide deals behind non-disclosure agreements anymore.
Massachusetts joins Texas and New York. All three moved in the last ninety days. The backlash is bipartisan and spreading fast.
The bill was quietly climbing
Just a few years ago, states competed to attract data centers with tax incentives and cheap grid access. Tech companies plugged in. The bill landed on everyone else.
Now voters are noticing. Politicians are responding. If you want to pull a small city's worth of electricity twenty-four seven to train the next ChatGPT, you fund the solar farm yourself.
Massachusetts set the fee amount by December 31. Until then, developers negotiate against a blank check.