Today is Earth Day — and this year, one of the most important things you can do to protect Vermont’s climate future has nothing to do with Washington, D.C. – it’s happening right here, in the State House in Montpelier.
You’ve probably heard about the massive boom in data centers nationwide, driven by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence.
But what you might not know is just how much electricity these facilities consume—and the risk that could pose to Vermont’s electric grid, your wallet, and Vermont’s climate pollution.
This week, the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee is considering H.727, a bill that will establish the rules of the road for any large data center looking to set up shop in Vermont.
When we say data centers use a lot of power, we mean a staggering amount.
To put it in perspective, a relatively “small” 20 megawatt data center uses roughly the same amount of electricity as 35,000 electric vehicles—which is nearly twice as many EVs as are currently on the road in the state.
Larger data centers proposed in neighboring states could use the equivalent of half of all the electric usage in the state of Vermont.
Meanwhile, a massive Meta data center planned in Louisiana will use 2,000 megawatts – or nearly three times the total annual electricity sales for our entire state.
Because these facilities use such incredible amounts of electricity, they have the potential to significantly drive up peak demand on our electric grid. If we don’t put strong guardrails in place, the massive new strain of even a “smaller” data center on the grid could end up driving up electric rates for everyday Vermonters.
That’s why we’ve been working with and urging legislators to pass a strong version of H.727.
We believe Vermont will be much better off if a data center comes to the state with this bill in place than without it.
But we need your help to make sure the final bill is as strong as possible. We are pushing for policies that ensure:
- Ratepayer Protection: Data centers must implement measures to make sure they don’t drive up electricity costs for the rest of us by spiking demand at the worst possible moments, and must be required to pay all the costs created by constructing and operating the data center.
- 100% New Renewables: Data centers must provide 100% of the electricity they use from new renewable energy, with as much of that as possible coming from in-state renewables and renewables built right on the data center. This requirement must be over and above what utilities already have to provide under the existing Renewable Energy Standard.
The data center industry is moving at lightning speed. We need to act proactively to ensure that if these facilities come to Vermont, they do so on our terms.
>> Please take a minute to email your senators today and ask them to support a strong H.727.
The question isn’t whether Vermont will have to grapple with this. The question is when, and whether we’ll do it on terms that protect Vermont ratepayers, support clean energy instead of more fossil fuels, and make sure Big Tech pays its own way.
Thank you for everything you do to keep Vermont moving forward.