Protests and local moratoria
The Verge article reports that during the latest election debate in Maine, a citizen interrupted Republican Senator Susan Collins, shouting that artificial intelligence data centers are destroying the climate and poisoning the water. Collins dismissed the protest by linking the man to her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, but according to the source, concern over the expansion of resource-intensive facilities has become one of the most heated issues of the campaign.
In April, the state legislature had approved what would have been the first statewide moratorium on large data centers, but Governor Janet Mills rejected it ten days later. According to the source, despite the veto many towns adopted temporary moratoria or put the issue to voters in November. A poll cited by UMass Lowell and YouGov finds that 76 percent of Maine residents oppose construction of a data center in their community, with 58 percent strongly opposed.
The role of money in the campaign
The Senate race in Maine is described as the most expensive per capita in U.S. history, with projected spending of $81 million by Democrats and $114 million by Republicans. Much of this funding comes, according to the article, from the technology industry and data center supporters. The source cites researcher Molly White, according to whom AI and data center supporters are using in the midterm elections a strategy similar to that employed by the cryptocurrency sector in 2024.
Among Collins's donors are Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of the Andreessen Horowitz fund, and other donors from Google, Meta and Microsoft. According to White's tracker, Collins received $325,644 from donors linked to AI and cryptocurrencies. The source also reports that the Republican Senate Leadership Fund spent nearly $42 million on ads in Maine and that Elon Musk donated $158 million to the fund, in addition to about $450 million to support Republicans.
Job promises and economic doubts
Data center development is presented to rural communities as an opportunity to create long-term jobs, but the article stresses that economic research indicates these facilities generate almost no net employment once construction is completed. Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, recalls that the state has a long history of extractive industries that provided jobs, but notes that in the case of data centers the employment component is not there. According to Nicholas Jacobs of Colby College, residents of rural areas are concerned about the opaque ownership of the facilities, the limited long-term jobs and the risk that wealth will be extracted from local communities.
What remains to be verified
The source does not specify the outcome of the election race or the actual effect of local moratoria. It does not indicate the exact number of municipalities that approved restrictions or referendums, nor the details of Troy Jackson's proposals beyond the intention to guarantee unionized jobs in the construction and maintenance of data centers. The funding figures and the link between donations and political orientation also remain to be verified, which the article attributes to sources and statements without providing independent corroboration.
