Eastport city councilors have unanimously approved a 180-day moratorium on any new data center projects, temporarily stopping plans for a proposed underwater artificial intelligence facility in waters off the city.
The moratorium covers data centers on land, underwater or partially submerged, along with related infrastructure. Councilors said the pause will give the city time to review zoning issues tied to two citizen-led ordinances aimed at blocking data center development.
The project is being proposed by DeepGreen Holdings LLC, which filed a preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in February for a tidal-powered underwater facility in the Bay of Fundy.
The proposal has drawn strong opposition from Eastport residents and Passamaquoddy tribal officials. FERC also found several problems with the company’s initial application, including missing tribal information, incomplete project specifications and questions about the proposed 400-acre operational area.
DeepGreen has since scaled back the Maine project, reducing its active footprint to about 27 acres and cutting planned capacity from 51 megawatts to 15 megawatts. The number of proposed turbines was also reduced from 170 to 16 in the first phase.
Neither the Maine nor Alaska project has received a preliminary permit.
The city’s Planning Board is scheduled to hold a special public hearing Aug. 24 on the citizen petitions. One proposal would permanently prohibit data centers, while another seeks voter approval for certain large industrial and commercial developments.
The Eastport Coalition for Healthy Oceans, which opposes the project, has submitted revised petition language and says it has also filed recall petitions targeting the City Council.
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