BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — People across America are concerned about data centers,
and Illinois is at the center of the debate.
The Twin Cities are discussing whether a data center is a good fit for their community; the overall consensus is that data centers are not popular. They say they use too much water, electricity and farmland.
“Why are we choosing to sacrifice irreplaceable farmland, shrink critical water resources and expand industrial infrastructure for something that does not feed us, does not sustain us, and does not give back to the land it replaces? Because once you make this decision, we are the ones that live with it,” said Taylor Stanton, a business owner in the Twin Cities.
These concerns have been heard by the Twin Cities government. The town of Normal Council acted first, enacting a moratorium on any of these data centers for six months.
The Bloomington city council also held a public forum to listen to the community’s concerns earlier this month, and leaders are expecting to follow suit with Normal in the coming weeks.
While this battle against data centers continues, the Illinois governor seems to support these data centers.
“Data centers serve an important role in our, you know, newly AI-driven society. Whether we like that or not, we are going to see more and more technology available to people in their daily lives, in their work, and so on. It will increase productivity,” said Governor JB Pritzker.
He also called for a better focus on generating more electricity in Illinois, not just for data centers. He also commented on water use concerns, saying Illinois has 80 percent of the country’s fresh water.
“That’s a resource that more and more people are recognizing as a highly valuable resource. Again, we have to protect it from an environmental perspective. We have to protect it in terms of the needs of the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker isn’t ruling out regulations, saying that regulations are needed.
“From my perspective, it’s very important that we put some regulation on data centers coming to Illinois and just slow down while we’re trying to build up our capacity in the state,” he said.
WMBD TV was first to report this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
