Environmental and local control advocates were among those expressing anger in recent days over Mills' veto of the trailblazing bill that would have made Maine the first state to impose such a moratorium—while a group with strong ties to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party applauded the move this week, claiming the Democratic governor, also running for US Senate this year, has stood up "for Maine’s economic future" by siding against the ban.
“Gov. Mills made the right decision to veto the data center moratorium," said Ross Connolly, Northeast region director for Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing political advocacy group affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers, earlier this week.
"At a time when states across the country are competing for investment and innovation, this veto sends a strong signal that Maine is open for business and reinforces the state’s commitment to growth and innovation," said Connolly. "AFP looks forward to working with policymakers to advance solutions that keep Maine on a path toward long-term economic opportunity.”
The group previously denounced the Maine Legislature for passing the bill, which would have stopped state and local governments from approving data center projects with electrical loads of 20 megawatts or more until November 2027. The bill passed with bipartisan support, and its lead sponsor, state Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-48), told Puck that the protections in the legislation would allow the government to “get it right" in Maine by studying the impacts of large data centers before allowing industry-friendly expansions to continue.
President Donald Trump and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have pushed for state and local governments to welcome the "innovation" offered by artificial intelligence companies by allowing the construction of massive data centers.
But opposition lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures as well as numerous public advocacy groups have warned the expansion of the energy-sucking facilities is already pushing working families' electricity bills higher, straining resources by consuming up to 5 million gallons of water per day, and being used for an industry that's projected to replace nearly 100 million jobs in the next decade, according to an analysis put out by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
In numerous states—including Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan—communities have rallied to block the construction of data centers, citing many of those concerns.
Trump issued an executive order late last year aimed at blocking state governments from regulating the rapidly growing industry.
In Maine, Mills vetoed the legislation after lawmakers voted down an amendment that would have provided a carve-out for the town of Jay, where the local Select Board voted last month to approve a data center that would be housed in the former Androscoggin Mill site. The paper mill was closed in 2023 following a wood pulp digester explosion on the premises, resulting in the loss of about 230 jobs.
"People will say all kinds of things to get their project approved. And then rural communities are often left holding the bag... And the record is clear: Data centers are not producing jobs. They're taking jobs away from people."
Though local policymakers backed the plan to build an over 200-megawatt data center, Seth Berry of Our Power, a group that advocates for clean energy and local control over energy resources, emphasized that Republican lawmakers in Maine appeared intent on ensuring the desires of working people in Jay and other towns aren't represented.
An amendment that would have allowed the Jay project to go forward also would have permitted data centers in "any community where there was a referendum of all voters," Berry, executive director of the group and a former Democratic member of the state House, told Common Dreams. "That amendment was shot down 29-115, and the vast majority of those who voted against it also voted against any moratorium at all."
"So it leaves me wondering, do people really want local communities to have a say?" said Berry, who also served in the state legislature and was House majority leader as well as leading the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology for three terms. "I'm all for that. I don't think that's what data center developers want."
He added that plans for data centers have been developed "secretly" between companies and Mills' Department of Energy Resources, which officials "failed to disclose" at a public hearing on the moratorium.
"There was extraordinary dishonesty on the part of the administration," Berry told Common Dreams.
Jim Walsh, policy director for Food & Watch, which advocated for Maine's data center moratorium, cautioned that while many people in Jay and other towns where the facilities are being considered may see the expansion of data centers as a solution to job loss and economic struggles, the employment provided by the centers would mostly be "some level of short-term construction jobs that tend to be for people that aren't in the communities."
"The long-term job prospects are minimal," Walsh told Common Dreams, citing research. "While the impacts on our energy and water infrastructure and water supplies are significant, and we need to be working to move forward with investments in communities that will help to improve people's lives, not drive up costs and allow corporations to profit off of scarce water resources."
Berry suggested that working people in struggling towns where data centers are being proposed need only "look at the facts" to determine whether the "pretty promises made by data center developers are actually trustworthy."
"People will say all kinds of things to get their project approved," Berry told Common Dreams. "And then rural communities are often left holding the bag. And that's exactly the reason in many cases that these towns are in desperate situations, because they trusted people in the past who proved not trustworthy. We've seen paper mills purchased and then sold for scrap after promises of hundreds of jobs. And the record is clear: Data centers are not producing jobs. They're taking jobs away from people."
As Drop Site News reported Tuesday, job loss among Jay residents who worked in paper manufacturing wasn't just the result of the 2023 equipment explosion. Private equity firm Apollo Global Management ran the paper mill in Jay as well as one in Bucksport from 2006-20, during which time it bankrupted "them both, selling off their carcasses for scraps, and eliminating more than 1,000 jobs" in the two towns.
Drop Site noted that the billionaire founder and CEO of Apollo, Marc Rowan, has contributed $50,000 so far to a super political action committee backing Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a strong AI supporter. The super PAC, Pine Tree Results, recently began running attack ads against Mills' progressive opponent in the Democratic primary, political newcomer and combat veteran Graham Platner, who supported the moratorium.
Platner told NBC News after Mills announced her veto that his "biggest problem with data centers and AI" is not the technology itself, but with who benefits and who is harmed by the manner in which it is rolled out.
"In every moment in human history where a new, transformative technology arises that increases productivity, when it’s left in the hands of corporate power, it is always used to disenfranchise people," Platner warned. "It is always used to, frankly, impact workers negatively.”
Along with the project proposed for Jay, a Minnesota-based company called LiquidCool Solutions has been proposed in Limestone, with the center expected to use up to 26 megawatts of power—the equivalent amount of energy used by more than 20,000 Maine households.
Texas-based multiFUELS has also proposed an integrated energy center including a data center in Sanford in southern Maine. A lawyer representing the company, Anthony Buxton, told Maine Morning Star last week that the project would be in the 100-200 megawatt range.
"A moratorium would be a pretty clear signal they weren’t welcome here,” said Buxton, who, according to Federal Election Commission records, donated just over $2,000 to Mills' Senate campaign late last year.
Walsh told Common Dreams that "when a corporate-funded group like Americans for Prosperity is cheering a veto that benefits an energy- and water-intensive industry like data centers, and that decision comes after financial support from interests tied to a proposed project, it raises serious flags for the public."
Berry was unsurprised that the Trump-aligned group supported Mills' veto.
"Sadly, corporate multinationals tend to call the shots in the Mills administration," Berry told Common Dreams. "This is why she vetoed multiple pro-labor bills, tribal sovereignty, and [publicly owned utility] Pine Tree Power, among other key bills. And all of these vetoes have been sustained by support not from her own party, but from legislative Republicans."
Berry expressed hope that following the Legislature's failure to override Mills' veto, communities across Maine will take action, as other towns have across the country, to ensure they have a say in whether data centers operate there. He also said he hopes voters back candidates for office who who supported the moratorium.
"My expectation is that the conversation will turn to local action and also to the election," said Berry. "It is a big election year. We will choose the next governor. We'll choose the next US senator... And I expect that energy affordability in general, and data centers, as well will be very front of mind."
