MILLER: Polls unfavorable toward data centers

April 19, 2026 34

In a mid-March poll, 68 percent 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 percent opposed the legislation, more than half of those opponents (56 percent) said they did so because they “Oppose allowing data centers to be built at all.” That means 80 percent 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+ percent issue pretty much across the board.

Global Strategy Group surveyed 800 likely voters March 16-19 on behalf of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, which is pushing the “POWER Act” legislation (SB4016/HB5513). The survey had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.

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 percent), while Republicans’ support was strong, but not by as much at 61 percent.

And 56 percent 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 percent of likely Downstate voters. Keep in mind that the margin of error for voter subsets is substantially higher.

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

Whether the enviros’ 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 percent said they agreed that the state should “Ensure data centers pay their fair share of water infrastructure costs,” with 85 percent strongly agreeing. Ninety-three percent say data centers should be required to “use efficient cooling systems to reduce water consumption,” with 75 percent strongly agreeing. You rarely 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 percent 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 percent 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 percent support, with 79 percent strong support. Another 86 percent agreed that rules should be tightened, which would allow backup diesel generators for data centers to limit their use during “true emergencies.”

And a whopping 97 percent said data centers should be required to report their water sourcing and usage. That’s about as close as you can 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 percent “very favorable”), while 51 percent had an unfavorable view (25 percent “very unfavorable”).

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

And just 30 percent rated data centers favorably, while 51 percent rated them unfavorably (32 percent “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 stem 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 percent said they’d view their legislators more favorably if their members supported the bill, while 17 percent said they’d view them less favorably. Almost half, 48 percent, said it made no difference either way.