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.
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 and implement new zoning rules to address such uses.
“One of the reasons for this moratorium being put in place is to get out in front of this and give ourselves two years to breathe,” said Don McDowell, chair of the selectboard.
Morristown resident Kristin Fogdall told the board that she appreciated their efforts to be proactive, especially since smaller parcels could be combined to accommodate a data center.
“Two years seems like almost not enough time, but I think it’s really good that you’re doing it,” Fogdall said.
Not everyone in Morristown favors hitting the pause button. Nick Manosh, owner of well-drilling company N.A. Manosh, told selectboard members that the moratorium was a waste of their time. He said he’s familiar with every major parcel in town and none could accommodate the kind of data centers that are being built today.
“If you’re taking two years to look at something that can’t even happen, how is that efficient?” Manosh asked.
Manosh said he is concerned that regulations meant to discourage data centers could trip up other projects. He recently proposed expanding a gravel pit and drilling a 600-foot-deep well capable of extracting 430,000 gallons of water per day.
In an interview, McDowell acknowledged that the moratorium was expanded beyond just data centers in part because many in town have been riled up by a plan to build a large industrial park. The town had approved the project, but state environmental regulators rejected it as “shocking and offensive” after residents argued that a quarry would spew toxic dust into their neighborhood.
McDowell told residents that he was not aware that any data center had approached the town but still felt it was prudent to ensure none could move forward until the town is protected.
“I’m always surprised about what could happen that many of us don’t think about beforehand,” he said.
Edgerly Walsh said it’s “nonsense” for the state to leave it to selectboards to stand up to multi-billion-dollar tech firms and their armies of lawyers if they set their sights on a town.
Big tech firms racing to build faster and smarter AI applications are expected to spend trillions on data centers in coming decades. Energy demand for them in the U.S. is expected to double or even triple by 2031, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Facing strong pushback nationally, Edgerly Walsh said developers could look to places like Vermont that have yet to see any AI-fueled data center construction.
“Is Vermont at the top of their list? No,” Edgerly Walsh said. But the industry is expanding so rapidly that it is foolish to assume the state will escape notice for long, he said.
“These data center developers are going to be looking for places that they haven’t poisoned the waters, literally or figuratively,” he said. “And Vermont is right now on that list.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Data Discord | Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill that would have restricted data centers in Vermont. Now cities and towns are blocking them.”
This article appears in September 9 • 2026.
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