This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
New Hampshire’s Republican majority will pursue a moratorium on AI data centers, marking a policy shift after two new data centers were proposed in the capital region in recent weeks.
Senate President Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican, announced on Thursday that the Senate would explore legislation to “protect New Hampshire taxpayers from shouldering the costly demands of data center development and ensure our communities are not left to pay the price.”
She echoed recent sentiments from Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who said this summer that she supports a moratorium after public opposition to data center proposals continued to grow across the state.
“Large scale facilities can place significant demands on electricity and water, create noise and environmental impacts and require substantial infrastructure,” Carson said in a statement on Thursday. “While we can embrace technological innovation, we agree with Governor Ayotte that it cannot be at the expense of Granite State families.”
Two proposed data centers are on the capital region’s radar: one at the former Merrimack Station power plant in Bow and one at a vacant lot in East Concord. An unofficial plan for a data center in Nottingham was withdrawn in May after widespread public opposition.
Resistance to AI data centers is largely bipartisan, according to a recent UNH Survey Center poll, which found that 67% of New Hampshire residents either strongly or somewhat oppose local construction of data centers.
New Hampshire already has several data centers, though none are in the capital region.
Earlier this year, Republicans watered down a Democratic bill that would have imposed design and noise requirements on data centers and codified towns’ ability to adopt their own regulations. The bill, SB 439, ultimately did not pass.
“Republicans in the State House took that bill and gutted it, handing that power to developers instead of the people who actually live next to these projects. I watched them do it,” state Sen. Debra Altschiller, the Stratham Democrat who proposed that bill, said in a statement. “Now, eight months later and weeks before an election, they want credit for caring about the exact thing they tried to take away.”
New Hampshire’s next legislative session begins in January 2027.
