Pete McGuire

Glad to be here.

Thank you.

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 other interested parties that would kind of come up with rules of the road and regulations for developing these facilities in the future.

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 people.

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.

It originated with this council firstly, and then it kind of morphed into a moratorium.

Data centers have not been an issue in Maine.

It just happened maybe in the last six months that these projects started popping up.

And legislators kind of thought, well, even though electricity is really expensive in Maine, we have a cooler climate.

Some people say that's really good for data centers.

It

saves on cooling costs and things like that.