Maine has a problem. Our people want to live in the modern world and not take part in building it.

Give us more EVs, but don’t mine any minerals here — the children of Democratic Republic of the Congo are good at that. Remove all the hydro dams instead of building fish ladders, we can just buy our power from other states or countries — or burn more natural gas. Bring broadband to remote counties with taxpayer money but, please, don’t build any data centers — NIMBY all the way.

I am all for comparative advantage, but also we should diversify and grow our economy. We can’t run a state based on the annual lobster catch and the vacation industry.

Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of the data center moratorium allows local leaders to do their job. They can determine if they have the water and other infrastructure needs to support the projects. Mills showed us she can put her feelings aside and use President Trump’s executive orders to allow data centers to “bring their own power” and follow the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” major tech companies signed on March 4.

Data centers can be built to use very little water; closed-loop liquid cooling and direct-to-chip cooling can reduce water usage by up to 90%. Not to mention, 7 of the top 10 corporate solar buyers are tech and data companies.

Standing up against a who’s-who of left-wing groups can’t have been easy. Term limits make it easier. I thank Gov. Mills.

Zak Harding
Wells