New state legislation targets data centers’ environmental impacts
A coalition of environmental advocates introduced state legislation Wednesday to guard against data centers’ impacts on natural resources and consumers’ wallets.
But Senate Bill 4016, labeled the Power Act, already is facing criticism from business groups including the Data Center Coalition and Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.
The legislation comes just weeks after publication of a Union of Concerned Scientists’ report recommending a bill requiring development of more clean energy sources to keep up with the growing electricity demand from data centers. The report also argues that data centers should pay the full cost of their impact on the electrical grid.
“Through the Power Act we would place prohibitions on cost shifting and introduce ‘Bring Your Own New Clean Capacity and Energy’ — BYONCCE — ensuring data centers power their operations with new, locally deliverable, renewable energy and battery storage,” said bill sponsor state Sen. Ram Villivalam, a Democrat from Chicago.
Andrea Densham, director of regional governmental affairs at Alliance for the Great Lakes, said water shortages, ground water conflicts, increased water prices and pollution are possible without proper planning and management.
“The region could go down a dangerous, unstable and inefficient path that impacts water supplies, businesses and water production,” she said.
Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO Mark Denzler released a statement Wednesday saying state lawmakers, not data centers, are to blame for rising energy costs.
“Illinois’ looming energy crisis follows the passage of several major energy bills that has resulted in the loss of significant baseload power generation, driving up costs and threatening reliability,” Denzler said.
“Instead of penalizing innovation, we encourage policymakers to focus on an all-of-the-above energy approach that prioritizes maintaining and expanding baseload generation sources, investing in transmission and affordable battery storage, and deploying more renewable resources.”
Brad Tietz, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, said the bill would harm the data center industry. However, he added, there’s room for negotiation.
ComEd officials are reviewing the proposal but said the company has already taken steps to ensure the growth of data centers doesn’t come at the expense of other customers — including through the introduction of Transmission Service Agreements with developers.
Representatives of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and Illinois Environmental Council fielded questions Wednesday about the bill’s potential to make the state less competitive.
“We’re saying if data centers want to come to Illinois, we’d love to have you,” said Kady McFadden, lead strategist for the coalition. “We’re going to play by our rules. You’re going to pay for your own power needs rather than plugging into the grid, which is all the power that homes and businesses use in Illinois. And we’re not going to let you just put a straw in Lake Michigan without telling us how much water you’re actually using.”
Illinois Environmental Council CEO Jen Walling doesn’t believe the proposed regulations will keep data center developers out of the state.
“We are seeing data centers build here in different regulatory environments and I think we’ll continue to see that,” she said. “So they are looking here and they’ll still look here even if we have regulations in place.”