Maine lawmakers voted Thursday to advance a bill that would stop the development of new data centers in the state for about two years.

The bill, LD 307, would create a temporary limitation on data centers with electric loads of at least 20 megawatts by preventing the state, local governments and quasi-governmental agencies from issuing permits or other approvals until July 2028.

That would give a new “Data Center Coordination Council,” also created by the bill, time to study and review the potential impacts of building the centers in Maine. The Department of Energy Resources would be responsible for convening the body.

Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, sponsored the measure, which was carried over from the last session. Sachs has said the restriction is designed to address future growth without impeding projects that are already well underway, such as one pegged for the former Loring Air Force Base.

Members of the Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee have debated the bill for weeks.

On Thursday, they voted 8-5 in favor of passing the bill with amendments, sending it to the broader Legislature. The committee vote fell along party lines, with Democrats supporting the measure.

The bill drew attention last month after Sen. Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, said it would effectively kill a project in his district. That proposal — a technical and industrial campus in Sanford that would contain a data center and onsite power generation — had not been previously announced publicly.

“This bill will kill that project,” Harrington said Thursday. “This bill will kill a massive investment in Maine.”

‘PERSONAL VENDETTA’

Before the vote, Harrington railed against the bill, calling it “a solution in search of a problem” and charging that it would “destroy” economic opportunities in Maine. He accused Sachs, the bill’s sponsor, of taking his negative comments on the bill personally.

“It’s hard not to think that this has now become a personal vendetta because of one comment I made,” Harrington said.

He said the restriction would do nothing to prevent data centers from being built in other states.

“We could have an opportunity to take that economic development in the state, using clean energy, and we are going to completely miss that opportunity,” Harrington said. “You will have done nothing to stop data center development in this country.”

Rep. Valli Geiger, D-Rockland, said she was disappointed by the notion that a bill could be brought forward just to upset someone. She argued that “most people don’t want” data centers built in their communities.

“They use tremendous amounts of electricity,” Geiger said. “They equal very few jobs once construction is over.”

Rep. Christopher Kessler, D-South Portland, said he wanted to give the Sanford project “a fair shake,” but he said he became increasingly concerned the more he learned about the proposal.

Kessler said the temporary pause will allow Maine to nail down the proper regulatory framework for potential centers.

Randy Gibbs, the prime developer behind the Sanford project, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the bill’s progress.

COORDINATION COUNCIL

The data center council would be tasked with evaluating data centers’ effects on the environment, the state’s infrastructure and Mainers’ utility bills.

Data centers — facilities that house computers to store data and run online applications and services, including powering artificial intelligence —  require significant amounts of power to operate. They could consume up to 12% of the country’s total electricity usage by 2028, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Critics have also voiced concerns that the centers require massive quantities of water, which is used to cool equipment.

The council’s goals would include “protecting ratepayers, maintaining electric grid reliability, minimizing environmental impacts and enabling responsible and appropriately sited economic development,” according to a Feb. 19 amendment.

The council will be required to host at least five meetings and submit a final report, including policy recommendations, by February 2027.

The bill comes as data center developers express increasing interest in building in Maine.

A project in the works at the former Air Force base in Limestone is on track to be Maine’s first large-scale AI data center, though it’s not yet clear when that site could open for business.

But other projects, including in Wiscasset and Lewiston, have fizzled out or been voted down after local residents voiced concerns about their possible impacts on the environment and electric bills.