Maine Gov. Mills Vetoes Data Center Moratorium Bill

Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed legislation Friday that would have imposed the nation's first statewide moratorium on permits for large data centers, blocking approvals for facilities requiring 20 megawatts or more of power until November 1, 2027.

The bill, LD 307, had passed both chambers of the Democrat-controlled legislature earlier in April with bipartisan support. It also called for creating a 13-member council to evaluate data centers' effects on infrastructure, energy costs, and the environment. Mills, a Democrat, acknowledged concerns over the facilities' impacts, citing rising electricity rates and environmental strain seen in states like Virginia. "A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates," she wrote in her veto message. However, she objected that the measure failed to exempt a $550 million data center redevelopment at the former Androscoggin Mill site in Jay, a Franklin County town hit hard by the mill's 2023 closure.

That shutdown eliminated hundreds of jobs and left the site as a brownfield after earlier redevelopment attempts failed. Local officials, including those from Jay,...