Maine Gov. Janet Mills says no to ban on data center construction

Artificial intelligenceMaine Gov. Janet Mills says no to ban on data center construction The law had passed both chambers of the state Legislature and would have imposed the country's first statewide moratorium on new data center construction. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Janet Mills in Westbrook, Maine, on March 10.Sofia Aldinio / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 24, 2026, 6:09 PM EDTBy Jared Perlo and Sahil KapurMaine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a hallmark bill late Friday that would have halted the construction of large data centers in the New England state for 18 months.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The governor was debating whether to sign the bill, let the bill become law without her signature or veto the legislation after the state Legislature passed the law last Tuesday. The bill was the first data center moratorium in the nation to successfully make its way through both chambers of a state house.“I believe it necessary and important to examine and plan for the potential impacts of large-scale data centers in Maine, as the use of artificial intelligence becomes more widespread,” Mills wrote in a press release Friday. Yet Mills said that she would veto the bill due to its failure to allow a data center project in Jay, Maine, to go ahead. Jay had been hit with the closure of a paper mill in 2023 that wiped out several hundred jobs.“This project — which is now under contract and which has received several permits — is expected to create more than 800 construction jobs, at least 100 high-paying permanent jobs, and would contribute substantial property tax revenue to the Town of Jay,” Mills wrote in the press release announcing her decision. Mills had told NBC News last Friday that she was reviewing the bill carefully, voicing hesitations about the absence of a carve-out for the Jay project, which she said needed the economic boost.The two-...