Maine lawmakers on Wednesday failed to override Gov. Janet Mills’ contentious veto of a measure that would have made the state the first in the U.S. to temporarily bar development of large data centers.
Supporters of the bill came up short of the two-thirds vote needed in both chambers of the Legislature to reverse Mills’ veto. The vote was 20-11 to sustain the veto in the Senate, and 72-65 in the House.
Mills faced criticism from members of both parties during more than an hour of charged debate in the House. Several members called for an override to help protect Maine’s environment as data centers spark concerns across the country. And some Republican critics of the bill accused override proponents of fearmongering, stifling economic recovery and sending business out-of-state.
Several visitors in the halls of the Capitol and House gallery — which was called to order by the chair multiple times — held signs backing an override.
The vote leaves data center development open throughout the state. Mills says she will establish a commission to study the impacts of data centers of all sizes through an executive order.
Mills, trailing oyster farmer and military veteran Graham Platner in Democratic U.S. Senate primary polls, vetoed the first-in-the-nation measure on grounds it may have killed a $550 million data center redevelopment project at the closed Adroscoggin Mill site in Jay.
Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, said the Jay project lacked transparency, saying it did not originate as a data center and that the developer has not been forthcoming with environmental and energy impacts.
“It could be your town,” she said. “These are not only coming, they are already here. Maine communities will be scrambling to write their own rules without the resources of the state. It means uneven protections for people depending on where they live. This is not leadership. This is abdication.”
State Rep. Daniel Ankeles, D-Brunswick, denounced Mills for not being patient. He said the Jay project may have survived in some form despite the 18-month pause.
He called on lawmakers to “go outside this building and read the room,” saying the public doesn’t want rapid data center development and the state had been left “fully vulnerable to the machinations of big tech.”
“They are playing chess while we are playing possum,” he said, warning of bigger utility bills, lower grid capacity and damaging water use. He added that the environmental community and others would “fight you with everything we have.”
Mills told the Bangor Daily News earlier this week that while a pause makes sense given rising questions around electricity rates and environmental impacts, the project in Jay would rejuvenate a community hit by a devastating paper mill closure three years ago.
Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, said both parties had failed the state by not approving an amendment that would have made an exception for the Jay project.
State Rep. Poppy Arford, D-Brunswick, said she had “enormous sympathy for what the people of Jay … are going through.”
But she said without more study and a pause on development, Mainers don’t know the full impact of data centers. She said the people of Jay and Brunswick will benefit from the pause and study called for in the legislation.
Rep. Ambureen Rana, D-Bangor, said while technology isn’t inherently evil, the pause was necessary to ensure Maine protected “environmental standards we hold so dear.”
“We need to pause to understand what we are contending with here,” she said. She added that an exception for certain places or projects would not work because the potential impacts could stretch beyond town lines.
Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter, applauded the governor for trying to let the Jay project — and potentially others — move forward. He said too often the legislation acts based on “fear, not facts.”
“This is about local control,” he said. “This is about people that know what is best for this town. People that know about pollution and are thankful it has been cleaned up.”
