Whether data centers drive up electricity prices or not, the fact is that Maine starts off with very high prices due to costly "renewable" energy and its requisite new transmission, as well as being choked off from badly needed new gas pipelines. Therefore if data centers (and any jobs they might provide) can't be built in Maine due to their potential effect on electricity prices, or the fact that electricity is too expensive here to begin with, those persons, politicians and groups pushing "green" energy will be to blame.
By Chris D’Angelo Published on: December 19, 2025
EXCERPT
Leading the administration’s defense of energy-hungry data centers is Doug Burgum, the Secretary of the Interior and the chairman of President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council.
“Newsflash: There is no correlation between data centers growing in states and higher electricity prices,” Burgum declared — falsely — in an interview with Fox News last week, going on to point the finger at states moving toward renewable energy.
In a separate interview on Fox & Friends a few days later, Burgum invoked Maine to defend his position.
“Let’s just take a look at the data, if you want to talk about data centers,” he said. “The highest electricity prices in this country are places like Hawaii and Maine. There’s no data center activity going there.”
Maine’s rising energy costs are largely tied to volatile natural gas prices and cleanup costs from devastating storms in recent years. They have nothing to do with the build-out, or lack thereof, of data centers, according to Maine Public Advocate Heather Sanborn.
“To date, there has been very little data center development activity in Maine, and nothing related to data centers has had any impact on Maine’s electricity prices yet,” she wrote in an email to The Maine Monitor.
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Maine treads lightly amid AI data center expansion
by Long Islander
5 hours ago
Whether data centers drive up electricity prices or not, the fact is that Maine starts off with very high prices due to costly "renewable" energy and its requisite new transmission, as well as being choked off from badly needed new gas pipelines. Therefore if data centers (and any jobs they might provide) can't be built in Maine due to their potential effect on electricity prices, or the fact that electricity is too expensive here to begin with, those persons, politicians and groups pushing "green" energy will be to blame.
By Chris D’Angelo
Published on: December 19, 2025
EXCERPT
Leading the administration’s defense of energy-hungry data centers is Doug Burgum, the Secretary of the Interior and the chairman of President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council.
“Newsflash: There is no correlation between data centers growing in states and higher electricity prices,” Burgum declared — falsely — in an interview with Fox News last week, going on to point the finger at states moving toward renewable energy.
In a separate interview on Fox & Friends a few days later, Burgum invoked Maine to defend his position.
“Let’s just take a look at the data, if you want to talk about data centers,” he said. “The highest electricity prices in this country are places like Hawaii and Maine. There’s no data center activity going there.”
Maine’s rising energy costs are largely tied to volatile natural gas prices and cleanup costs from devastating storms in recent years. They have nothing to do with the build-out, or lack thereof, of data centers, according to Maine Public Advocate Heather Sanborn.
“To date, there has been very little data center development activity in Maine, and nothing related to data centers has had any impact on Maine’s electricity prices yet,” she wrote in an email to The Maine Monitor.
Full article at https://themainemonitor.org/maine-treads-lightly-data-center-expansion/
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Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.