A bipartisan majority of the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to table a bill that would have limited towns’ abilities to regulate data centers within their borders.
Rep. Keith Ammon, R-New Boston, made the motion to table the bill during a busy House session on Thursday, May 14. The motion passed, 304-11, without further discussion.
Ammon and Rep. Diane Pauer, R-Brookline, are co-authors of an amendment to the bill that split the House Committee on Municipal and County Government on party lines in early May. The amendment would have prevented towns from enacting regulations specific to data centers and would have made data centers a permitted land use “by right” in commercially and industrially zoned areas.
That language was a departure from the bill as it was originally introduced by prime sponsor Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham. In its original form, the bill sought to establish certain aesthetic and pollution controls for data centers and to enshrine towns’ ability to regulate them further through local zoning rules.
On May 5, when the amendment was discussed in committee, Pauer said it was important not to regulate data centers differently from other industries. Democrats on the committee raised concerns about the environmental impacts of the centers, including heat generation, water consumption, and noise pollution. They also questioned whether New Hampshire had the resources, including electrical capacity, to sustain the centers.
The committee, of which Pauer is chair, voted 11-9 on May 5 in favor of passing the amended bill. That division was a break from the national trend of bipartisan opposition to data centers, though Thursday’s motion by the full House was more in line with it.
After the House tabled the measure, the chamber’s Democrats released a statement praising the move.
Rep. Laurel Stavis, D-Lebanon, who is the ranking member on the House Committee on Municipal and County Government, said in the statement that the committee would continue its work to create a framework for data center regulation in New Hampshire this summer.