"Proposed legislation offers perks for data centers that invest in clean energy. A broad coalition supports the bill, but details still need to be hammered out."

"Across the country, state lawmakers are considering ways to address the risks posed by the explosion of power-hungry data centers. They have proposed an array of bills to impose moratoriums on data center development, revoke tax breaks, force data centers to pay for new energy infrastructure, and enact other safeguards.

In Illinois, lawmakers and renewable advocates are especially concerned that data centers could derail the state’s transition to 100% clean energy, since there’s likely not enough renewable sources in the state to meet data centers’ projected demand.

The Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers Act, or POWER Act, aims to persuade data centers to pay to build enough new clean energy for sustaining their operations. This should shield customers from rising prices when overall electricity demand increases, proponents of the measure say, and it would ensure that the state’s coal and gas plants don’t need to run past their planned retirement dates just to fuel data centers.

The bill, introduced in February, would entice data centers to make clean energy investments by offering them two of the things such operations most prize: fast interconnection to the grid and uninterrupted power."

Kari Lydersen reports for Canary Media March 12, 2026. [2]