🔒Maine creates data center council to tackle development concerns

Less than a week after vetoing a temporary moratorium on data centers in Maine, Gov. Janet Mills signed an executive order creating the Maine Data Center Advisory Council. The 15-member group will develop recommendations on large-scale data center projects aimed at protecting ratepayers, maintaining electric grid reliability, minimizing environmental impacts and supporting responsible economic development. "It is necessary, important and urgent that the state plan for potential impacts of large-scale data centers on our state, given the serious conversations about them here and around the country. Through this order, this work starts today," said Mills. “I look forward to this Council's work to examine the serious questions and concerns about data center development in Maine and provide recommendations about how best to protect our environment and ratepayers while providing for responsible economic development that benefits communities,” she added. On Wednesday in Augusta, the Legislature failed to override a Mills veto of what would have been the nation's first data center ban.

Council make-up and remit

The Maine Data Center Advisory Council will be co-chaired by the commissioners of Maine’s Energy and Environmental Protection Departments, or their designees, and will include representatives from Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power. The order also directs the Department of Energy Resources, working with the Maine Public Utilities Commission, to identify ways to shield ratepayers from new or increased energy costs tied to data centers, to the extent allowed by law. The council is required to submit its policy recommendations and strategies to the governor and Legislature by Jan. 29, 2027.