• Don’t give public benefits to data centers few people want
• How long will data centers’ consumption be sustainable?
• Companies shouldn’t need our help to build data centers
• Each data center forever changes Iowa’s landscape
• Data centers are OK if resources are available
• For data centers, the product doesn’t at all justify the cost
• Don’t invest to enable government surveillance
• No new data centers in Iowa

A recent item on DesMoinesRegister.com invited Iowans to share their thoughts about data center construction and how their elected leaders are handling to push to build more of the facilities. Below is a selection of the responses we received.

Don’t give public benefits to data centers few people want

Anyone remember the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008? The Chrysler Motor Co. bailout in 1979? How about the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s? These all involved large, for-profit companies owned primarily by shareholders.

Big companies have come to expect preferential tax treatment, subsidies and bailouts. They expect taxpayers to pick up the tab if they fail.

If Big Tech falters with its intention to impose data centers on our society, the same thing will happen.

Data centers and the CO2 “Pipeline to Nowhere” present some similar threats: water resource exploitation, decreased property values, higher utility rates, health and safety risks, and dismal prospects for human employment. Taxpayers will be expected to carry the load despite the fact that hardly anyone wants the data centers or the pipeline.

The top seven Big Tech oligarchs increased their wealth by $1.7 trillion since 2024. They are likely to come crying if things don’t work out. Let’s collectively decide that data centers are a problem and show resistance. Pay attention to what is going on with decision makers. Especially at the local and county level.

Jeff Milks, Oelwein

More: Data centers are the payoff for Iowa’s advantage in energy | Opinion

How long will data centers’ consumption be sustainable?

The mayor of Council Bluffs got it right. Mayor Jill Shudak proposed a moratorium on new data centers to the Council Bluffs City Council. The council voted it down, citing a possible loss of economic growth.

Council Bluffs is home to two of Google’s hyperscale data centers, which are massive computing facilities, typically spanning over 10,000 square feet and housing 5,000 or more servers.  These facilities consume massive amounts of water and electricity.

The accounting student whose name is attached to the University of Iowa’s endowment for the head football coaching position and who created an athletics excellence fund at the school grew up as a “truck-stop kid.”  

Will Moon raced around towering semis while his parents labored to grow what, six decades later, is now the massive, hugely popular Iowa 80 World’s Largest Truck Stop along Interstate 80 at the Walcott exit.

The longtime UI donor and namesake of the Moon Family Head Football Coach died on Thursday, July 16. He was 64.

“I was very saddened to hear about Will’s passing,” Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz said in a news release. “Will and his wife Renee have been very generous in their support of our program and Hawkeye athletics. Hawkeye student-athletes will benefit from their gifts for years to come.”

Moon arrived in Iowa City at the perfect moment for a football fan in the fall of 1979, just as coach Hayden Fry was beginning the revival of the Hawkeye football program, and Moon was captivated.

“From that point on, Iowa football was fun again,” Moon told the University of Iowa Center for Advancement in 2021.

Moon grew up working at the truck stop during the summers after his parents took over in the 1960s. His father, Bill Moon, an entrepreneur, bought the truck stop after he found the land for Standard Oil as construction of Iowa’s portion of I-80 neared completion. A year later, Bill Moon convinced Standard Oil to let him run the truck stop, and he took full ownership in 1964.

As a teenager, Moon became interested in the family business and its operations, and, with an aptitude for math, came to the University of Iowa to study accounting, paving the way for a successful business career and to take over the family business.

While at Iowa, Moon met his wife, Renee Breckenridge Moon. Their first date was at The Airliner in downtown Iowa City, where they watched the Hawkeye football team defeat Penn State. Ever since, they cheered for the Hawkeyes from inside Kinnick Stadium, in opponents’ venues and at bowl games.

Moon and his wife rank among UI Athletics’ most generous donors. Their support created an endowment fund for the operational needs of Hawkeye football, establishing the Will and Renee Moon Excellence Fund for unrestricted athletics initiatives, and providing leadership support for the Kinnick Edge Campaign to revitalize the north end zone. In recognition of this generosity, the UI permanently designated the football leadership position, ensuring that Moon Family Head Football Coach will be the official title held by Ferentz and all future UI head football coaches.

“Will was one of the kindest, most genuine people you could ever meet, and his love for the Hawkeyes was unwavering,” Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz said in a news release. “His generosity and loyalty helped shape Iowa Athletics, but it was the relationships he built and the way he cared for others that will be remembered most. He was a dear friend and truly part of the Hawkeye family.”

Visitation will be Monday, July 20, from 4-8 p.m. at Runge Mortuary in Davenport. Funeral services will be Tuesday, July 21, at 10 a.m. at Calvary Church of Walcott, followed by burial at Walcott Cemetery.

Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and education reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at JRish@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @rishjessica_