Randy Gibbs is the lead developer of Sanford Woods, an industrial and technology campus that will host a number of industries on undeveloped property in Sanford.

Data centers have an image problem.

In past economic revolutions, pioneers of the next big shift often ignored the harm that came with rapid change. Today, data centers are in that spotlight. Around the country, we’ve seen irresponsible projects that strain electric grids, raise ratepayer costs, waste precious water, generate constant noise and damage local communities.

Maine legislators are right to want to protect us from the abuses seen elsewhere. Our goal at Sanford Woods is to show there’s a better way to deliver essential modern infrastructure without those harms. Done right, Maine can lead the country in this economic wave instead of chasing it.

Mainers care about lower property taxes, a growing clean economy and higher-paying jobs. Smart policy can protect our environment and still allow the state to participate in this once-in-a-generation opportunity. Sanford Woods was designed from the ground up to meet those expectations.

We’ve examined, issue by issue, what makes for responsible development and what doesn’t. For every major concern, we’ve chosen the most responsible and advanced solution available while never sacrificing public interest for our own self interests.

Most importantly, Sanford Woods will not connect to the electric grid. Our project will not drive up utility costs for Maine ratepayers or compete for scarce capacity. On water, we deliberately chose a design that uses Maine’s abundant cold air rather than water-guzzling cooling systems. As a result, we use only a fraction of the water required by facilities elsewhere.

The benefits to both Sanford and Maine are substantial. Sanford Woods would add billions of dollars to the city’s tax base, creating hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs and more than a thousand well-paying construction jobs over several years as the campus is built in phases. That new tax base also generates significant corporate income tax, payroll and withholding tax, sales and use tax and other state revenues, for the benefit of all Mainers.

Against this backdrop, a statewide blanket moratorium on data centers is the wrong tool. It’s regressive, not progressive. Mainers should expect their legislators to protect the environment and the public interest while also enabling responsible growth.

Yet, here in Maine, legislators appear to be poised to be first in the nation to impose a moratorium, while being last in the nation with data center construction starts. A sweeping moratorium “throws the baby out with the bathwater” and risks sacrificing a generational opportunity before it even exists in Maine.

Maine already has robust permitting tools through the Natural Resources Protection Act and Site Location of Development Act. These laws, in place since the 1970s, have governed every major industrial and commercial project in the state and have consistently been used to scrutinize proposals and protect the public interest. Data centers can and should be held to the same standards, but there’s no evidence these tools are suddenly inadequate.

It’s also worth noting that Maine currently has no large-scale data centers and none under
construction, even as other states move ahead with dozens of sites. Yet we seem poised to
become the first state to impose a blanket moratorium on an industry that barely exists here. As one state senator put it, “This looks like a solution in search of a problem.”

Sanford Woods believed it had the outline of a reasonable compromise with members of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee: a framework allowing a small number of projects to proceed if they meet rigorous criteria and demonstrate advanced, responsible designs, while the state continues its broader study.

This bipartisan framework for a agreement was inexplicably withdrawn in the end. Such an agreement wouldn’t open floodgates; it would simply recognize projects that have already invested significant time and money in reliance on existing rules.

Sanford Woods is prepared to stand on the merits of its proposal and its clean, advanced
technologies. A blanket moratorium will kill this opportunity for Maine, send a chilling message to developers and investors that our regulatory framework can’t be trusted and make it far harder for the state to compete for large-scale investment in the years ahead.