A key Senate committee on Wednesday gave bipartisan support to the concept of letting a municipality put in place an 18-month moratorium on data center development, but it shunned the notion of one lasting three years.

In separate votes, the Senate Local Government Committee passed two different data center moratorium bills. The votes occurred as municipalities across the state are struggling to accommodate data center proposals that are complex, unpopular, and often accompanied by many unanswered questions.

One bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Jarrett Coleman of Lehigh County, would let municipalities put in place an 18-month moratorium on the filing or consideration of documents on “high impact” data centers. The other, which was sponsored by Democratic Rep. Paul Friel of Chester County and has already passed the House, allows municipalities to enact a six-month moratorium.

But when Republican Sen. Rosemary Brown of Monroe County – whose district has seen multiple controversial data center proposals – proposed changing the Coleman bill to a statewide, three-year moratorium, there was bipartisan pushback.

“I personally think three years is too long,” said Democratic Sen. Patty Kim of Dauphin County.

Republican Sen. Dawn Keefer of York County, the Republican chair of the committee, said data center moratorium decisions should be in the hands of local officials. Keefer said that the state “coming in and usurping those local powers is not constitutional.”

The Brown amendment proposing the three-year moratorium was rejected by a 9-2 vote.

Immediately afterward, the Coleman bill was approved by the committee via a 10-1 vote, with Democratic Sen. Tim Kearney of Chester County the only dissenter.

Coleman said local property owners have “certain inalienable rights” that are being trampled by data center proposals.

“Our communities need some breathing room,” Coleman said. “Frankly, so does the Commonwealth.”

In a separate vote, the committee gave unanimous approval to the Friel bill. Speaking to the committee, Friel called it a “practical and balanced solution.”

A spokesperson for a high-profile non-profit group in the data center debate, Food & Water Watch, dismissed the committee-passed bills.

“These two bills are not the statewide three-year moratorium that Pennsylvanians want and are in need of,” said spokesperson Ginny Marcille-Kerslake.

Many members of her group – whose efforts have helped draw public attention to troubling situations surrounding data center proposals in various locales – contacted senators before the meeting, Marcille-Kerslake said. They sought support for a bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Katie Muth of Chester County for a three-year moratorium, but “these two bills were advanced instead.”

The pair of bills now go to the full Senate for consideration.