Apr 04, 2026 | Posted by Eric Advinci
Maine is on track to become the first U.S. state to impose a moratorium on large data center development. The state House of Representatives passed LD 307 last month, which would prohibit state and local governments from issuing permits for data centers with electrical loads of 20 MW or more until November 2027. The bill is expected to pass the state Senate, and Gov. Janet Mills has signaled her support.
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport), chair of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, also establishes a Data Center Coordination Council to study the impact of data center development on ratepayers, grid reliability, and the environment. The committee vote in March fell 8-5 along party lines.
Maine has some of the highest residential electricity prices in the country, and lawmakers are concerned that large-scale data center power demand could further inflate costs. The state is not a major data center market. Baxtel tracks 12 data center sites in Maine, most of them small facilities concentrated around Portland and Brunswick. The largest operational facility is CENTRA: 340 Cumberland in Portland at just 3 MW. Two projects have already been withdrawn after local opposition: a Nautilus Data Technologies facility in Millinocket and a 24 MW MillCompute project in Lewiston at the Bates Mill Complex. A proposed facility at the former Maine Yankee nuclear site in Wiscasset remains classified as land bank. The only active construction in the state is a 5 MW LiquidCool Solutions facility at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, which falls below the moratorium's 20 MW threshold.
The freeze would affect several larger projects in the pipeline. A planned data center at the former Androscoggin paper mill in Jay, being developed by JGT2 Redevelopment in partnership with Sentinel Data Centers, would occupy roughly 1 million sq ft (92,900 sqm) across two floors of the former International Paper facility, which closed in 2023. Construction is expected to begin in July. Sentinel currently operates four facilities across Virginia, New York, and Tennessee, according to Baxtel data. A separate 100-300 MW project in Sanford, proposed by Northern New England Energy Company and estimated at $300 million, would include on-site natural gas generation to reduce grid strain. Sen. Matt Harrington (R-Sanford), who disclosed the previously unannounced Sanford project during committee debate, called the moratorium "a solution in search of a problem." Gov. Mills has advocated for exemptions for the Jay project, citing the need for jobs and tax revenue.
The bill's passage is being closely watched nationally. According to Good Jobs First, at least 12 states have filed moratorium bills in 2026, including New York, Ohio, Georgia, Vermont, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. In Ohio, activists are collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment that would permanently ban data centers exceeding 25 MW, needing approximately 413,500 valid signatures by July 1 to make the November ballot. More than 100 local communities have enacted their own pauses, including counties in Indiana and Michigan, and cities such as St. Charles, Missouri. Denver and Detroit are among major cities considering similar bans.
At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act on March 25, which would impose a nationwide pause on new data center construction until Congress enacts federal AI regulation. The bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled Congress but underscores the growing political salience of data center siting ahead of the 2026 midterms.
"I think Maine is the canary in the coal mine," said Anirban Basu, chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors. "Maine will be the first of many states to have such moratoria."
Baxtel has previously reported on the threat the moratorium poses to Maine's planned projects.
