‘Right to Compute’ bill passes House, while proposed data center precautions flop
The New Hampshire House continued to take a hands-off attitude toward technology regulation during two busy session days Wednesday and Thursday.
Representatives passed a bill proposing a broad “right to computer” while rejecting other safeguard proposals aimed at data centers and artificial intelligence.
Parliamentary Bill 1124sponsored by Keith Ammon, Republican of New Boston, proposes enshrining the right of New Hampshire residents to “use computer tools” for any purpose, with exceptions for cases where the government deems such use dangerous to the public.
The bill passed the consent schedule by voice vote Wednesday. It reflects the language in an invoice template from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a conservative public policy organization that has promoted looser regulation for artificial intelligence.
In a March 13 email, Ammon compared computer rights to Americans’ constitutional right to free speech.
“Any combination of logic gates (i.e. AND, OR, NOT) that the government cannot demonstrate a compelling interest to stop is protected,” he said. “This reflects the First Amendment’s protection of the alphabet: the government cannot restrict how you combine letters without meeting the same high bar.”
Logic gates are the building blocks of computers, from those found in simple calculators to sprawling data centers.
Data centers were the focus of other bills passed Wednesday and Thursday.
One of these bills, rejected during the consent calendar, was Parliamentary Bill 1265. The proposal sought to establish a one-year moratorium on the construction of new data centers in New Hampshire and create a commission to study the environmental impact of the centers; it was sponsored by Dover Democratic Rep. Peter Schmidt.
This year, at least 10 other states weigh moratoriums on data centers, which have a significant energy and land footprint.
Meanwhile, from lead sponsor and Hollis Democratic Rep. Kat McGhee, House Bill 1722 proposed directing the Public Utilities Commission to establish a special rate class for “energy-intensive facilities.”
“This bill was introduced specifically to prevent large electricity-using businesses, like data centers, from increasing our electricity bills,” McGhee said on the House floor Thursday. She said other states have seen electricity rates rise as a result of the construction of data centers, which consume large amounts of electricity and can strain networks.
Other states, including Washington, Delaware and Florida, have adopted or are considering special pricing structures for data centers for some of the same reasons.
But Rep. Michael Vose, an Epping Republican, said existing review processes would account for excess data center costs and argued the bill would restrict data center development in New Hampshire.
“This bill is actually a bill in disguise that kills data centers,” he said.
The bill was rejected by a vote of 185 to 156.
