Maine Governor Janet Mills just vetoed a bill that would ban all new data center projects in the state. This moratorium applies to all data centers that exceed 20MW of consumption and would have halted all approvals until October 2027, while a state council studies their impact on the local power and water supply, as well as their effect on surrounding air quality. According to Bangor Daily News, the governor said she supported the temporary moratorium on this power-hungry infrastructure if the legislature exempted a site that’s already under construction in Jay, a town in Franklin County that sits around 60 miles north of Portland.
“A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates,” the Democrat governor said in a statement. “But the final version of this bill fails to allow for a specific project in [Jay] that enjoys strong local support from its host community and region.”
