(The Center Square) – After years of climate and green energy alternative-imposing legislation signed into law by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the state’s top Democrat spoke at length Tuesday about his reasoning behind a variety of his climate policies.
Attending a climate conference hosted by the Aspen institute, Pritzker participated in a one-on-one discussion about climate change, his policies and pushing back against the Trump administration.
The governor opened the conversation by touching on a hot button issue in the recent legislative session – data center power usage and the POWER Act, which didn’t make it through to passing in Springfield.
Pritzker defended the creation of data center tax credits early in his time as governor, noting Illinois was one of the only states to not have them. He also said major data centers have since taken advantage of the credits, citing it as his reason for implementing a temporary pause.
“What I also want is for the legislature to act. We have something called the POWER Act that’s been negotiated. And it did not pass in this last session of the legislature. It probably has a little more negotiation that needs to get done, but it very much can pass in the next session,” Pritzker said.
The POWER Act would have expanded the required permits to build new centers, the reporting of energy consumption, payments into community funds, and plans to save water while bringing new capacity to the grid.
Pritzker was asked if he would go as far as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul by imposing a moratorium on new data center construction if the legislature doesn’t make progress on the legislation this fall.
“The problem is I don’t have the power in Illinois as governor to put a moratorium on construction of these data centers. So what I can do is tell them, ‘I’m going to take away benefits that you were getting,’ until we get something like the Power Act put in place,” Pritzker said.