The veto stands.

Lawmakers in the Maine House of Representatives failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority to overturn Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of a bill that would have been the country’s first statewide pause on large data center development.

Wednesday’s vote in the House marked the last glimmer of hope for the long-debated measure after the governor rejected it late last week. The bill would have temporarily prohibited new permits from being issued for data center projects of at least 20 megawatts.

The House vote was 72-65. Though a majority of members voted to overturn the veto, the total fell short of the two-thirds threshold required, negating the need for a vote in the Senate.

About 20 representatives offered comments ahead of the vote. Most, including members of both parties, argued in favor of overturning the veto.

The vote fell largely along party lines, with Democrats broadly voting to overturn the veto and Republicans acting to sustain it. But a handful broke with their parties’ majorities.

Some Republicans — including Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, and Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter — argued that opposition to data centers is based on fear, emotion and incomplete or inaccurate information.

But Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, said it is “condescending” to claim that Mainers are simply misinformed. She added that economically disadvantaged communities are vulnerable to the influence of potentially large investments.

“Big money speaks loudly in areas that are financially strapped,” Quint said, adding that she opposes the veto. “We are at the mercy of huge corporations promising prosperity without any obligation to follow through.”

Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, who sponsored the bill, said those who voted in support of the veto “will be responsible” for the potentially negative impacts of new data center construction on electric rates and Maine’s environment.

She said the veto will result in “decisions of statewide consequence being made without a statewide framework.”

NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER

Hours after the vote, Mills’ office announced that she had signed an executive order creating a Maine Data Center Advisory Council.

The body will make recommendations on large data center development aimed at maintaining the electric grid’s reliability, minimizing environmental impacts, keeping electric rates low and “enabling responsible economic development,” her office said in a release Wednesday. A report containing those recommendations will be due in late January.

In a written statement, Mills said it is “necessary, important and urgent that the State plan for potential impacts of large-scale data centers.”

Sachs’ bill would also have created an advisory council. And while Mills’ advisory group shares several characteristics with the one proposed by Sachs, the governor’s order includes a few changes to the body’s structure and membership.

The council created in Mills’ order can also include a representative from a higher education institution and “a representative of at least two private-sector entities that represent large electricity load customers, data center developers or real estate developers.”

It’s been an eventful week for the governor, who has faced blowback from her own party for vetoing the moratorium. The intraparty squabbling was encapsulated by an exchange on Facebook this weekend, when Mills took to the social network to defend her actions.

In a Sunday post, Rep. Valli Geiger, D-Rockland, said it was “beyond disappointing” that Mills vetoed the measure and called the move a “final act of betrayal” by the outgoing governor. Geiger noted that several new proposed data centers came to light as lawmakers mulled the restriction, and claimed that “many are rumored to be huge.”

In a comment Tuesday morning, Mills asked the representative and her constituents to read the governor’s veto letter. She then pasted the letter’s full text into the comment.

“You are simply wrong on all counts,” Mills told Geiger.