Governor Janet Mills rejected a bill that would have temporarily halted construction of massive data centers in Maine—facilities that consume 20 megawatts of power or more. The legislature had already approved the measure, but Mills had a specific concern: the bill didn't carve out an exception for an existing project in Jay, Maine that she wanted to protect.
The rejected bill would have created a coordination council to study data center impacts on the state while blocking new permits for large facilities through fall 2027. Instead of signing it, Mills is taking a different approach. She's issuing an executive order to establish a similar council anyway, signaling she wants oversight—just not a hard ban. She also signed separate legislation that bars data centers from accessing Maine's tax incentive programs, effectively making them less attractive to companies.
Maine isn't alone in this struggle. At least a dozen other states, including New York, are exploring data center restrictions. Federal lawmakers like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have even proposed a national moratorium. But this momentum faces real headwinds: the Trump administration is actively pushing states to accelerate data center development, viewing it as critical to American AI competitiveness.
Mills' decision reflects a middle path—she's not embracing the tech industry's vision of unrestricted growth, but she's not fully blocking it either. For businesses and policymakers watching, it's a sign that the data center debate will likely continue playing out state by state, with governors trying to balance economic opportunity against community concerns about energy use and environmental impact.
