Protect our water, energy, and ratepayers from data center harms!

Illinois must act to protect our water, energy, and ratepayers from data centers!

As your constituent, I ask you to urgently co-sponsor and vote yes on the POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) to protect our water, energy, and ratepayers from data center harms. While the legislature thankfully passed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act last year to mitigate rising utility bills and protect our power grid, it’s now time for Big Tech to be held accountable for their outsized impact on driving up energy prices, polluting our communities, and consuming massive amounts of water. 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 water users, and the full impact of water use and water pollution on local communities is not yet fully understood. Data centers are not required to report or disclose how much water they use and consume each day and therefore aren’t even keeping track. Our communities need transparency to be able to plan for water demand, sustainably manage water use to prevent depletion of aquifers, appropriately adapt water and wastewater rates to protect consumers, 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. Absent stronger policies, data centers will undoubtedly increase pollution, drive up bills, threaten our water supply, and imperil our climate. The POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) prioritizes commonsense guardrails to minimize these impacts and hold data centers accountable for paying their fair share. The bill prohibits shifting data center costs onto consumers to ensure that, during peak electricity demand, data centers can only use the amount of power proportional to the amount of new clean energy they bring to the 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. Among important environmental justice provisions, the legislation protects frontline 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. Importantly, the POWER Act also establishes sustainable water use, transparent reporting, and consumer protection requirements to ensure our valuable water resources are used responsibly while preventing pollution to our precious water resources. The bottom line: data centers should cover their own costs and bring their own clean power to the grid. With the POWER Act, Illinois has the opportunity to continue its leadership on climate and protect our water resources and frontline communities. I urge you to co-sponsor and vote yes on the POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) in the spring legislative session. Thank you for your time.