Technology

Maine governor vetoes statewide pause in new data centers

Comments:

by Miranda Nazzaro - 04/24/26 5:56 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Miranda Nazzaro - 04/24/26 5:56 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced Friday she has vetoed legislation that would have banned the development of large-scale data centers in the state for the next year-and-a-half, issuing a blow to the local anti-data center push growing across America.

Mills, who is running for the U.S. Senate, wrote in a letter Friday to the Maine Legislature that she supports a temporary moratorium on data center projects, but she took issue with the bill because it didn’t have an exception for a $550 million data center project already underway in the town of Jay.

The governor previously requested an exception for the defunct paper mill site but was rejected by state legislators.

“A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates. But the final version of this bill fails to allow for a specific project in the Town of Jay that enjoys strong local support from its host community and region,” Mills wrote. “The 2023 closure of the Androscoggin Mill dealt a devastating blow to the Town of Jay and its surrounding area.”

The legislation, which passed earlier this month, was the first of its kind to make it through a state legislature in the U.S. Backlash over data centers has grown in the past year over the impacts of the infrastructure on consumers’ electricity bills and the environment.

While the push for data centers initially had bipartisan support amid the race for artificial intelligence development, sentiment has since soured.

Explaining her decision, Mills said the town of Jay worked on the project for two years to “finally bring jobs and investment back to the mill site.” Upon the mill’s closure in 2023, hundreds of jobs were eliminated, and town leaders and county commissioners have voiced their support of the project to Mills, the governor’s office said.

Mills said she will issue an executive order to establish a council to probe the impact of data centers in Maine. The governor previously signed another bill to ban data center projects from Maine’s business development tax incentive programs.

The Data Center Coalition, an advocacy group for the data center industry, touted Mills’s decision in a statement shared with The Hill.

“Enacting a statewide moratorium on data centers would have discouraged investment and sent a signal that Maine is closed for business — both for data centers and economic development projects involving other industries,” Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the coalition, said in a statement. “Critically, it would have denied local communities the opportunity to compete for investment and jobs involving data center projects they found suitable.”

“A statewide moratorium would also have forced Maine to relinquish significant long-term economic investment, high-wage jobs, and critical tax revenue to neighboring states — making life less affordable for Mainers in the process,” Diorio added.

At least a dozen other states are considering temporary bans on data center projects.

Sarah Davis contributed.

Add as preferred source on Google