Illinois lawmakers begin days of deep dives on data centers

SPRINGFIELD —Illinois lawmakers are digging deep on data centers, with a House committee hearing from mayors, labor groups, and agriculture representatives about the facilities’ local impacts in the first of three planned meetings.

Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, the chair of the House Executive Committee, said she wanted to hear about the benefits and challenges of data centers as the General Assembly considers regulations like the POWER Act.

“Whatever we do here, we have to put people first,” she said. “We have to put communities first. Data’s important, business is important, revenues are important, but people must come first.”

Water use, energy use, noise and how community benefit agreements are constructed were the primary concerns lawmakers wanted to address on Wednesday.

Generally, the speakers acknowledged data centers are part of a growing economy and are needed to support technology like AI, cloud computing and data storage used by various industries, from education to health care.

Some cautioned against regulation, saying it could dissuade companies from investing in Illinois while others aired different concerns they’ve encountered.

An Illinois Senate committee has two data center-related hearings scheduled for later this week as well. Environmental advocates on Wednesday also lobbied in the Capitol for data center regulation.

Local government perspective

Mayors from Aurora and DeKalb offered competing views of the benefits and tradeoffs data centers bring. DeKalb Mayor Cohen Barnes praised the Meta data center that started construction in 2020 and was finished in 2023.

“When Meta first came to our community, they specifically said they want to make a significant impact in everything they do where they have a physical presence, and that’s just what they did,” Barnes said.

Meta, he said, has invested heavily in DeKalb by contributing to the nonprofit community and paying tens of millions of dollars in property and utility taxes, helping to fund schools and local police. It has also partnered with Northern Illinois University to bring STEM classes to area high schools.

According to the Rockford Register Star, the Meta facility’s 2024 tax bill was $32.1 million, or 11% of the total $287.3 million in taxes generated in all of DeKalb County.

Barnes said DeKalb didn’t require Meta to meet any standards or requirements before construction began, and he said he worries that requirements might drive further development away.

“I would encourage you, let’s always think about how can we foster more economic development rather than inhibiting it with regulation and rules and requirements. And if we do that, then we do it for every industry in the state of Illinois,” he said.

Aurora Mayor John Laesch, on the other hand, said residents have raised concerns about noise from data centers and the impact on the power grid.

“Residents living near data centers have described a constant low frequency hum day and night,” he said. “It’s not loud in a traditional sense, but persistent. People have described trouble sleeping, increased stress, loss of quiet in their own homes.”

Aurora currently has five data centers in operation and five more under construction.

In March, Aurora enacted ordinances that would require data center developers to conduct and submit studies dealing with noise, water consumption and energy needs. The ordinances also require future data centers to meet standards for noise, vibrations, water use and energy use. They will also need to get power from renewable energy sources.

Laesch said while the city has tried to address the issues locally, he urged the state to take broader action.

“Water and energy in particular, need to be addressed regionally or at the state level,” he said.

Those requirements mimic provisions in the POWER Act, a major data center regulation bill now under consideration in both chambers of the General Assembly.

Sangamon County on Tuesday approved the zoning proposal for a CyrusOne data center project, and Marc Ayers, a former member of the Sangamon County Board who resigned after Tuesday’s vote, said residents also aired worries about noise and water at those meetings.

Ayers, who voted against the proposal, said he was happy to see the $500 million investment in Sangamon County, but he wanted to have more discussions before approving the project.

He said he also wanted more information from companies about their hiring practices for construction and for long-term operations. And he wanted transparency about whether there’s a community benefit agreement between the data center and a local development group, especially considering the company also owns the data centers in Aurora.

“Rather than fixing the noise in Aurora, they’re expanding with a bigger project in Sangamon County,” he said. “So this aspect of being a good neighbor, we’re torn with that because they’re not really being a good neighbor right now in Aurora.”

Labor perspective

Representatives from labor were generally opposed to regulations. They said too many rules would risk companies choosing to do business elsewhere.

“The fact of the matter is data centers are going to be built. They are being built. The question is whether Illinois is ready to build them here,” said Marc Poulos the executive director of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting and a member of Local 150.

Poulos said there’s high demand for labor to work on these long-term construction projects in surrounding states, including hundreds of his own members. Without “smart standards,” he said, Illinois could lose out on that investment.

Joe Duffy with Climate Jobs Illinois, said finding a line between economic development and environmental protections should be the priority, but pausing perks like the data center tax credits — as Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed — is the wrong approach.

“We believe Illinois can maintain its lead in this race with the right balance of incentives, labor standards, local protections and infrastructure planning,” Duffy said. “We can attract investment while ensuring communities benefit workers are treated fairly, and our energy and water resources are responsibly managed.”

Land use

Farmers are most concerned about how data centers use land and water, said Bill Bodine of the Illinois Farm Bureau.

He said farmers support “bring your own energy” proposals but want reassurance that new renewable energy sources aren’t developed on land that could be used for farming.

“Those proposals should prioritize projects that place renewable energy on, say, center rooftops, parking areas, land already impacted by data center development,” he said.

He also called for water use reports and water withdrawal plans that are reviewed by the Illinois State Water Survey as well as efficiency standards for energy and water use.

Bodine said farmers are also concerned about data centers being abandoned if their technology becomes obsolete, or they reach the end of their lifespan. He asked for a decommissioning plan or process so the facilities could be removed easily.

“We don’t want it to turn into a dangerous situation or an eyesore,” he said.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.