Reporting by Keerti Gopal for Inside Climate News:
Illinois lawmakers passed one of the nation’s strictest AI safety policies last week, but the state still lags behind Florida and Tennessee when it comes to regulating the buildings that make AI use possible: data centers.
Why it matters: In the wake of massive data center expansion, Illinoisans are facing skyrocketing energy bills and a looming power shortage.
State of play: Legislation called the POWER Act, meant to demand more data center transparency and to address energy price hikes, tanked in Springfield.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s attempt to temporarily pause state tax incentives for new data centers also hit a roadblock, in part because of trade union opposition.
What they’re saying: Failure to pass the bills is “setting Illinoisans up to see higher energy bills, increased air pollution and greater risks to our water resources,” Illinois Environmental Council communications director Hannah Flath tells Axios.
“Holding Big Tech companies accountable for responsible AI use is only one piece of the puzzle — these companies also need to be held accountable for their outsized impact on our communities, resources and pocketbooks.”
After years of fighting to curb toxic pollution in communities of color, Illinois activists are celebrating a step forward.
A bill expanding the state’s regulatory obligations over industrial air polluters in environmental justice communities passed the state legislature last week and is expected to go into effect at the start of next year.
The bill amends the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and will require the state’s Environmental Protection Agency to consider cumulative pollution and other burdens when evaluating certain air emission permits for construction. It also allows the agency to consider an applicant’s past environmental violations when approving permits, and to enact stricter requirements for air monitoring and pollution prevention.
For Jen Walling, chief executive officer of the Illinois Environmental Council, this legislation has been a long time coming.
“It’s more relief than joy to have it passed,” Walling said. “We’re taking a step in the right direction.”
The bill was born out of years of high-profile community activism in Chicago against a proposal to move General Iron, a metal scrapping facility, from the predominantly white and affluent neighborhood of Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side, a majority Black and Latino area nationally recognized as overburdened by industrial pollution.