One other state-level effort to ban new data center development simply failed, this time in Maine.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday vetoed a invoice that might have put a pause on data centers within the state till late 2027. Mills stated she helps a moratorium on information middle initiatives however that the invoice, which handed the state Home and Senate his month, didn’t embrace an exemption for a venture already underway.
“A moratorium is acceptable given the impacts of large information facilities in different states on the atmosphere and on electrical energy charges,” Mills stated in a letter to the state legislature. “However the last model of this invoice fails to permit for a selected venture within the City of Jay that enjoys robust native assist from its host neighborhood and area.”
An announcement shared by her workplace stated the $550 million information middle redevelopment venture was wanted in Jay, the place a paper mill closure in 2023 “eradicated a whole bunch of good-paying jobs and dealt a major blow to the native economic system.”
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The governor stated she would have signed the invoice had there been a carve-out for the venture, which she stated is predicted to create over 800 development jobs and not less than 100 high-paying everlasting jobs along with producing property tax income.
Mills, a Democrat who’s operating for US Senate in 2026, stated she plans to difficulty an government order to create a council to have a look at the influence of information facilities in Maine.
“I imagine it needed and essential to look at and plan for the potential impacts of large-scale information facilities in Maine, as using synthetic intelligence turns into extra widespread,” she stated.
Lawmakers in not less than 11 different states have additionally tried and didn’t go laws that might briefly ban new data center development, Enterprise Insider beforehand reported.
The info middle increase, fueled by Huge Tech’s AI ambitions, has sparked pockets of native resistance throughout the US amid issues about vitality consumption and influence on vitality prices in addition to the atmosphere.
A Business Insider investigation discovered Maine had two information facilities within the state as of final yr.
