Maine governor vetoes statewide pause in new data centers

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced Friday she has vetoed legislation that would have banned the development of large-scale data centers in the state for the next year-and-a-half, issuing a blow to the local anti-data center push growing across America.

Mills, who is running for the U.S. Senate, wrote in a letter Friday to the Maine Legislature that she supports a temporary moratorium on data center projects, but she took issue with the bill because it didn’t have an exception for a $550 million data center project already underway in the town of Jay.

The governor previously requested an exception for the defunct paper mill site but was rejected by state legislators.

“A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates. 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 wrote. “The 2023 closure of the Androscoggin Mill dealt a devastating blow to the Town of Jay and its........

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