Illinois – Today, the Illinois General Assembly adjourned without taking action on the POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) – commonsense legislation that would enact nation-leading guardrails on data centers. Instead, state lawmakers opted to continue tax exemptions as well as tax incentives for data centers. In response, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition released the following statement:
“The legislature’s decision to continue data center tax breaks while failing to advance any basic protections in the POWER Act makes it clear that House and Senate leadership is woefully out of touch with the affordability concerns of Illinoisans who are demanding to see Big Tech pay their fair share for their exorbitant energy and water use. Despite the POWER Act’s overwhelming bipartisan popularity and voters’ growing concerns about data center developments across the state, lawmakers went home without solutions.
“The POWER Act offers the solutions Illinoisans – and this moment – are demanding. At a time when families are already struggling to make ends meet, the POWER Act puts working families and our environment first instead of prioritizing Big Tech profits. We are not done fighting for the POWER Act because we know that data center development will keep raising utility bills for Illinois families, threaten our water resources and climate goals, and leave local communities sidelined by back-room development deals. We’re calling on the Governor and House and Senate leadership to convene stakeholder negotiations on the POWER Act by the end of June so that we can get to work on delivering overdue protections for all Illinois communities.”
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