This story was originally produced by the Portsmouth Herald. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she now supports a moratorium on data centers in the Granite State.
“It does not make sense at all to site a data center in New Hampshire,” Ayotte said Aug. 20, in response to a question at the Rotary Club of Portsmouth. “We don't have the energy for it. It is not the appropriate location. I would support a moratorium on them because right now they do not make sense at all in terms of energy, environment or location.”
Ayotte, invited to speak before the club, took a question from a Rotarian concerned about the potential impacts of a large data center in New Hampshire. The governor recounted a conversation she had with the head of ISO New England in which she asked how data centers could alter energy costs for ratepayers.
“I said to him, ‘What are the impacts of data centers on energy prices?’ Because I want to reduce energy prices. I don't want them to increase,” Ayotte said Thursday. “We cannot have a data center here in New Hampshire because, literally, he said New England can only maybe get one, and not of a massive size, in all of New England, without jacking up energy prices on people.”
Read more of this story at Seacoastonline.
