{"id":219711,"date":"2026-03-04T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/jim-willard-dont-let-vermont-miss-the-ai-boom\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:10:11","slug":"jim-willard-dont-let-vermont-miss-the-ai-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/jim-willard-dont-let-vermont-miss-the-ai-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Willard: Don\u2019t let Vermont miss the AI boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Willard: Don\u2019t let Vermont miss the AI boom<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2026\/03\/04\/jim-willard-dont-let-vermont-miss-the-ai-boom\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-04 07:05:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: vtdigger.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Editor,<\/p>\n

Where many people see risk, they should seek opportunity instead.<\/p>\n

Some very large companies with deep pockets are desperate to find places to build artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, thanks to resistance in many states. Amazon recently announced a $12 billion data-center expansion, and Google has signed long-term power deals to support new facilities. Vermont is desperate to solve systemic and intertwined problems, including lack of affordable housing, not enough young families and employees, affordable health care and stable electric and energy costs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/h5>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"VermontMeta\u2019s Stanton Springs Data Center is seen Jan. 13, 2026, in Newton County, East of Atlanta. Photo by Mike Stewart\/AP<\/p>\n

” data-medium-file=”https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP26013738451049-300×169.jpg” data-large-file=”https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP26013738451049-1200×675.jpg”\/\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby<\/span> Austyn Gaffney<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 24, 2026, 3:38 pmFebruary 25, 2026, 11:22 pm\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A Google, Microsoft or Amazon entity could come into the state \u2014 as IBM did decades ago, transforming much of Vermont\u2019s economy for the better \u2014 to build data centers in return for lower (not higher) electricity prices for residential consumers, achieved by spreading fixed costs over a broader customer base, and providing affordable housing for those who would support the centers. Vermont can negotiate community benefit agreements with AI companies, including commitments to infrastructure improvements, workforce investment and other local priorities. AI is not going away; the economic growth potential for any community that supports AI is huge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This may sound unrealistic and unacceptable to some anti-business, keep-Vermont-small types. \u00a0 But the Googles, Amazons and Microsofts of the world have deep…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Willard: Don\u2019t let Vermont miss the AI boom https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2026\/03\/04\/jim-willard-dont-let-vermont-miss-the-ai-boom\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-04 07:05:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Letters-to-the-editor_featured-image-25.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219713,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219711\/revisions\/219713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}