Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) vetoed a bill on April 24 that would have suspended construction of new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in her state.
The landmark legislation that was rejected would have banned data centers larger than 20 megawatts until November 2027.
Mills supported the concept of a moratorium, but criticized how the final legislation was written inside of the bill, titled An Act to Establish the Maine Data Center Coordination Council and Place a Temporary Limitation on Certain Data Centers.
“A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates,” the Democratic governor wrote in a press release that explained her decision. “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 highlighted that Jay—a small town in the southwest part of the state—had struggled to bring jobs to the area after the closure of the Androscoggin Mill, which provided hundreds of jobs before it shut its doors permanently in 2023.
“As a long-time resident of Franklin County, I know well how critical the mill was to generations of working families, and how important it is—and how challenging it has been—to promote reinvestment and job-creation at the former mill which is a brownfield site,” Mills added.
The governor noted that the town worked for two years to bring the $550 million data center to the area for a redevelopment project that would bring back jobs to the community.
“This project—which is now under contract and which has received several permits—is expected to create more than 800 construction jobs, at least 100 high-paying permanent jobs, and would contribute substantial property tax revenue to the Town of Jay,” Mills added.
The governor said she planned on issuing an executive order that would establish a council to investigate the impact of data centers in Maine, as proposed in the bill.
Melanie Sachs, a Democratic state representative who sponsored the bill, called the governor’s decision to veto the data center moratorium “simply wrong.”
“Since I brought this bill forward, the Legislature has heard from thousands of people in communities across Maine who are concerned about energy affordability and have asked us to take action and temporarily pause these projects,” Sachs wrote in a statement.
Sachs said Mills ignored the advice of an AI task force established by the governor herself and is “resisting the will of a majority of Maine people.”