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Sunshine is good. It can power a solar array. It also can illuminate what goes on in the dark recesses of our government. The Cherokee County Board of Supervisors surprised the public with a 4-1 vote to ban battery storage clusters until an ordinance regulating them can be devised. Officials initially refused to disclose to the public the language of the moratorium.
Northwest Iowa has great potential for wind and solar energy. Demand is at hand for data centers powering artificial intelligence. Bitcoin mining is going in near Alta. Now comes a group of unidentified landowners near Aurelia discussing a battery storage complex. This led supervisors to halt further development until, purportedly, an ordinance can be written. Maybe it gets written, maybe it doesn’t, everything is so secretive. If there is a public safety issue, the public deserves to know what is going on.
The county should understand that batteries are safe. Electric vehicles, for example, experience about 25 fires per 100,000 vehicles, compared to 1,500 fires per 100,000 internal combustion engine vehicles annually. Lithium-ion battery fires are more complex and toxic. They need to be sited and spaced properly. First responders need training. There should be an ordinance regulating safety. Draft ordinances are available.
Secrecy benefits interests that might prefer to slow-walk renewable electricity development. A lot of phony science leads to turfgrass bans on wind turbines. Corporate interests undermine renewables in devious ways and mislead the gullible. Solar and wind are cheaper and cleaner than coal or nuclear, but their main drawback is storage for peak demand. That’s why we need battery storage.
The power companies don’t necessarily want a bunch of farmers in Aurelia peddling stored electricity on the market.
Cherokee County could pass an ordinance in a few weeks if it wanted to.
Likewise, the Iowa Legislature could adopt statewide development rules as it did with livestock confinements. Counties have no authority over hoghouse siting. There is a bill in the House to that effect whose prospects are uncertain.
In the meantime, Cherokee County should adopt an ordinance this spring to get things moving. The developer and site should be identified so training can commence at the developer’s expense. Treat the public with a little bit of respect by being upfront. Let’s start making money off the sun. The county could tax it!
Civic affairs in rural Iowa took another gut punch last week when Mid American Publishing announced that it was shutting down 19 rural Iowa newspapers, including the Ida County Courier and Holstein Advance. Other towns included Hampton, Forest City, Ogden and Madrid. The company was founded by the Archie family of Shenandoah, which also started The Iowan magazine. We were stunned but not surprised by the news.
Community journalism is having a rough time. People think they can get their news for free off the TV or radio (coming to you financed by uber-rich freaks like Elon Musk). It costs money to send reporters to cover the school board and city council as they raise your property taxes. Democracy depends on informed voters. Journalism is the mortar of community building. It needs your support to survive.
Where journalism goes silent, government waste and corruption run loose. Even crime rises where no news source exists, according to academic studies. As advertising revenue flows to social media, fact-driven journalism shrivels up and there is less reason to subscribe.
We’re trying to buck the trend by investing in more journalism. Our readership is growing just fast enough to keep us in borscht. Places like Hampton, Ida Grove and Forest City deserve strong community voices steeped in local reality. For that to happen, they need paid subscriptions and donations. You can contribute at www.westerniowajournalismfoundation.com, and your gift is tax-deductible.
Another casualty of DOGE: The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT) links young farmers with diverse production methods to the land. The USDA just pulled funding from SILT, along with at least 48 like non-profits supporting regional food system development. Iowa imports 90% of its food despite being the top producer of pork, eggs and corn.
Former Storm Laker Breanna Horsey is SILT’s executive director. The organization is run by serious people who are committed to putting people on the land, and preserving it. This is not on the Trump Administration agenda. So much for Making America Healthy Again — RFK2 is there for show, sort of a shaman to the Cabinet.
The administration has laid off 24,000 USDA employees. Outfits like SILT complement the work of USDA, so losses to each compound. Rural communities lose with fewer hands on the land and less diversity among producers.
SILT survives on donations of land and cash. It could use your help, if you want a more wholesome Iowa.
President Trump’s war on Iran is generating unintended consequences: If fuel and fertilizer prices keep rising as predicted, we will change our consumption habits. Producers will have to find ways to reduce fertilizer use with prices up by at least a third since the bombs started dropping on Tehran. You can’t spread with abandon when you can’t afford the anhydrous.
Trump promised farmers another bailout after the Farm Bureau begged like a welfare queen. We suspect there will be a third farm bailout before the November midterm elections so Republicans can hang onto the Senate seat from Iowa vacated by Sen. Joni Ernst, who has raised no qualms with the war like her heir apparent Rep. Ashley Hinson. All these bailouts add up to real money, so war becomes a perverse windfall. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to protect the production of glyphosate (Roundup) and phosphorous (much of the world supply is sourced from Mongolia and is controlled by China). Food is never far from politics and war.
As fertilizer costs rise, eventually food prices will too. Meat is the most expensive source of protein. Voters already are complaining about high food and energy prices. Developing nations demand more meat in their diets — think China or India. Either may do unpredictable things with a disquieted population denied a better diet because of Trump’s war of choice. We are tempting fate by poking the bear relentlessly. Iran is a primary energy provider to China and India.
Consumers are searching for alternatives to fossil fuels. Interest in electric vehicles jumped in just the past couple weeks despite the Trump Administration cancelling tax credits for them. China is rolling out $10,000 EVs bound for Canada that will blow out American-made gas guzzlers. Five-dollar gas can change hearts and minds.
Are we winning yet? Trump said we already won. He has, at least.
Basketball is a great distraction from the dregs of February and March when the legislature is in session and bombs blow up the Middle East. You think you have problems: The Iowa State men can’t make clutch free throws and Hawkeye Tavian Banks is always in foul trouble.
What will Storm Lake star Jaidyn Coon do? Creighton Coach Greg McDermott flew the Bluejay coop. Ben McCollum is courting from Iowa City. McCollum doesn’t sleep, never gives up and constantly waves his arms. How can Coon resist? The Hawkeyes were the hottest show in town, and our homeboy is all the buzz. Everyone wants to know who takes Ironman Bennett Stirtz’s roster slot.
You can avoid the weather and rising property taxes when Audi Crooks heats you up with 30 points and a dozen rebounds. You can take comfort in the familiarity of the Newell-Fonda girls in Des Moines; soon you plant.
We can come together. Even Cyclones admire Caitlin Clark. Everybody loves Jan Jensen and ChitChat Wright no matter your politics. Drake fans remain on the McCollum bandwagon and rooted for Northern Iowa. They help us remember that we are on the same team: tall, short, gay, Black and White; and we play fair and square by the rules with no flagrant intent. Then we have to go back to real life.
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