Monticello Data Center – Part 5

If you are opposed to the Monticello data center, you need to follow the strategy I am going to outline below if you want to elect representatives who will Stop the Monticello Data Center. And yes, it can be stopped.

First, you need to understand something about politics and human behavior. Every voter asks the same question: “What are you going to do for me”? That’s all they want to know.

People in Delano and Rockford don’t care much about the Monticello data center. I know this, because I’ve talked to them about it. When I bring it up, people have said things like “That’s in Monticello. It doesn’t impact us in Delano.”

Before I tell you folks in Monticello how to handle this, I want to digress for a bit. Imagine that you are a woman walking down the street at night and someone is following you, and you know they are going to attack you. You duck into the lobby of an apartment building and press all of the intercom buttons for the apartments. When people answer and say “who’s there”?, you say you are being attacked by a mugger and you need help. It’s unlikely that anyone will come out to help you. They don’t want to get involved and they don’t want to be exposed to potential danger.

Here’s what you do instead: you press all of the intercom buttons. When people say “who’s there”? you scream that there is a fire in the lobby and they need to come there immediately to put it out. People will be there in a matter of seconds. Your would-be mugger will see them and run away. If someone calls the police on you, you just explain what happened and they will not arrest you.

What does this have to do with the Monticello data center? Quite a bit.

You see, the average person doesn’t care if you are mugged. They do care if their apartment building burns down, however.

Currently, people who oppose the Monticello data center are preaching to the choir. They are talking to other people, mostly from Monticello, who also oppose it. This doesn’t do any good. Instead, people who oppose the Monticello data center should form alliances with other groups in the area. Instead of saying that the people of Monticello are about to get mugged, you need to say that there is a fire in Wright County that needs to be put out. This is a non-political message and it will resonate better.

Reach out to the following groups:

1. Farmers. Farmers, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, need water and electricity. Explain to them that if the Monticello data center goes through, they won’t have enough water during peak usage times in July, August and September, and their electric bills will increase by about 25%. Approach both the Minnesota Farmer’s Union (mostly Democrats) and the Farm Bureau (mostly Republicans). Do not talk politics. Do not talk about abortion, do not talk about trans rights, do not talk about Trumpism. Talk only about the Monticello data center and the regional impact it will have on farmers. You will find allies in both groups.

2. Teachers. Teachers want good schools, and since these are supported by property taxes, they want stable property values that provide stable, predictable property taxes. My experience with Education Minnesota is that it is mostly focused on improving the lot of existing teachers, to the detriment of our schools, because they don’t care very much about bringing new teachers on if that means offering new teachers a higher salary. Again, keep politics out of it. Don’t talk about the pension fiasco. Just tell them that they should officially oppose the Monticello data center because of the devastating impact it will have on the neighborhoods where their teachers teach. There will be less money to support the schools, once those neighborhoods have cleared out or have turned to 1970s Communist-style slums.

3. Churches. Keep politics out of church (or synagogues or mosques). This is not about politics. It is about a real threat to the environment that we all share. The argument is simple. Most local churches have members who live in the neighborhood. If they start moving away (in Featherstone about 30% of the people have moved so far this year) and property values go down, their churches will become weaker. There will be fewer members, and the members will have less money to contribute each Sunday (or Saturday). And people will not attend churches that are within a mile or two of the Monticello data center because they will hear the never-ending hum of thousands of fans that are dispersing heat. This is a hum that can’t be stopped. Soundproofing the building doesn’t work because the hum will be heard and felt through the foundation.

4. Other Towns and Cities. The Monticello data center will cause water and electric bills to increase throughout Wright County and neighboring counties. This is because they amount people pay is based, not only total usage, but on infrastructure costs. The utility will build new power lines through out the area, and this cost will be passed on to everyone. The utility will make improvements to the water supply, and this cost will be passed on to everyone. In order to control usage, the utilities will raise rates to incentivize people to use less. (This part is a paradox, but it’s true.) The message that the folks in Delano, Rockford, Buffalo, Howard Lake, and elsewhere need to hear is that their utility bills are going to increase dramatically. Affordability? Forget about it.

I will write more about this in future blog posts.