Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday he isn’t pursuing a moratorium on new data centers in Illinois, arguing he can’t impose one on his own and that he would rather see lawmakers pass tough regulations on the facilities after the November election.

Pritzker’s comments came just a day after Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed a data center moratorium for the city, and after leaders nationwide, including Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas, have taken a harder line against the facilities this year and in the run-up to the November election.

Data centers and their sweeping development across the nation have drawn considerable scrutiny because they require large amounts of water and energy at a time when both are expensive, and they produce noise that adversely affects neighbors. Although tech giants and some unions support data center development, many people oppose it, and conservatives and progressives share that opposition.

“We want significant regulation. We want to make sure, again, that we’re protecting the people who live in our state,” Pritzker said after a ribbon-cutting for a manufacturing facility in Monee. “We’re not saying, ‘Absolutely, positively, no,’ everywhere in the state if there are data center locations where they want them.”

Pritzker said he wants the Illinois General Assembly to pass the so-called POWER Act in the next legislative session, scheduled for a few weeks after the election. Lawmakers worked on the bill in the spring session but didn’t take it up, which Pritzker said left him “very disappointed.”

A separate measure to strengthen local communities’ control over data centers never received a vote in either legislative chamber.

But even the Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers Act doesn’t include an outright pause on data centers. Instead, the legislation would hold data centers responsible for energy costs and environmental protections.

“We want to require them to bring their own power, bring their own water,” Pritzker said.

Asked why he wouldn’t order a blanket moratorium on the centers before the election, Pritzker pointed to his June decision to pause tax incentives for data centers. The pause “means for a lot of them, that they’ve got to either slow down or stop,” he said.

“I’ve done what is legally allowed by the executive branch, and I think imposing — just saying, ‘I’m imposing a moratorium,’ doesn’t work. You need law in place in order to do things,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker is seeking a third term in November and is widely seen as the favorite over Republican nominee Darren Bailey, a former state lawmaker. Bailey has said he would pause all existing data center tax agreements.

The governor said the state wants local communities to have a say in where data centers go and wants to keep the facilities from driving up power bills.

“That’s all built into the law that’s being crafted now,” he said.

Cities, townships and counties can already slow down or block data center projects, he said, “and they should, if they don’t want one.”

“There are places that want them,” he added.

In addition to the opposition from potential neighbors, data centers — which in some are used for artificial intelligence technology — have come under renewed scrutiny, along with the rest of the AI industry, after industry insiders in recent weeks made a series of high-profile, worrying statements and announcements about the technology’s potential for harm.

Amid that, the governor announced he would launch an “AI cabinet” to advise state government on artificial intelligence by bringing together experts with leaders from state agencies, but he provided no specifics Thursday about who would be appointed to the cabinet. Earlier this summer, Pritzker signed a first-in-the-nation law requiring third-party audits of large AI developers’ safety practices.

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