This story by Jim Therrien was first published in the Bennington Banner on Oct. 26, 2026.
POWNAL — The Pownal Select Board is considering a town moratorium on data center facilities amid concerns the former Green Mountain Race Track site is being eyed for a center.
Other towns in Vermont and around the country have enacted or discussed moratoriums for such centers — especially the large-scale facilities associated with artificial intelligence development, which would create a significant new demand for electricity and water for cooling purposes.
The 144-acre former track site off Route 7 near the Williamstown, Massachusetts, line is located along the Hoosic River and believed to have significant groundwater supplies. The property has been for sale, and rumors have surfaced about a possible purchase by an unidentified party, town officials have said.
Five-year pause
Board member Jeannie Alexander noted the data center rumors during an Oct. 22 meeting, and the fact that other communities in Vermont have enacted or proposed data center permitting moratoriums.
She said that after researching data center issues, she has concerns that an outright ban on the centers “might not be legally binding,” adding, “I think a moratorium is probably the way to go.”
Alexander then suggested wording for a five-year moratorium — to be considered by the board and by Pownal residents during a future board meeting.
A moratorium, she said, would give the town time to enact zoning or other regulation aimed at controlling the impacts of a large data center facility.
‘Irresponsible to wait’
Alexander said Monday in an email, “It is my understanding that a number of developers have been interested in that site in particular. It would be foolish and irresponsible to wait until after the fact to try and protect our town’s natural resources.”
She added, “It’s obvious that the powers that be in Montpelier aren’t coming to save us or any other small town in Vermont, and so we had better be prepared to take care of ourselves and our neighbors. There are significant issues with water quality in Pownal, and energy bills are already too high. We must begin taking seriously the impact that today’s decisions will have on our great-grandchildren.”
She said she supports responsible and sustainable growth, adding that the proposed moratorium “would require the Conservation Commission and the Planning Commission to work together to determine what sort of potential development we could work to attract. Moratoriums on (large power- and water-using) data centers are one of the only issues folks on the left and right are in agreement over. If some tech billionaire wants to make more money off of data centers, they can damn well do it somewhere else. Not Pownal.”
Lawmakers supportive
On the state level, Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington District, and Rep. Jonathan Cooper, D-Pownal, agreed that the town is right to try to protect its interests.
A bill to regulate large data centers “sailed through both chambers on its way to the governor, because it was designed to protect towns like Pownal from situations like this,” Cooper said Monday in an email. “The bill (H.727) had remarkably broad support: It was unanimously passed out of a committee with five Democrats, three Republicans, and one independent. It was subject to just one roll call vote on its way to the governor, and that was 26-3 in favor of the bill.”
He added, “I applaud the town select board for listening to its residents, but I worry that in the absence of state law the town will not be able to rely on services of the Attorney General’s office if there is a challenge to the moratorium.”
The Legislature will return to this topic in the next session, Cooper said, adding, “What little opposition the bill actually garnered while it was in the Legislature tended to focus on the unlikelihood of the state needing such regulation, and the adequacy of our existing framework to manage this new phenomenon. I don’t think too many Vermonters are taking great comfort in that line of thinking.”
‘A balanced bill’
Bongartz said in an email: “We passed a balanced data center bill this past session. It controlled water usage and noise. It also required that any center be deemed to be in the public interest, either via building new transmission capacity and/or lowering rates for other users.”
He added, “For reasons that are unfathomable to me, (Gov. Scott) vetoed that bill and left us exposed to an application for a data center with no guardrails in place. His explanation made no sense.”
Scott has contended that Vermont already has strong environmental and other regulations in place to consider applications for permits for data centers.
Bongartz said, however, that the Pownal board “is right to be concerned. A moratorium makes sense until we can get a comprehensive bill regulating the environmental and social impacts of data centers through the Legislature and signed by the governor.”
Last year’s final bill version “will likely get reintroduced,” he said. “It will then likely get amended to some degree as it works its way through the committee process. I do not see it getting weaker. People want to be protected.”
