Pritzker touts climate, green energy record as capacity leaves, rates rise

By Sean Reed | The Center Square
The Center Square

(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.

He also said moratoriums on data centers should be left up to individual communities to decide.

The discussion turned toward energy costs and rising prices for ratepayers.

“Data centers are contributing to the problem. And if you look at the growth of the energy usage that people expect over the next five to 10 years from data centers, that will contribute more and more,” Pritzker said. “But it’s also a problem of there is more electricity usage across the board as industry increases across the country.”

Noah Finley of the National Federation of Independent Business told The Center Square that much of Pritzker’s energy policy is a major reason for increases in costs for Illinoisans.

“They’re looking to eliminate, or really constrain, energy options such as investments in natural gas, which many small businesses depend upon. And at a time when our electricity grid is already overburdened and we’re seeing skyrocketing electricity prices, this is a very bad time to be exploring the phasing out of natural gas,” Finley said.

Pritzker celebrated the phasing out of fossil fuels during his conversation, noting that the policies requiring it – the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act and the subsequent Clean and Reliable Grid Act – have supposedly had a positive impact.

“I want us to have a clean energy strategy for the state of Illinois that gets us where we need to be in terms of electricity production so we can bring down people’s power prices, and at the same time do it in a way that’s not going to affect all of our environment,” Pritzker said.

In April, House Republicans argued that the environmental measures invoked by the governor are driving out capacity from the power grid faster than new solutions are coming online.

The same lawmakers also argued when CRGA passed that it would have little to no impact in lowering costs for ratepayers, even as the plans are long-term, projecting savings by 2037.