WORTHINGTON, Mass. — Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll left a listening session in Worthington about halfway through, as residents fighting a proposed solar array and battery system pressed them on why state rules let communities block data centers but limit what towns can do about solar.

"I'm sorry, but the LG and I are gonna have to excuse ourselves now," Healey said about an hour and a half into the session, according to a recording posted Friday. The full recording runs nearly three hours. Members of the administration's team stayed to hear more comments, and Healey said, "We'll be back."

A state official had told the room near the start that the governor and lieutenant governor might not be able to stay for the whole session.

"I've learned a lot just listening," Healey said before leaving.

Earlier, one resident cited Healey's Sept. 8 executive order on data centers and asked why Massachusetts gives communities "such a consequential voice over data center development" while constraining local discretion over large solar and battery storage projects.

"I acted because this stuff is moving really quickly, and I did not want to see happen in Massachusetts what I've already seen happen in Arizona and Texas," Healey said. She said the order "starts with the premise if the community says no, it's not happening."

The order bars state agencies from advancing permits for data centers with peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts unless the developer has a community benefits agreement with the host community, according to the governor's office.

A member of the administration's panel said the environmental impacts of data centers, including water use, power consumption and noise, are "orders of magnitude more significant than battery and solar."

Driscoll, a former mayor of Salem, said energy projects have long been subject to "outsize state and federal oversight" because energy is in the public interest. "We don't have as much control over energy siting, to be clear, uh, under current policies," she said.

A divided town

The project at issue is a BlueWave Solar proposal for 7,462 ground-mounted agrivoltaic panels and a battery system on a field off Ridge Road, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Agrivoltaic panels are raised high enough to allow farming underneath.

Opponents told state officials the town's volunteer boards are outmatched. A member of the town's Board of Health said the developer has been bought by a Canadian private equity firm and questioned its long-term commitment to the town.

Another resident said towns can't afford to fight solar companies in court. "If there is a lawsuit, they win every time," she said. "The only thing that could be worse than what we're in right now as a town is having someone else come in and make the decision for us."

Several speakers raised fire safety, saying volunteer departments in the hilltowns have few members free during the day and little water on hand. Healey said she supports regionalizing emergency services. "I too grew up with a volunteer fire department," she said. "Mutual aid alone won't cut it."

The project also has supporters. A co-owner of the land said the array would let the family keep it as a working farm and would "cleanly power 1,800 homes." She urged state leaders to stress "that farms are the lifeblood of Massachusetts." A man who said he has hayed the field for 21 years told the room it would be "the best solar field there is in Massachusetts."

New rules, limited reach

State law has long barred towns from unreasonably regulating solar except to protect public health, safety or welfare. Energy Undersecretary Mike Judge said new state siting rules let towns impose conditions or ask for mitigation based on a site's environmental scores, which he called a significant change.

A Board of Selectmen member said one weakness of the new process is that applicants, not towns, get to choose whether to use it. An administration official said the state will likely revisit that decision.

Healey faces Republican Michael Minogue in Tuesday's election.