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Illinois Governor weighs in on data centers
The president of the Illinois Farm Bureau says the impact of large data centers is among the organization’s top concerns.
Phillip Nelson says the facilities threaten the state’s natural resources and are likely to drive up energy prices.
“I’ve got three of them in my backyard, and what impact that will have on electricity is a concern.” He says, “Agriculture may not be the highest user of electricity, but we’re up towards the top.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says in 2020 the state extended tax incentives to data centers, but he recently told an agricultural roundtable…
“This was before AI data centers, which is a whole different class of data center that we’re now having to stand up and fight back against,” he says.
Pritzker says those incentives were withdrawn from all classes of data centers this year.
“When the legislature did not pass the bill that I was advocating for, which would have required anybody coming here with a data center to bring their own power and make sure that you’ve got a closed loop water system.” He says, “We’ve got to make sure that none of this is affecting your power bills.”
The governor says local zoning authorities should have the final say on allowing data centers, but he plans to continue to push for minimum state standards that would safeguard the state’s water resources and power grid.
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