Lawmakers Uphold Mills' Data Center Veto, Clearing Way For $550M Jay Project
The Legislature fell short of the two-thirds votes needed to override the veto, leaving data center development open statewide.
Maine lawmakers came up short on April 29 in their bid to override Gov. Janet Mills' veto of a bill that would have put a temporary hold on large data center construction statewide, missing the two-thirds threshold needed in both chambers. Senators voted 20-11 and House members 72-65 to sustain the veto, in each case short of the two-thirds needed to reverse the governor.
Mills rejected the bill, which would have made Maine the first state with such a moratorium, arguing it threatened a $550 million plan to redevelop the shuttered paper mill property in Jay, which closed in 2023, into a data center. She has pledged to set up a study commission through executive order to examine data centers of every size.
Opponents of the veto, among them Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, and Rep. Daniel Ankeles, D-Brunswick, said a pause was needed to head off higher electricity costs, grid strain and heavy water use, and argued the Jay developer had withheld details on environmental and energy effects. Backers of the veto, including Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter, said carving out the exception respected local control and let the Jay redevelopment proceed. Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, said both parties shared blame for voting down an amendment that would have exempted the Jay project on its own.
This story was first reported by Bangor Daily News.
