Vermont

Energy/Power is the dominant stress point: the central concern is whether large loads will raise costs, require transmission upgrades, or burden ratepayers, and both the moratorium and H.727 are framed around protecting the electric system. Vermont Public, Vermont Legislature H.727. Water/Geology is the secondary stress point because H.727 adds closed-loop cooling, groundwater/surface-water permits, drought restrictions, and PFAS controls, reflecting concern about water withdrawals and discharge impacts. Vermont Legislature H.727

None identified. The issue has surfaced in the Legislature and at Town Meeting more than in contested 2026 electoral campaigns; no 2026 gubernatorial, congressional, or legislative race was clearly centered on data centers in the sources reviewed. Vermont Public, VTDigger

State-level moratorium: S.205, "An act relating to a temporary moratorium on AI data centers and a report on the construction and operation of AI data centers in Vermont," was introduced Jan. 6, 2026 and referred to Senate Finance; the bill was still active in committee through mid-February, but the status page shows no action after Feb. 18, 2026. Vermont Legislature S.205, Vermont Public. Regulatory-pause alternative: H.727, later titled "An act relating to sustainable data center deployment," advanced as a House-passed framework for large data centers rather than a moratorium. Vermont Legislature H.727, Vermont Public. Local moratorium of note: Royalton voters approved a five-year moratorium on the local siting and construction of AI and crypto data centers, even though none have been proposed there. VTDigger, Vermont Public.

H.727 is the key ratepayer and cost-allocation bill. As House-passed, it would create a separate data center ratepayer class and tariff, require cost allocation that is equal or proportional to service costs, and require contractual provisions that mitigate unwarranted costs to other ratepayers, including generation, distribution, and transmission costs incurred to serve data centers. Vermont Legislature H.727, Vermont Public. The bill also contemplates large-load service equity contracts, minimum payment obligations, collateral for stranded-cost risk, reporting of payments toward shared infrastructure, and a possible future financing structure tied to data-center tax revenue or gross receipts taxes. Vermont Legislature H.727

None identified.

1) No major Vermont hyperscale project is publicly in the permitting pipeline; state officials told Vermont Public there were no current proposals for a large-scale data center in Vermont. Vermont Public 2) St. Albans: a prior proposal briefly surfaced, then the developers withdrew after transmission costs made the project uneconomic. Vermont Public 3) Royalton: no project was proposed, but the town adopted a five-year siting moratorium in anticipation of possible future development. VTDigger

Royalton community activists and town-meeting proponents of the moratorium; Bella O’Connor and local residents organizing for town-level restrictions; Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), which publicly backed stronger data-center safeguards; and broader environmental/testimony coalitions appearing in the legislative record around H.727. Vermont Public, VNRC, Vermont Legislature public comment on H.727

None identified at the state political-surface layer as of May 2026. Talent and workforce dynamics in Vermont surface primarily at the sub-state and labor-market level — county and municipal proceedings on named projects, regional building trades council positions, and utility commission workforce testimony — which are out of scope for the tracker's state-political-surface read. Request a full RAIL briefing for sub-state and labor-market analysis.

Minimal. Vermont has no known operational hyperscale cluster and officials said there were no current large-scale proposals; Green Mountain Power described only one or two speculative inquiries over the years, and the state’s existing footprint was described in testimony as just five small data centers using under 0.5 MW combined. Vermont Public, H.727 public testimony

“I think many of us are watching an increasingly fast-paced deployment and rollout of a technology with AI, and the infrastructure to back that technology, at an extremely scary place, and I think that we need to slow it down.” — Sen. Becca White, as quoted by Vermont Public

Vermont Legislature S.205, Vermont Legislature H.727, Vermont Public, VTDigger, Vermont Public Town Meeting coverage, VNRC