Q: There’s a lot of talk here about the possibility of data centers coming here. What’s your view on those?
Pritzker: I think you know that I’ve been pushing, and did push, in fact, to have some regulations put in place. So that I think on several fronts we would demand that data center operators pay for their own power, making sure that they’re either bringing power with them or they’re paying rates that would make sure that no one in the area is paying a higher rate than they would otherwise. So that’s on electricity, and of course we need to produce more electricity, so whether it’s solar fields or other kinds of maybe a small modular nuclear device, that that’s something we should be thinking about requiring of data center providers.
Second, is of course we need to make sure that they’re recycling water that they’re using, so that they’re not, you know, taking water out of the local community, you know. We’re, I think, our state is well known to be one that has fresh water more than almost any other state. We, we have about 20% of the world’s fresh water that’s either on the shores of the state or in the rivers or underneath. Aquifers, we also are 80% of the US is fresh water. We need to guard that, and we need to make sure that people are paying their utility bills aren’t paying for the utilities that are being used by those data centers.
And then, lastly, I think locals, people in the local community, should have more say about the siting of where those data centers go, because unless they’re, you know, incredibly well built, they produce a lot of noise, they’re unsightly sometimes, and so we just want to make sure that we’re dealing with all that.
That was not something that some years ago, when Illinois was not a destination, that we had to worry about very much, because we just didn’t have enough data centers to mean that that was going to be a problem. Now, as you’re seeing with AI data centers and others, and the fact that we’re in a PJM and MISO territories, where other states are using our electricity, we’ve got to make sure that we’re kind of battening down the hatches and protecting our consumers and our residents. […]
I’m not opposed to local governments deciding that that’s what they want to do, that the local residents decide we don’t want any, that’s okay. I think there are, you know, trade-offs, but I’m saying if we had regulations that actually protected the local community, I think you’d probably have fewer people saying that they don’t want it, and some saying, like, hey, they’re paying a whole lot of property taxes to reduce our property taxes in a local area, but I think it’s up to a local community to decide that.
- Screwtape - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 9:08 am:
Tough issue because the industry is so used to getting what they want that they never really saw the need to make, or win, any arguments. But now the public has seized onto the argument against them and are winning it handily. Some of it is panic, some of it isn’t.
Datacenters aren’t all the same, and unfortunately we are in a situation now where people are so hyper-aware of them that you have folks taking weird night time videos of DC’s that have been around for 15 years and posting them online like it’s Area 51, when a lot of those facilities are nothing at all like the AI training facilities, which is like comparing any light industrial land use facility to the death star.
There is room for regulation, obviously. But at the same time making Illinois less competitive just drives them to build on the exact same power grid in different states, where it’ll have the same effect, still increase our prices, and leave us nowhere in the ability to regulate. Good luck waiting on a federal fix.
- Steven Simpson-Black - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 9:32 am:
Communities that would have done a good job with regulating the data centers are likely to block them altogether, and communities that have no good regulatory frameworks will probably override the disorganized, emotional appeals of people who don’t want them built anywhere. The result will be shoddy data centers in a lot of places - with a few exceptions. I can imagine quite a few places in Illinois where a jurisdiction approving one of these is just on the other side of a municipal or county line from a group of folks who will have their property values ruined because their homes were on the wrong side of that line. I’ll marry another issue into this - the governor’s housing bill should have reformed regional planning and included this issue with it. Imagine living in a place like Cherry Valley and having the city of Rockford approve a data center just inside its territorial jurisdiction (to its benefit) while you live with the effects of it. That’s just one example.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 9:59 am:
JB sounding more like a Presidential candidate.
”
I’m for them, unless the people are against them.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 10:02 am:
JB does make a good point about the fresh water. I’ve been saying for years that water supply was going to be THE future limiting resource.
Heck, locally I was in favor of building the ling proposed Hunter Lake even though the current and expected demand projections are questionable.
- Lincoln Lad - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 10:16 am:
Strikes me that JB is becoming shy to lead for fear of who he might offend. Not a good look, not good governance. Hope it doesn’t continue.
- Sue - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 10:37 am:
JB is beginning to ramble like a former VP
- Jr. Neef - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 10:52 am:
What would make the building trades, and a lot of regular citizens, happy would be some fast tracking of modular nuclear sites. Jobs and energy! Trump is starting to slow walk the approvals for wind and solar to stymy states like Illinois that have gone all in on green energy but at the end of the day the only way we are going to see a reduction of energy prices is to increase energy production. The state could work to bring more nuclear and at the same time have the IL power authority greatly expand residential solar.
- It's always Sunny in Illinois - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 10:55 am:
I think you know that I’ve been pushing
I think there are, you know, trade-offs,
When governor Pritzker goes to the “you know”…..he’s usually tossing a word salad…..” as you know, it’s complicated”….also comes out when he’s being asked a direct question and doesn’t have a solid campaign answer…
Much like the Bears mess, he’s trying to have it look like he’s on the winning side…..no matter which….
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 11:01 am:
YIMBY for dense housing development; NIMBY for data centers. It might be good politics, but the government operations and legal implications are much more complicated.
- Blue Dog - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 11:24 am:
Sure wish the governor would have applied this to his clean energy bill which stripped local communities from regulating solar farms.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 11:30 am:
===stripped local communities from regulating solar farms. ===
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
- levivoted4judy - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 12:25 pm:
Data centers are now a need that will be growing. That’s just a fact. The energy issue is being worked on with more energy efficient designs being developed on a regular basis. The operators could figure out how to bring their own or be willing to pay a higher rate. Recycling the water better seems achievable. The two biggest problems to me are getting the power on the grid and the NIMBY crowd. There needs to more education on how using AI at work and play rely on data centers and quantum can be a game-changer in areas like health. There seems to be a disconnect.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 12:49 pm:
== on how using AI at work and play ==
I absolutely refuse to use AI as much as possible.
- Lincoln Made - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 1:31 pm:
Definitely a tough issue we’re seeing all over the country, and it’s invoking a lot of strong feelings for good reason. We’ve seen how big corporations operate without proper oversight, often leaving communities to bear the costs.
Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay, and Illinois can either compete for the jobs, economic growth, and tax revenue that data centers bring, or watch those benefits go to other states. From his comments it sounds like JB is thinking about this the right way by proposing regulations that protect consumers and natural resources and giving a voice to local communities on where these facilities will go. Recycling water and making these billion dollar corporations pay for their energy use sounds like common sense governing to me.
- Dotnonymous x - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 1:42 pm:
AI is in it’s infancy…what is it being grown into is the question on my non-artificial mind.
- New Day - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 1:43 pm:
“ I absolutely refuse to use AI as much as possible.”
First, good luck with that. AI is already permeating so much of what we do and the technology we use.
Second, data centers are not just about AI. This device I’m typing on and the phone I use and pretty much all our other technology stores material in the cloud. What do you think the cloud is? It’s a series of data centers. They are not optional.
- TNR - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 2:36 pm:
Everybody hates data centers. Everybody uses data centers.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 2:43 pm:
===Everybody uses data centers===
Not by choice
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 2:49 pm:
=can be a game-changer in areas like health. There seems to be a disconnect.=
The disconnect is thinking that AI can replace in person doctors.
- Give Us Barabbas - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 3:38 pm:
Would you rather live downwind of a CAFO, or next to a data center? There’s a surprising overlap of shared misery from either.
I agree about fast tracking small modular reactors. I want Illinois to stay a net energy exporter, it’s good for our economy.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 23, 26 @ 3:42 pm:
===Would you rather live downwind of a CAFO===
Many moons ago, the GA voted to lift most all restrictions from building those things.