As your constituent, I am asking you to co-sponsor and vote yes on the POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) to protect Illinoisans’ air, water, energy, and wallets from data center harms. While the legislature thankfully passed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act last year to mitigate fast rising utility bills, protect our power grid and cut dangerous pollution it’s time for Big Tech to be held accountable for their outsized impact on driving up ordinary consumers energy prices while polluting our communities.
Skyrocketing electricity prices are almost entirely driven by unprecedented demand from energy-intensive data center development, and research indicates that this development could largely be responsible for QUINTUPLING the annual growth in electricity demand nationally by 2030. What’s more, hyperscale data centers are massive energy and water users, and the full impact on local communities is not yet fully understood. Our communities need transparency to be able to plan for protecting our health, water demand, aquifer depletion, keeping utility rates low, and to ensure potentially toxic waste from data centers is properly regulated and discarded. Data centers also exacerbate environmental injustice and threaten Illinois’ landmark clean energy goals in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that are making our air healthier to breathe. Without stronger state policies, data centers will increase pollution, drive up bills, and imperil the climate we need to protect.
The POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) prioritizes commonsense guardrails to minimize impacts and holds data centers accountable for paying their fair share. It prohibits shifting data center costs onto consumers to ensure that, during periods of peak electricity demand, data centers can only use the amount of power proportional to the amount of new clean energy they bring to the power grid. In addition, data centers will be required to show how they will power their operations with new, clean, and affordable energy like wind, solar, and battery storage that don’t pollute our air and harm our health.
It also protects frontline overburdened communities by requiring that no data center be located within three miles of an Environmental Justice or Equity Investment Eligible Community unless an Illinois EPA cumulative impact assessment determines the project won’t increase health or environmental risks to the community. It also establishes sustainable water use, transparent reporting, and consumer protection requirements to ensure our valuable resources are used responsibly while preventing pollution.
In short, data centers should shoulder their own costs and bring their own clean power to the power grid - not put the damage and costs they create on Illinois residents. I urge you to co-sponsor and vote yes on the POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513).
