Companies that build data centers are looking at Northern Illinois and, in turn, raising local concerns about air and water pollution.

Data centers are great but they are also very resource-heavy in consumption.

—  Amy 'Murri' Briel, state representative

At a Tuesday forum hosted by state Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Cook County Democrat, said lawmakers will tackle this very issue during the upcoming fall veto session.

“Data centers are great,” Briel (D-Ottawa) said at a town hall at the International Union Operators Engineers Hall in La Salle, “but they are also very resource-heavy in consumption.”

Welch said the Illinois General Assembly is “very likely” to address the regulation of data centers as part of an energy bill. Lawmakers, he said, want to seize the potentially lucrative jobs but also want the companies to be good stewards of the earth.

“We certainly want Illinois to be front and center and take advantage of this boom from a jobs perspective,” Welch said, “but we want to make sure we don’t hurt our environment.”

“We think we’re close,” he said. “We think we’re going to be able to get something done.”

Welch and Briel also provided other updates during a question-and-answer period.

Federal intervention

Welch said he opposes the proposed dispatching of troops into Chicago, arguing that federal intervention is not needed and is prohibitively expensive.

Welch said the use of troops in Los Angeles cost $1.1 million a day – funds, he said, that would be better allocated elsewhere – and the federal government is complicating the situation by withholding federal funding for anti-crime initiatives.

As for the possibility of an imminent deployment, neither he nor the government have any direct communications with Washington.

“There’s no collaboration or communication whatsoever,” Welch said.

Cognitive resources

Briel announced the formation, this fall, of a council aimed at assisting residents with spectrum disorders. Briel said she has ADHD and is on the spectrum, as are her sons.

Immigration

Told of reports that police are conducting questionable traffic stops on Latinos – and then releasing the detained into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody – Welch pledged to enforce any reported violations of the TRUST Act, which restricts state and local law enforcement from assisting with federal immigration activities

Welch said he sponsored the TRUST Act and helped persuade then-Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign it – “And that wasn’t an easy task,” he said – and said the act recently was upheld as constitutional.

He said he’s aware of such incidents and pledged to “work with the attorney general’s office and make sure they [police] follow the law.”

“It’s going to take all of us working together and reporting issues,” he said.