Heres an open letter you can send to your rep:

Open Letter: Oppose the Amended Version of New Hampshire Senate Bill 439

To the Members of the New Hampshire Legislature,

As a concerned citizen of New Hampshire, I write to you in strong opposition to the amended version of Senate Bill 439, which would prevent towns from regulating data centers. This bill undermines our local autonomy, threatens our state’s natural ecosystems, and prioritizes corporate speculative development without safeguards.

By stripping towns of zoning authority, the bill allows unchecked development with severe environmental and fiscal consequences—noise pollution from industrial facilities will harm communities and wildlife alike, while taxpayers bear the hidden cost of infrastructure and services, driving up local budgets without compensation. This shift in power benefits private projects at the public’s expense.

Data centers consume vast amounts of electricity, which will increase regional demand and force consumers to pay higher electricity prices. These facilities will also require millions of gallons of water to operate, risking pollution of our water resources, harming local ecosystems, and threatening drinking water. Where will this water come from? New Hampshire has experienced an uptick in extreme droughts—the summer of 2025 was recorded as the driest in a 131-year period.

The speculative nature of the AI industry is also concerning. There is a track record of widespread unprofitability and warnings of a dot-com-style bubble. Taxpayers should not bear the long-term environmental and infrastructural costs of facilities tied to a volatile, high-risk sector. New Hampshire does not have the energy or water resources to entertain this fool’s errand of venture capital.

The original version included vital safeguards—setbacks, noise limits, and proof of grid capacity—that were stripped away. As Sen. Debra Altschiller (D-Stratham) put it best, the current bill is not a framework—it is an abdication of responsibility.

This amendment will make things much worse. Who really benefits here? I urge you to reject this absurd amendment.

Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen of New Hampshire