Illinois lawmakers race to finalize $55B budget as Bears stadium talks take back seat on final day of session

The budget negotiations include a bill that would establish environmental, water, and energy regulations for new data centres in the state. Among the provisions is a requirement that new data centres pay for their own energy costs, rather than having those costs subsidised by ratepayers.

The data centre regulation is intended to address the significant energy consumption of these facilities, which have grown rapidly due to the expansion of artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.

The specific details of the regulations are still being finalised as lawmakers race to pass a budget before the session ends. The outcome of the budget negotiations will determine the scope of the data centre regulations and their impact on future development in the state.