Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) and Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) partnered with panelists from the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to host a town hall Tuesday discussing proposed legislation to regulate data centers in Illinois.

The POWER Act (Protecting Our Water, Energy and Ratepayers Act), which was first introduced to the House by Rep. Robyn Gabel (D) in February, aims to establish comprehensive environmental, water and energy regulations on hyperscale data centers in Illinois. 

An audience of more than 50 Chicago-area residents attended Tuesday’s town hall. Williams began by taking a poll of the crowd’s feelings on data centers; many attendees indicated they felt negatively about them. 

Williams said data centers are one of the few issues uniting the country at this moment. 

“A lot of people don’t like data centers, no matter how you identify in terms of your political affiliation,” she said. 

Data centers have been a fixture in national headlines as the artificial intelligence boom has fueled an increasing need for computer power. As of August, it’s estimated there are between 3,500 and nearly 5,000 data centers either operational or planned to be built in the U.S. today. Nearly 180 of those data centers are in Illinois — 101 of which are in Cook County. 

Attendees of Tuesday’s town hall echoed the concerns about data centers that are sweeping the nation. Some said they worried about data centers’ unregulated pollution, massive water and land use, strain on the power grid, loud noises, harm to wildlife and impact on property taxes. 

Recent legislative efforts in Illinois are attempting to crackdown on data centers. This summer, Gov. JB Pritzker paused all new state tax incentives for data centers. Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced an ordinance Wednesday that would ban data centers in Chicago for a year until the city is able to create regulations for them. 

For Williams and Cassidy, the POWER Act is an opportunity for Illinois to lead the nation in regulating data centers. 

What would the POWER ACT do? 

The POWER ACT, sponsored by both Williams and Cassidy, would place extensive guardrails on data centers in Illinois to protect energy, water and communities’ health. 

It would establish “Bring Your Own New Clean Capacity and Energy” supply plans, requiring data centers to show how they will power their operations with their own renewable energy sources and battery storage projects. It also establishes tariffs for hyperscale data centers. And before signing a contract to power a large data center, municipalities or electric cooperatives would have to ensure data center costs are not passed to ratepayers. 

To protect the state’s water resources, the bill requires data centers to report their estimated and actual water use, including where they obtain their water and how much they’re using. Data centers use water to cool the heat produced by their servers. The proposed legislation would force data centers to assess cooling alternatives and adopt water practices that are “at least as efficient” as closed-loop cooling (when a data center re-uses its water). 

Jizelle Torres, climate and energy program assistant with Prairie Rivers Network, spoke at Tuesday’s panel. Torres said large water users are supposed to report their water usage to the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS), but the state currently has no way of enforcing water monitoring and reporting. Under the bill, the ISWS would review data centers’ water use plans and report their impact on the state’s water supply. 

To limit air pollution, the bill would ban the use of back-up diesel generators, outside of “true emergencies.” It would also prohibit data centers from being located within three miles of Environmental Justice or Equity Investment Eligible Communities, areas where people have been disproportionately impacted by pollution or excluded from economic opportunities, unless the Illinois EPA determines a data center wouldn’t cause harm to those communities. 

Data centers will also have to work with the communities they’re located in to create binding Community Benefits Agreements, in which neighbors can make specific rules for data centers. Data centers would have to pay public benefit funds to make energy more affordable for consumers and pay intervenor funds in case a community needs to take legal action against a data center. 

Community response

Some attendees at Tuesday’s town hall felt the proposed legislation was lackluster and asked the panel why Illinois isn’t creating a bill to ban data centers altogether. 

Panelist Kavi Chintam, campaign manager at Vote Solar, said because Illinois shares its power grid with neighboring states, banning data centers completely wouldn’t protect the state from the strain put on the grid by out-of-state data centers.

Instead, Cassidy said the legislation is a step to “control what you can.” 

“Chicago doesn’t dictate what the rest of the state can do, and getting to 60 votes on any of these things means balancing,” Cassidy said during the town hall. “I don’t think that we could get 60 votes to ban data centers even if it was a good idea…This is really because we share that (power) grid, and we have this opportunity to put guardrails in place and really lead the nation.”

The Daily Line spoke to Chicago resident Beth Kotz who attended the town hall. She said she works in the water industry, and she’s worried about the negative impact data centers have on the environment and human life.

Kotz said she was glad the representatives hosted the town hall, but still felt concerned about the future of data centers in the state. 

“We’re trying to control what we can control, but at the same time, it’s like a Band-Aid over a gaping wound,” she said. 

Where does the POWER Act stand now? 

The POWER Act did not pass the General Assembly by its spring deadline this year after being referred to the House Rules Committee in March. Williams and Cassidy urged town hall attendees to contact their legislators to sponsor the bill. 

The General Assembly will not return until its fall veto session on Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3. Cassidy declined to speak with The Daily Line on Tuesday. Representatives for Williams and Cassidy did not respond to inquiries about the status of the bill by the time of publishing.