LINCOLN, Maine — Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday that data center projects, which have increasingly roused concerns about water and power use in Maine and nationwide, should be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Calling it a rare occasion where her position is similar to that of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, the Republican senator in a heated 2026 election expressed support for projects at former mill sites, saying “there is usually hydropower right there, so there’s an energy source built in.”
Collins’ remarks were characteristically restrained but represented some of her most detailed public comments on data centers, an emerging issue in national and local politics. President Donald Trump’s administration has touted them as necessary to the future of the American economy, but they remain broadly unpopular.
Maine is an example of that. A University of Massachusetts Lowell/YouGov poll of likely voters conducted in May found 72% opposed to a data center being built in their own community, including majorities across party lines. Mills angered progressives in April when she vetoed legislation that would have made Maine the first state to ban new large data centers.
Collins’ Democratic opponent, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, has taken a far more skeptical stance. As a gubernatorial candidate earlier this year before replacing Graham Platner in the U.S. Senate race, Jackson pledged to regulate data centers within his first 100 days in office and supported requiring developers to build and supply their own power.
On Wednesday, Collins praised the project that inspired Mills’ veto — one at the former International Paper mill site in Jay that was canceled in June — and another one at the former Great Northern Paper Co. mill in Millinocket that was also canceled in 2025. But she still expressed broad reservations about projects.
“I do share the concern of data centers gobbling up too much energy and putting stress on the cost of energy,” Collins told reporters in Lincoln.
She was joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and former Gov. Paul LePage, who is running for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District seat against State Auditor Matt Dunlap, outside the former site of Lincoln’s paper mill. It is under redevelopment for several tech-driven industries, including battery storage by Massachusetts-based Form Energy.
Collins then blamed Augusta Democrats, including Mills and Jackson, for “soaring” energy rates in Maine. The message, delivered alongside Wright and LePage — both of whom touted data centers and criticized Democratic policies — echoed a longstanding Republican critique that climate-driven policies under Mills, including solar incentives, have raised prices for Mainers.
With less than three months before the midterms, Jackson and other Democrats have consistently pointed to Collins’ overall support for the Trump administration as a driver of higher prices across a range of sectors. Jackson has focused on the Iran war’s effect on gas and fuel prices, and its toll on Maine’s fishing, farming and consumer costs.
“If data centers want to come to Maine, Troy believes they should create good-paying union jobs, pay their fair share, protect Maine’s natural resources, and work with local communities — not expect Maine families to subsidize the energy needs of some of the richest corporations in the world,” a campaign spokesperson said Wednesday.
Wright, appearing alongside Collins, said he was “unabashedly pro-data centers,” arguing they can expand energy-producing resources and lower electricity rates. He said the U.S. was poised to build “a huge amount of data centers,” with “tons of communities competing aggressively for them.”
But environmental groups and towns and cities across the country are pushing measures to restrict data center development. The Bangor City Council unanimously passed a moratorium on data centers this spring. Rural Maine is now a focal point of opposition, with towns unlikely to see such projects, including those in Oxford County, considering temporary bans.
“But I also say, nobody should build a data center if they don’t want them,” Wright said. “Communities themselves should evaluate, are the wins much better than the takes?”