By Dale Lucht

I haven’t watched much news since “Carrot Top” was selected by the Electoral College back in January 2025. I’ve kept tabs on the news on my phone, YouTube and mailings, but haven’t watched network news. We will be having an election on November 3^rd and in Wisconsin we will be voting on the governorship, between Tom Tiffany and David Crowley. I’ll probably be voting for Crowley because I agree with more of his views than Tiffany’s, but I do agree with Tom Tiffany on one of his talking points: We must protect Wisconsin’s farmland.

In a previous issue I talked about Data Centers and I admitted that I didn’t know a lot about them, but I would rather have seen them built in an unused vacant city lot than on country farmland. I still believe that. God doesn’t make new farmland quickly; it takes millions of years.

Whoever we elect in November must work on these problems. Data centers are used for processing our current daily life, your smart phones, streaming services, cloud storage, probably bitcoin transactions and maybe even robocalls. Unless you want to go back to rotary dial telephones and TV antennas, we’ll have to figure out a compromise.

It’s my understanding that people are against data centers for numerous reasons including high electricity demands, fossil fuel reliance, carbon output and air pollution. They also require millions of gallons of water to cool their servers and the centers release massive amounts of waste heat, increasing nearby temperatures. There is also mining pressure to find the scarce raw minerals and also disposal of the electronic waste when they are replaced.

The republicans never met a regulation they liked and the democrats never met a regulation that they didn’t like. I have a couple of suggestions as a starting point. First data centers must produce their own power, whether it’s through solar, wind or geothermal, or all three. Secondly data centers must be able to capture rainwater and store it and reuse it. I do doubt that they can capture as much as they need, but that is what their big brains are for. At least have a water tower. If they cause noise pollution, they must deaden that somehow and also somehow turn the generated heat into a useful product.

The new Phillip A. Levy Engineering Hall at UW-Madison cost $420 million. Let’s put them to work. I look at this as a great opportunity to figure out this problem and thus benefit humanity in untold ways. This is also an opportunity for newly elected legislators to work together to find solutions. Don’t be so concerned with party politics, you weren’t elected to represent your party, you were elected to represent your constituents. After you die and do a life review, are you going to say, “I really helped my party” or are you going to say “I helped my fellow man”?

Another problem that has come to my attention that the new legislators need to investigate is solar farms. I’m a big fan of solar energy; I have solar panels on my house. There is a solar farm project that is going forward in Porter and Fulton Townships in Rock County. It also affects Dunkirk and Albion Townships in Dane County. In 2019 Wisconsin set a statewide-goal for Wisconsin to consume 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. The Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy (OOSE) was created to lead the state in this endeavor. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) was charged to oversee the different programs. They do like their acronyms.

Anyway, this company from Texas is attempting to erect solar panels on farms in these four townships. I don’t know anything about this company: EDP Renewables, it might be a fine company. The company is planning a 900-acre solar field in the four corners of those four townships. The problem is that they are leasing the farms and so taxes charged will be for farmland not industrial. I guess the farmers can run sheep under the panels, but can’t grow crops, which is a sweet deal for the farmers. Hopefully the company will put the ground back in good shape if they decide to leave. If I owned that land, I would probably jump at the chance. The PSC has total control over the project; the townships have no control.  Because the farms are taxed as farmland, the townships will not realize any additional money for road upkeep. My understanding is that construction and upkeep will cause road damage with heavy truck traffic.

Another problem is that the township’s fire departments will be responsible for calls at the solar farms. Again, it is my understanding that the cost to municipalities is exorbitant and if solar farms contain battery storage, the cost exponentially increases. Without increased taxes, residents pay with their taxes. Now, like I said the PSC is in control of this. So, the legislators should be looking at helping the residents in townships across the state. My suggestions would be that since the solar farms were mandated by the state, the state should pay for the upkeep of the roads. The second suggestion would be that the solar companies, in this case EDP Renewables should cover all costs for fire prevention and control.

If only we had an alternative to using crop bearing fields for energy production. Wait a minute, where do we have an abundance of flat land? Parking lots! A year or so ago I was walking out of Woodman’s parking lot, it was either snowing or raining and I thought if Woodman’s covered their parking lots with solar panels it would provide protection for us old folks and make money for them. Not only Woodman’s but most grocery stores have large parking lots, also Walmart, Target, Home Depot and even the Old Towne Mall in Janesville. These are suggestions that newly elected representatives should be exploring. Thank God I’m not running for office, I’m too old. It’s too bad politicians in both parties don’t think the same. To sum up, vote!