Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
This letter is in response to the April 28 column by Rep. Sophie Warren of Scarborough. I believe all Mainers, including Warren, should be cautious of data centers. Data centers built without proper oversight have wreaked havoc and damage to municipal water systems and sapped energy resources in communities nationally. However, Maine needs to be sensitive to the needs of our communities and the view it gives to the national business community.
Under LD 307 everything stops, until November 2027. The bill banned everything above 20 watts immediately. No consideration was given to existing projects already in development. No consideration was given to the project in Jay, on the site of a former mill.
The Jay project will use a fraction of the water that the previous mill used and was being developed in consultation with the blessing of local officials, including the city manager and most of the town selectmen. There already had been an expenditure in the project. How would that look to the national business community? Come to Maine and invest?
I believe Mills was heroic in her veto. She had communicated to the Legislature that she believed the Jay project needed special dispensation, not only because it had already started, that the initial expenditure had been made but also that it was moving forward in collaboration with local officials. The legislative representatives in charge essentially ignored the governor’s concerns and I think Maine stood to look very bad nationally. I believe Mills stepped up to preserve our reputation as being business friendly, as leaders do.
We do need to be cautious in data center development, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Ken Huhn
Bangor
