The City of Bloomington and Town of Normal are sharing more details on who will be speaking at a data center forum in late August.
Both the city and town are in the middle of dual moratoriums on data center projects, put in place to give the municipalities time to draft regulations on hyper-scale data centers.
Hyper-scale data centers use 5 or more megawatts of power.
The forum is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. on Aug. 26 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
Questions may be submitted electronically before the event through an online survey. The survey also polls residents on which topics they're most interested in learning about.
“If time allows, attendees may have an opportunity to submit additional questions at the conclusion of the event,” the city’s announcement read.
The public will be able to comment at two Bloomington Planning Commission hearings related to data center regulations on Oct. 1 and Nov. 5. The exact time and location of those hearings will be announced closer to the dates.
The forum will be moderated by Susan Saunders, the outgoing morning host at WBNQ, and will include the following speakers:
- Adam Zellner, president of Greener by Design, a New Jersey energy and environment consulting group and adjunct professor at Rutgers University
- Matthew Rasche, Naperville Township assessor
- Michael Brown, executive director of the Ecology Action Center
- Scott Allen, an energy policy specialist with the Citizen’s Utility Board
- Brad Tietz, the director of state government affairs in the Midwest for the Data Center Coalition
- Andrew Rehn, director of climate policy for the Prairie Rivers Network
More about the panelists
One of the panelists is a familiar face in Bloomington-Normal. Michael Brown has been the executive director of the Ecology Action Center since Nov. 2007. The EAC has been an active recycling and environmental advocate in the community since 1971.
Another panelist comes from Champaign. Andrew Rehn has been with the Prairie Rivers Network since 2015, specifically focused on water resources and energy policy. He is currently the group’s director of climate policy.
Prairie Rivers Network was established in 1967. The group’s mission is to “protect water from the ravages of pollution and restore the beauty and power of naturally flowing rivers,” according to its website, and to “advance practices and policies that return health to our soils and increase biodiversity.”
The Citizen’s Utility Board is an energy consumer advocacy group. Energy Policy Specialist Scott Allen focuses on downstate Illinois, and “works on a range of energy and consumer-related legislative initiatives,” according to the CUB website.
“His favorite aspect of working at CUB is not having to worry about whether or not his efforts have a negative impact on society,” the website read.
Another panelist attended Illinois Wesleyan University for his bachelor’s degree before pursuing a political analysis and lobbying career in Illinois. Brad Tietz is the director of government affairs in the Midwest for the Data Center Coalition.
Tietz’s website bio said he was part of the passage of the Illinois Data Center Tax Incentive. He also “worked intimately with Illinois’ data center industry,” in his vice president of Government Relations and Strategy role with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
State records show Illinois lobbying registration for Tietz from 2020 through 2026. A registration form for the Data Center Coalition shows it is based in Leesburg, Virginia.
The city and town also invited the president of a New Jersey energy consulting firm. According to the bio on the Greener by Design website, Adam Zellner worked within New Jersey state government, including as the deputy commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
He also was the executive director of the New Jersey’s Office of Smart Growth and the New Jersey Highlands Council.
Greener by Design offers consulting on “the successful development and implementation of energy, environment and resiliency projects,” according to its website.
“GbD provides expertise about how technology, innovation and policy influence the rapidly changing environmental landscape,” it continued. The group has assisted in offshore wind and microgrid energy projects in New Jersey.
The last panelist is the current assessor of Naperville Township. Matthew Rasche has held the position since 2022 and previously worked in commercial real estate. Assessors are elected officials who determine the value of property for property tax calculations. There are 35,000 parcels of land in Naperville Township valued at nearly $6 billion.
Naperville’s City Council, which is a different body of government from the township, recently rejected a 36MW data center proposal from Karis Critical in January.
