Meanwhile, in #Maine...
As #dataCenters look to rural #NewEngland, Maine considers a moratorium
The bill’s advocates want answers about how data centers will affect energy costs in the region, which already has some of the country’s highest electricity prices.
By: Julia Tilton, The Daily Yonder - February 23, 2026
"Maine legislators are currently considering #LD307, a resolution bill that would establish a data center coordination council to provide input and evaluate policy options for data center development in the state. The bill comes after a series of data center proposals have been met with local pushback.
"Shortly after #WiscassetME voted to pause its data center conversations in November of 2025, residents in #LewistonME, lobbied their city councilors to reject a $300 million #AIDataCenter on December 16, 2025. There, community members organized over a weekend to change city councilors’ minds from supporting the idea when it was first made public on December 11, 2025, to voting unanimously to reject it the following week.
" 'It really speaks to the importance of adequate public participation and notice,
said Dana Colihan, the co-executive director of Slingshot, an environmental health and justice organization in New England. Colihan is based in Maine and helped residents of Wiscasset and Lewiston organize. 'When community members do find out about these projects, they have really serious concerns around the impacts to their local environment and wellbeing.'
"Richard Davis was among the residents in Wiscasset and neighboring #WestportIsland who, in November of 2025, pushed Wiscasset’s town selectboard, which functions like a city council, to pause conversations about developing a $5 billion data center on a town-owned parcel of land along the Back River, which empties into Maine’s #CascoBay.
"Davis, who lives along the Back River about a mile and a half from the proposed development, said little information about the facility’s end user, utility usage, or power source was provided after it was first made public on September 16, 2025.
"This caused him and others to worry about how the site would affect the town’s resources, including the grid. Along with his neighbors, Davis started #ProtectWiscasset, a grassroots campaign opposing the data center."
#MainePol #MaineResists #ResistDatacenters #NoEnergyForAI #AISucks #ResistanceIsFertile
Maine Morning Star
As data centers look to rural New England, Maine considers a moratorium • Maine Morning StarWhen local officials in rural Wiscasset, Maine, voted on November 4, 2025, to pause a data center discussion in the community of around 4,000 year-round residents, it may have been a sign of what’s to come. As the nationwide expansion of data centers arrives in New England, questions about electricity prices, grid reliability, and impact […]
