Last week, Maine legislators passed a first-in-the-nation moratorium on new data center construction. Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat running in the primary for the U.S. Senate, has said that she is undecided about whether to sign the bill because there is not a carveout for a particular data center she wants.
If Mills recognizes that a data center would be good for the struggling town of Jay, Maine, then why does she want to foreclose the same opportunity to other localities?
The bill, LD 307, sets a temporary moratorium—through late 2027—on data centers over a 20 megawatt (MW) load. That is a low bar for most data centers, as Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation director Gabriella Hoffman explained in a recent Policy Focus, colocation data centers tend to range between 5 and 50 MW of electricity. Hyperscale data centers, which are the data centers for AI that legislators are presumably most concerned about, draw 100 MW or more of power. The bill casts a wide net that will affect far more than just artificial intelligence (AI) and could impede relatively commonplace internet and business operations.
In the meantime, the state would create a 13-member Data Center Coordination Council to examine the environmental impacts, ratepayer impacts, data sharing requirements, and issue recommendations. The council would have representatives from investor-owned utilities, environmental advocacy organizations, and a labor organization, but no representatives from the industry whatsoever.
Mills told NBC News that “It’s on my desk. I’m going to read it. Read it very carefully,” but that she had “already expressed publicly concerns for the project that’s proposed in Jay, Maine, which has lost actually two paper mills in that community in the last couple years.” The proposed $550 million project on the former Pixelle paper mill site would, per the developer, use less than 1% of the water the mill previously used, require no ratepayer-funded grid upgrades, and create roughly 125 to 150 permanent jobs. For a town of 5,000 that lost its largest employer, that could be a lifeline.
There’s nothing so permanent as a temporary moratorium. Look to the experience of states that have banned new nuclear construction. Minnesota enacted a nuclear moratorium in 1994 as a supposedly provisional measure, but after three decades, repeal efforts are still underway. Pausing to “get it right,” as advocacy groups are pushing in Maine, risks cementing a ban that will outlive its rationale.
The right answer to rising AI demand is more firm, reliable generation, not bans on customers willing to pay for it. Just last month, Maine joined a six-state bipartisan compact to explore advanced nuclear power. Data centers are exactly the kind of creditworthy, high-load customers whose balance sheets make that new generation financeable. Freezing them out of Maine will send the investment, the jobs, and the tax base to states with abundant, affordable energy.
Governor Mills will need to decide by April 24, 2026, whether she will sign the bill, veto the bill, or allow it to pass into law without her signature. If she believes a data center would revitalize Jay, she should veto a bill that forbids the same opportunity anywhere else in Maine.