ANR Secretary Julie Moore Testifies Before Congress
Vermont’s secretary of natural resources said she supported a federal bill aimed at limiting cost hikes for water ratepayers associated with large data centers.
Vermont’s secretary of natural resources testified before a U.S. Congressional committee last week in support of a bill that would direct states to limit the costs consumers shoulder for the water used by data centers.
Julie Moore told lawmakers she supports “requiring owners and operators to help pay for the water infrastructure impacts they create,” as well as studying the potential impacts data centers could have on nearby water sources.
Her testimony in Washington, D.C. — a rarity for Vermont officials — came just months after her boss, Republican Gov. Phil Scott, vetoed a tripartisan bill in Vermont that would have created a new regulatory framework for large data centers in the state, including measures that are similar to those proposed in the federal legislation.
Two of the Vermont bill’s leading supporters said they were surprised to hear the secretary’s testimony given Scott has continued, as recently as last week, to say he does not think Vermont needs new state-level regulations aimed at data centers.
Many of the facilities, which provide the computing power behind the boom in artificial intelligence technology, consume massive amounts of water for cooling and other purposes. In some cases, data centers built in recent years have faced backlash for discharging pollutants into local waterways. Vermont’s bill was wide-ranging and included far more than just water regulations — but Moore was nevertheless conveying to Congress some of its key goals, said Dan Fingas, the executive director of Vermont Conservation Voters. That’s one of the organizations that lobbied for the bill this year.
“I do think there’s a contradiction,” he said in an interview. “This testimony from Secretary Moore to Congress shows that they’ve already seen areas where Vermont is left unprotected — or, at least, needs more protection.”
Moore, in an interview, pushed back on that characterization. She said her testimony was unrelated to the reasons Scott rejected the bill, namely that he believes Vermont already has sufficient regulations in place to scrutinize a proposed large data center and that the bill went too far by subjecting the facilities to overly burdensome standards.
The Scott administration broadly supports the principle that ratepayers living near a data center should not have to pay higher costs to accommodate it, she said — but “that wasn’t at the crux of the governor’s veto.”
Her testimony comes as debate over how Vermont communities should prepare for the possible development of a data center has continued apace. In the absence of a state law, three cities and towns have passed regulations aimed at prohibiting data centers, at least temporarily, Seven Days reported Wednesday. In Vernon, one company has eyed the former Vermont Yankee site for a data center project, or something else, it has said.
