Hey there, this is Flor Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Data centers have been a hot topic in Maine this week.

These centers, which are increasingly needed to support the AI industry, are controversial.

They use a lot of power and water, and they can drive up electricity costs.

The state's House and Senate passed an 18-month moratorium on data center construction. It would have been the first

statewide ban, but Maine's governor, Janet Mills, vetoed the plan citing concerns about jobs.

Here to break it all down is Pete McGuire, climate reporter at Maine Public Radio. Thanks for being here.

Glad to be here. Thank you. Okay. So what were the details of this data center ban that was passed by Maine's legislature?

So what they had proposed was an 18-month pause on all data center construction above 20 megawatts and the development of this

coordinating council full of experts and government officials and utilities and and other interested

parties that would kind of come up with rules of the road and regulations for developing these

facilities in the future. So Maine's governor vetoed this.

Do we know why?

One of the main sticking points for the governor was this project in Jay, that it's a town

really near her hometown.

You know, it's a place that she knows really well.

And local officials there were kind of embracing this $550 million project that would bring in jobs and some economic development and rehabilitate, or reused rather, an old paper mill that closed down a few years ago.

This is an area that's kind of been economically struggling since then. That was a big

blow to the economy in the region. And people see this as a way to inject some money, some tax

revenue, and potentially some jobs into the area. The governor found this to be a really sticking

point. She asked for an exemption to the bill for this project specifically that didn't make it,

and that was a big part of her decision-making, I would imagine.

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