INSIGHTS

Insights

White papers, project notes, and updates — the thinking behind the work.

• August 11, 2026

  Lessons from DeForest

  A $12 billion data center proposal moved through DeForest, Wisconsin in under four months and collapsed. Neither side got what it wanted. Five structural gaps made the sprint feel inevitable, and every one of them is fixable before the next proposal arrives.

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• August 11, 2026

  Five Decisions Your Board Can Make Before Anyone Calls

  Preparedness usually gets described as a technical problem, which makes it something you buy, which makes it something you postpone until a proposal is already on the table. But the decisions that matter most cost nothing at all. Five a board can settle in a single afternoon, with nobody in the room but themselves.

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• August 4, 2026

  I Thought They'd Be Glad to See the Stacks Come Down

  For decades the Rock River Generating Station's smokestacks wore alternating bands of orange and white. Aviation striping, technically. Everybody around Beloit called them the candy canes. I assumed taking them down would be the easy part of a $700 million siting. I was wrong.

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