One of the reasons a giant energy-related bill failed to pass the Illinois General Assembly last spring was because organized labor remained neutral. At least one union opposed the bill, but overall, the unions weren’t helping to move the ball forward — and they have a whole lot of much-needed legislative muscle.
That’s why the goal of the majority Democrats has always been to have support from unions and the major environmental groups when it comes to these big energy bills. And this one was big. A major electricity storage program and an amped-up energy-efficiency component were just two of the items.
But last week, a top official with the Illinois AFL-CIO confirmed the organization is still neutral on language being circulated by negotiators.
Unions often tend to support their employers on issues like this. If something is going poorly for an employer of large numbers of union workers, then (unless the employers are viewed as hostile) the unions will push to improve their lot. This is particularly true in the public utility and energy spaces and has been forever.
So, what’s the issue here? Well one of them is data centers. An environmental lobbyist expressed dismay last week, saying labor support for building more data centers has a 50/50 chance of derailing the entire energy omnibus process.
John Pletz recently had a very comprehensive and informative story about the data center industry in Crain’s Chicago Business.
Bottom line, the industry says the state’s Biometric and Information Privacy Act is stalling construction of new data centers, which generate millions of dollars in local taxes and employ union workers.
For your background, the Legislature did not include data centers when it revised the law in 2024 to protect many businesses from gigantic lawsuits for collecting biometric data without informed consent. The data centers want the same sort of protections for allowing customers to store biometric information in “the cloud.” Others say they’re already covered by the law, but the companies still don’t want to take any chances in court.
Pletz’s piece included some strong statements of support for the data centers’ position from a business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134. About half the local’s membership works in data centers, which rely on lots of trained electricians to keep the centers running. They’re becoming a vital source of jobs in an era where big Downtown Chicago construction projects have dried up.
The legislative working group on energy has people discussing data centers (which use a ton of electricity and water). And, because of that, the issue has seeped into the energy bill talks.
There are those who say a compromise could be reached. A couple of the “hyperscalers,” who operate gigantic data centers, want to be exempted from the Biometric and Information Privacy Act for doing things like using facial recognition in artificial intelligence learning. But that’s probably impossible to pass, say some negotiation participants.
Instead, the idea is to grant the data centers their more modest ask of being treated like other businesses under the act. That could reopen the doors here to more construction and likely prevent neighboring states from poaching the centers, possibly polluting shared air with purpose-built natural gas electricity plants, draining shared water and sucking up electricity from the shared grid system, without any Illinois benefit. In return, some reforms could be put into the bill, particularly on transparency of water and electrical usage and banning the use of diesel backup generators.
But there’s a big problem with this plan. The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association is expected to hotly oppose any effort to block or limit lawsuits, which is what they always do. Labor and trial lawyers association are historical allies, and they’re both very prominent members of the Democratic Party’s coalition, so some unions have been given the task of neutralizing the trial lawyers. I talked with a lawyers association executive late last week who said he has not yet been approached about this topic in relation to the energy bill. Either way, it’s up to the unions to resolve the dispute.
Would resolving this issue break the logjam and bring labor on board? I have no idea. There are so many moving pieces right now that it’s impossible to tell. But what I do know is that if the unions aren’t somehow moved to proponent status, or if the two issues can’t be separated from each other into two different bills, the energy legislation is in a world of hurt come the fall veto session.
- Bellville Bruce - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 9:20 am:
“It remains to be seen” is a bit different than “he didn’t think the energy bill would pass this fall” no?
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 9:33 am:
Seems like a red herring argument, to accomplish the actual goal of further weakening BIPA. It’s had a target on its back since it was passed.
With a secondary goal of acquiring more unique data at no cost to train AI.
The listed ‘concerns’ of data centers being treated like other businesses doesn’t make much sense from a technical standpoint. The language in the law only distinguishes between private and public entities. There is no more fine-grained delineation for types of private businesses in the law. The law is clear - get consent and you can have your customers biometric data. The argument being made is that your consent isn’t necessary for free use of your own data.
From the BIPA legislation;
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“Private entity” means any individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, or other group, however organized. A private entity does not include a State or local government agency.
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The only other option a business could possibly want, is to be treated the same as a public agency. Which is probably the actual intent within the C-suite. The argument they might end up in court due to an overzealous plaintiff will still exist no matter what the law says.
Democrats should be pushing for this law to be expanded and enacted in other states. That would also resolve, before it had a chance to gain any traction, the other likely concern industry would argue for of ‘we have a patchwork of different laws around the country’.
Democrats should be working to strengthen the concepts of BIPA, and encourage its passage in other states. Instead, it appears the stage is being set for Democrats to cave to the industry. We’ve already lost the argument about who owns your data, now we’re working on losing the argument about consent.
- RNUG - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 9:40 am:
== banning the use of diesel backup generators ==
1) Backup diesel generators, for the most part, don’t run that often. Generally speaking, they run a half hour once every week or two, sometimes only once a month, to ensure the units are in working condition. The only time the units run for an extended period are in the case of a power grid supply failure.
2) Even the State’s own data centers have a combination of short (minutes) battery backup with diesel generators for longer outages. That is pretty much the standard for power backup.
3) While natural gas generators could be / are an alternative, the fact is natural gas supplies could be disrupted. You typically don’t store natural gas onsite due to flammability and explosion risks. Diesel, on the other hand, is much more stable and safer to store onsite, especially if in a tank placed underground.
They should seriously consider scrapping that portion of the bill.
- Center Drift - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 10:05 am:
Priorities need to be kept in mind. For the public, privacy is important but equally important is maintaining sufficient baseload generation. These massive data centers will suck up electricity and unless we allow adequate generation there could be real problems. for once, Illinois legislators need to think beyond their special interest supporters. They were voted in to represent all citizens. We need to open up to all forms of electrical production or mandate that the data centers include their own electrical generation capacity before they can open for business.
- Oklahoma - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 10:11 am:
Little boxes, on the hillside
little boxes, filled with data centers
Little boxes, on the hillside
Little boxes, all the same
- NorthSideNoMore - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 10:19 am:
Supply and demand economics. Data centers cause a huge drain on the system and electric utilities have to build more substations to accommodate the need, so they ask for more on the monthly bill. Price goes up based on demand, the grid is not ready for all the potential demand that could exceed capacity faster than it can be built. Residential consumers get hit with increases as a result of the increased demand.
- ArchPundit - Monday, Sep 29, 25 @ 10:29 am:
—-They should seriously consider scrapping that portion of the bill.
Battery prices have fallen enough there really is no need for diesel generators on new construction. Add to it the new sodium-ion batteries that are developed we should be setting the standards to the current technology not diesel.