Hours after rejecting a bill to prohibit Arizona counties from regulating small nuclear reactors that are co-located with data centers and other large energy users, the Arizona House of Representatives approved a different bill with nearly identical language.

The proposals are expanded versions of a bill that Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed last year that would have allowed the reactors in rural counties without regulatory oversight.

When House Bill 2456 came up for a vote early in a marathon voting session that began Wednesday evening, it was met with opposition from a sizable portion of the Republican majority.

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“‘Shall adopt rules.’ Whenever you see those three words next to each other (in a bill), it is a pretty good bet I’m going to vote no,” Representative Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, said when explaining why he was voting against the bill from fellow Republican Representative Justin Wilmeth.

The bill was voted down, 22-32.

But several hours later, as the clock neared midnight, nearly identical legislation sponsored by Buckeye Republican Michael Carbone, the No. 2 GOP lawmaker in the chamber, won the approval of Kolodin and the other seven Republicans who voted against Wilmeth’s bill and passed along party lines.

The Republicans who backed Carbone’s House Bill 2795 after opposing HB2456 were Ralph Heap, Rachel Keshel, Kolodin, David Marshall, Justin Olson, Khyl Powell, Michael Way and Julie Willoughby.

Nuclear reactor advocacy groups have raised more than $1.5 billion to push for the tiny nuclear power plants amid the ongoing AI boom. Generative artificial intelligence, like Chat GPT and others, is built on an ever expanding network of data centers, which require large amounts of power.

Small modular reactors, or SMRs, are a relatively new technology, and the Union of Concerned Scientists has said that many of the perceived benefits have either not been proven or are not true at all. Other states have started looking into the technology, as well,with mixed results. None have yet been built in the United States.

The principle difference between Wilmeth and Carbone’s bills is that the latter requires that data centers or other large energy users who wish to build an on-site SMR must apply for federal permits.

Three Republicans — Pamela Carter, Kolodin and Willoughby — also joined with Democrats to kill another Wilmeth bill, House Bill 2457, which would have allowed a utility company to build a new power plant without an environmental compatibility certificate if the plant is co-located with “an extra high load factor customer.”

Yet another Wilmeth bill aimed at easing access to power for data centers, House Bill 2452, was rejected. The measure would have mandated that counties include SMRs and data centers as part of their comprehensive plans. It failed on a 25-29 vote, with Republicans Lisa Fink, Heal, Keshel, Kolodin, Olson and Beverly Pingerelli voting against it.

Another data center bill by Representative Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, which would have had the Arizona State Land Department work with data center companies to create a map of best locations for data centers on state land, also failed.

Polling from last year showed that voters largely disapproved of fast-tracking data centers.