TOP SENATE DEMOCRATS are openly wary of the risks posed by artificial intelligence — but they’re not yet willing to block the facilities that power it from calling Massachusetts home.

Sen. Michael Moore, a Democrat representing areas in and around Worcester, filed an amendment that would impose a one-year moratorium on new data centers in the state to a sprawling economic development package the chamber passed late Thursday night.

Thirteen senators in total signed on to the measure — a sizable chunk of the 40-member body. And Moore told CommonWealth Beacon that he was “working the room,” believing that he had even broader support.

Though both the House and Gov. Maura Healey would have had to approve the provision for it to become law, Senate passage of the moratorium would have ushered in intense discussion over the potential for a major potential policy shift on what has quickly become a hot-button issue around the country.

But the proposal ended in a whimper, crashing out as just one of nearly 600 amendments the chamber considered as part of the larger bill.

Moore said that Senate leaders, including Ways and Means chair Michael Rodrigues and Sen. Barry Finegold, who co-chairs the joint economic development committee, told him that they did not support a moratorium.

It would be the second time within a month that Moore’s data center moratorium pitch has been shot down after a proposed amendment to the energy bill the Senate passed last month also failed to advance.

Moore said that he informed leadership he was planning to request a roll call vote to force members to take a position and see if it would pass — but was told by Rodrigues and Finegold that even if it did succeed, Senate leaders said there wouldn’t be the necessary support to make it through a conference committee in which the House and Senate reconcile differences between their two economic development bills.

So in the end, he withdrew his amendment, in addition to a second that would have required data centers be powered with 100 percent renewable energy and ensure that residential ratepayers aren’t burdened with extra costs associated with the increased electricity demand.

“There’s a disagreement,” Moore said in an interview. “I think there’s a need for it. It’s a missed opportunity.”

A spokesperson for Rodrigues didn’t immediately return a request for comment, and a spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka referred CommonWealth Beacon to Finegold.

Finegold didn’t speak directly to questions about data centers, Moore’s amendments, and Moore’s characterization of events, instead saying in a statement that “there were many good economic development policy proposals, but we could not consider them all in this one bill.”

To be a leader on AI the US needs data centers to house massive networks of data — but a backlash has taken root over the effect the facilities’ heavy energy and water consumption will have on the communities in which they locate.

Elected officials nationwide across the political spectrum have been wrestling with the shifting politics around data centers. Some progressive Democrats in Congress have pushed for a national moratorium, and President Trump has called for shielding ratepayers from any costs associated with increased power demand. And a new poll finds that Americans have increasingly soured on their support for the facilities.

Those tensions have ensnared Beacon Hill, where Massachusetts Democrats are now trying to figure out where to land on the issue.

Healey, a vocal proponent of AI and the tech sector, signed a data center tax credit into law in 2024. After her administration took 18 months to finalize the tax break, Healey then paused it less than two months after it took effect and released a framework calling on data center developers to “bring your own clean energy.” She also previously said she doesn’t back a moratorium.

Lowell, home to a data center, enacted the state’s first municipal moratorium earlier this year. Other communities like Westfield and Holyoke have since followed. Lowell residents are now also suing the state for issuing the air permits for the facility there.

The back-and-forth nature of data center policy in Massachusetts raises the question: Do Bay State policymakers want to draw in these facilities, which can provide some jobs and property tax benefits, or not?

“Massachusetts is a great case study because while we have not seen those large-scale developments, the policies themselves show that yo-yoing around this issue,” said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association. “The tax credits for data centers were barely live before there were real active discussions, and then ultimately the pause on the tax credits put in place by the Healey administration. That, in and of itself, shows the perception of an economic development engine and opportunity to power a high-tech industry that the Commonwealth prides itself on, countered with the real physics of the electric grid and the public outcry on the impacts of data centers writ large.”

Moore said that he was told by Senate leaders that there isn’t a strong need for a moratorium because Massachusetts hasn’t yet emerged as a hub for data centers like other states. Plus, the issue was at least partially addressed in the energy bill the chamber passed earlier this month, which included a requirement that data centers meet certain clean energy, water conservation, and labor requirements to qualify for tax credits.

But for Moore, the Senate leadership’s argument that data centers will not come to Massachusetts while tax credits to lure them here are on the books — albeit in flux after Healey paused them — is “a contradiction.”

Finegold, who also led the economic development committee when the data center tax credit was passed two years ago, said in an interview earlier this month that he’s comfortable with Healey’s decision to pause the tax breaks, but that the state needs to remain an attractive place for businesses to start and grow.

“We have to look at areas that we can compete on,” he said. “We can no longer, as a state, just sit back and say because we’re Massachusetts, companies are going to come here. No, we have to compete.”

The fragility of the data center issue for Massachusetts Democrats was scrambled further by a historic crackdown taken in a bordering state: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent move to enact the country’s first statewide moratorium. Her action, taken by executive order, also seeks legislation to repeal state tax breaks for data centers.

That step is contrasted by Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ move to veto a data center moratorium passed by legislators in her state earlier this year.

In Massachusetts, Chris Anderson, president of the state’s High Technology Council, a coalition of tech executives, sounded the alarm over proposals like Moore’s that he said would run counter to broader efforts to make the state’s economy more competitive and drive down costs in an affordability crisis.

“While we share the goal of ensuring responsible energy and water use, imposing mandates that make it more difficult or costly to develop data centers here would simply drive investment, jobs, and innovation to competing states,” he said in a statement. “The Senate’s decision to reject this amendment recognizes that our competitiveness depends on attracting — not discouraging — the infrastructure that powers the next generation of artificial intelligence, scientific research, and technology-driven economic growth.”

Don’t expect the issue to go away, though, as quietly as Moore’s amendments did.

He vowed to “watch for other vehicles that come up between now and the end of the session” to gain traction on his moratorium push.