The data center fight in Bucksport, Maine
As of October 25, 2026, Bucksport, Maine has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Oct 8, 2026).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
Town Council approved 5-2 (Rankin and Doty opposed) a six-month (180-day) moratorium on data center development, covering all data centers, after a second reading and hearing; may be rescinded sooner if regulations are adopted. Vote date per Bangor Daily News (Thursday, Oct 8); WABI says Wednesday night (Oct 7). No ordinance text or town record read and effective date not stated, so no end date.
SourceNews
read 2026-10-11
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Maine.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Maine briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Maine
- Bangor (16 mi) — Enactedfixed term, end date not recorded
- Ellsworth (18 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-13
- Maine (statewide) (52 mi) — Vetoedterm not documented
- Brunswick (74 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-29
- Eastport (92 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-08
- Westbrook (100 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-28
- Scarborough (102 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-30
- Gorham (103 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-29
All 12 tracked actions in Maine are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.