Absent State Action, Vermont Towns Move to Block Data Centers | Seven Days

sevendaysvt.com · Kevin McCallum · September 9, 2026

# Absent State Action, Vermont Towns Move to Block Data Centers | Seven Days

Author: Kevin McCallum Published: 2026-09-09T13:55:00+00:00 Source: sevendaysvt.com (sevendaysvt.com) Language: en

## Story

An imposing data center in a neighborhood in Lowell, Mass. Credit: AP Photo / Matt O’Brien

No one has proposed a data center in Morristown. Few properties in town are even large enough to host one.

Nevertheless, the residents of this Lamoille County community last week urged town leaders to block massive server farms or other “high-impact” businesses from locating in the town for two years.

“We need to maintain our quality of life and resources for the people that live here [and] not be ruining our town,” resident Nancy Donovan told the selectboard.

The board unanimously agreed, and Morristown became the third community in Vermont to pass prohibitions to keep data centers at bay — at least for now.

Royalton became the first when voters on Town Meeting Day passed a five-year ban on data centers for AI and cryptocurrency mining. South Burlington amended its zoning code in early August to ban any centers with a footprint of more than 20,000 square feet.

Earlier this year, the Vermont legislature passed H.727, a bill that would have strictly regulated the development of data centers statewide. Its provisions were meant to protect electricity ratepayers from higher costs, require developers to use renewable energy as much as possible and compel them to cut climate pollution in surrounding communities.

But Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill. He argued that Vermont has more than enough regulation, including Act 250 and the Public Utility Commission.

“The last thing Vermont should do is worsen our economic challenges by adding new and unnecessary regulatory systems,” he wrote in a letter explaining his decision in May.

Backers say the need for the protections envisioned under the bill has only become clearer as demand surges nationwide for the staggering computing power that data centers provide.

“Thanks to the governor’s veto, it’s kind of every town for itself, and that just doesn’t seem right to us,” said Ben Edgerly Walsh, climate and energy program director at the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

Thanks to the governor’s veto, it’s kind of every town for itself, and that just doesn’t seem right to us.

> Ben Edgerly Walsh

Rep. Kathleen James (D-Manchester) said the bill would have provided precisely the kinds of environmental and ratepayer protections that are desperately needed by communities facing large data centers. She called Scott’s veto “misguided.”

“States should be acting aggressively to protect citizens from the harmful impact of AI-fueled data centers, not looking the other way,” she told Seven Days.

Opposition to data centers is exploding across the nation, often across party lines. A Gallup poll released in May showed 71 percent of Americans don’t want them developed near their homes — meaning the facilities are more reviled than nuclear power plants. New York issued a moratorium in July.

Even Republicans who once proudly supported the centers have begun to change their tune. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who had boasted that his state was the epicenter of the industry, paused approvals of data centers last month.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has raised questions about the largely unregulated and breakneck pace of the development of artificial intelligence, last week denounced the impact of data centers on host communities.

“AI data centers are raising electricity prices, straining water systems and harming the environment,” he wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News. He went on to cite a recent Heatmap Pro poll: “That is why 75% of Americans oppose data centers near where they live and why over 500 communities have put in place restrictions on their construction.”

President Donald Trump last week labeled communities that oppose data centers as places that prefer to remain “backwards and poor.”

Scott, a fellow Republican, said he disagrees with that sentiment and thinks Vermont can still enjoy strong economic development without the data centers.

Vermont Conservation Voters last week launched a public campaign and website called “ Don’t Data Center Vermont” meant to raise awareness about threats data centers pose to the state.

Just how vulnerable Vermont is to development of large-scale data centers remains a matter of ongoing debate.

“I think the likelihood of a data center in Vermont anywhere in the future is slim to none,” Scott told Seven Days last week.

He noted that Amazon couldn’t get a warehouse built in an Essex industrial park designed for such businesses. The state can’t even find a site to build a new women’s correctional facility.

I think the likelihood of a data center in Vermont anywhere in the future is slim to none.

> GOV. Phil Scott

Kerrick Johnson, the commissioner of the Department of Public Service, is also skeptical, asserting that high costs of land and electricity and a briar patch of regulations serve as disincentives to construction of data centers. He said he is aware of only one developer who asked about a parcel in St. Albans before losing interest.

“Vermont’s existing state regulatory processes are sufficient to protect Vermonters,” Johnson said.

Scott’s Democratic opponent in the November election, Amanda Janoo, disagrees. The federal government has been taking steps to restrict states’ ability to regulate tech firms, making it more urgent for Vermont to strengthen its regulatory powers, she told Seven Days. Opening the state blindly to large corporations for the jobs and tax revenue they promise is unwise when the digital economy “is concentrating so much wealth and power in the hands of, like, five guys.”

“I’m not interested in turning Vermont into a resource colony for Big Tech,” Janoo said.

At least one company has said it’s considering a data center in the state. Houston-based PowerTransitions is leasing the 140-acre site of the closed Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon from its owner, NorthStar. PowerTransitions previously told local officials that the southern Vermont site could host a small nuclear project, industrial-scale battery storage or a data center; in July, the company told local officials it had made no decisions and would work with the community on an appropriate project.

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Johnson said the Vernon location, given its robust energy transmission infrastructure, is better suited for electricity generation than for an energy hog such as a data center. And given that public sentiment is “incredibly negative” toward data centers, Johnson said, it’s unlikely one would wind up there.

The largest, or hyperscale, data centers often have footprints that rival entire towns. One taking shape in Louisiana for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, will be the size of Manhattan. Such facilities consume vast amounts of power — often generated with fossil fuels — to run their servers, and water to cool them.

Morristown’s new rules will for two years block consideration of applications for data centers or “high-impact uses.” Those are defined as businesses that consume more than 10 megawatts of power, use 57,600 gallons of water per day, discharge hazardous waste, add more than 10 acres of impervious surface area or emit more than 70 decibels of “persistent noise.”

Exempt are small data centers “necessary for the administrative or operational support of an existing business, hospital, school, municipal service, or residence.” South Burlington created a similar exemption for data centers smaller than 5,000 square feet.

During the moratorium, Morristown plans to consider

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Vermont News

September 2026