Most Illinoisans OK with data centers — as long they’re strictly regulated

In a mid-March poll, 68% of likely Illinois voters said they would support legislation to “regulate data centers to minimize their impact on our utility bills, climate, and water while still allowing them to be built.”

But while 21% opposed the legislation, more than half of those opponents (56%) said they did so because they “oppose allowing data centers to be built at all.” That means 80% either want guardrails or oppose any new construction.

So, yeah, it’s not looking great for anyone who might want to fend off regulation. As you’ll see below, this is an 80-plus % issue pretty much across the board.

Global Strategy Group conducted the survey of 800 likely voters March 16-19 on behalf of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, which is pushing the Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers, or POWER, Act, legislation (Senate Bill 4016/House Bill 5513). The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.

The proposal was initially supported by large bipartisan majorities, the poll found, as well as in all regions of the state. Democrats and independents supported it the most (71%), while Republicans support was strong, but not by as much at 61%.

And 56% of Republicans who said they opposed the bill told the pollster they did so because they didn’t want any data centers built, period. The same was said by 64% of likely downstate voters. Keep in mind that the margin of error for voter subsets is substantially higher.

Organized labor has asked the governor to not pursue his proposed two-year moratorium on state data center construction tax breaks. The governor stood by his proposal, but did offer the possibility of a compromise.

Whether the environmentalists’ bill is the answer remains to be seen. But it seems clear from the poll that Illinoisans want some real regulation of this industry.

For example, 96% said they agreed that the state should “ensure data centers pay their fair share of water infrastructure costs,” with 85% strongly agreeing. Ninety-three percent say data centers should be required to “use efficient cooling systems to reduce water consumption,” with 75% strongly agreeing. You almost never see poll numbers like that on anything.

Ninety-one percent said they want to “prohibit data centers from shifting their energy costs to consumer bills,” and 91% also said they want to “require data centers to provide their own clean energy and storage to power their operations.” The only difference was intensity. Eighty-four percent strongly agreed that cost-shifting should be outlawed, while 70% strongly support requiring the centers to provide their own clean energy and storage.

It goes on from there. “Require an analysis that a data center won’t increase harmful health, water, and environmental impacts on vulnerable communities before a project moves forward,” received 92% support with 79% strong support. Another 86% agreed that rules should be tightened which allow backup diesel generators for data centers to limit their use during “true emergencies.”

And a whopping 97% said data centers should be required to report their water sourcing and usage. That’s about as close as you can possibly get to unanimous in a poll.

New technologies and the companies behind them are quite unpopular, but not as much as you might expect after seeing those numbers above.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of artificial intelligence (25% “very favorable”), while 51% had an unfavorable view (25% “very unfavorable”).

Thirty-five percent rated “big tech companies” favorably, while 55% rated them unfavorably.

And just 30% rated data centers favorably, while 51% rated them unfavorably (32% “very unfavorably,” which was the highest of all three).

The House held a hearing on the chamber’s version of the POWER Act earlier this month. The Senate held a marathon hearing over two days the same week on a large number of bills dealing with artificial intelligence (which uses lots of data centers), social media, etc.

Many of these bills appear to come from a desire to address the all too obvious anger of the electorate. Some lobbyists are hoping that the usual legislative “wait and see” inertia sets in. And, if the poll is accurate, voters have not made this a huge priority when it comes to their own state legislators.

According to the poll, just 37% said they’d view their legislators more favorably if their members supported the bill, while 17% said they’d view them less favorably. Almost half, 48%, said it made no difference either way.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.