Maine Governor Janet Mills Vetoes Data Center Moratorium to Protect $550 Million Jay Project
Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed legislation on Friday that would have established the nation's first statewide moratorium on data center construction, blocking a measure that had won support from lawmakers concerned about the technology's environmental and economic impacts. Though Mills expressed broad support for a temporary pause on new data centers, she declined to sign the bill because it failed to exempt a major $550 million redevelopment project in the economically struggling town of Jay.
The vetoed legislation, known as L.D. 307, would have paused data center construction until November 2027 while the state examined the impacts of these facilities. In her veto letter, Mills acknowledged the legitimate concerns driving the bill, noting that data centers have created significant problems in other states by driving up electricity prices and straining environmental resources. However, she emphasized that the blanket moratorium conflicted with a critical local priority: revitalizing Jay, a community devastated by the 2023 closure of the Androscoggin Mill, a manufacturing facility that had anchored the town's economy for generations.
"After prior redevelopment efforts failed, the Town of Jay worked for two years on a $550 million data center redevelopment project to finally bring jobs and investment back to the mill site," Mills explained in her statement to the legislature. She stressed that the project enjoys strong local support from both the host community and the broader region, making it incompatible with a complete prohibition on data center development.
Rather than accepting the moratorium as written, Mills announced a multifaceted alternative approach. She committed to issuing an executive order establishing a council to study the potential impacts of large-scale data centers in Maine as artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across the country. "I believe it necessary and important to examine and plan for the potential impacts of large-scale data centers in Maine," she wrote, emphasizing that this examination should begin immediately given ongoing national conversations about the technology's consequences.
Mills also signed a separate measure, L.D. 713, that takes a more targeted approach to regulating data centers by prohibiting them from accessing Maine's business development tax incentive programs. This action addresses concerns about using public subsidies to attract data center projects while stopping short of a complete construction freeze.