House panel reviews bill to regulate large data centers, citing ratepayer, water and siting concerns

Representative Kathleen James convened a House Energy and Digital Infrastructure committee meeting that opened with a walkthrough of H.727, identified in testimony as the "Vermont Sustainable Data Centers Act," aimed at establishing state rules for large, power‑intensive data centers.

The bill sponsor said the measure is intended to "create clarity" before proposals arrive and noted that data centers "use an extraordinary amount of electricity, water," produce community noise, and typically contribute property tax revenue but relatively few permanent local jobs. Maria Royal of Legislative Council told the committee the draft targets facilities with the capacity to use at least 20 megawatts of power and described the bill’s structure: a separate PUC tariff/rate class, siting criteria tied to a Certificate of Public Good (CPG), demand‑side management requirements, reporting and disclosure, and PUC rulemaking authority.

Why it matters: Royal flagged several practical effects of a large facility of this scale — she cited that 20 megawatts is roughly equivalent to powering about 15,000 homes and that some large facilities can pull about 1,000,000 gallons of water per day for cooling —…