Rising electricity demand from manufacturing and data centers could present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize the electric grid, but rising electricity bills might make such investments politically unpopular.

“This is not a sexy topic,” said Charles Hua, executive director of PowerLines, a national energy consumer education nonprofit. “But it is so important in terms of just how powerful our grid is in empowering our modern economy, and just how dependent we all are on electricity.”

Nine miles from the heart of downtown Lincoln lies an ecological rarity.

Surrounded by farm fields and a retired Cold War-era bomb storage depot, a 230-acre plot of native prairie remains untouched.

Named for its distance from Lincoln’s urban core, Nine-Mile Prairie is one of the last tallgrass remnants that once dominated eastern Nebraska. Home to species such as big blue stem, Indiangrass and goldenrod, the prairie plants can reach peaks of 8 feet in the fall, when gold and red hues begin to replace the summer green. 

When a nor’easter recently hit the Eastern Seaboard, it transformed my driveway into a stretch of whitewater rapids and nearly obliterated my perennials, their shapes irretrievably distorted by high winds and heavy rain. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time.

And it won’t be the last: Scientists predict an increase in extreme weather events, including storms and floods, fed in part by human-caused climate change.

The project’s name rings a bell. Its exterior shell and playground area also look familiar to neighbors who live in Beatrice, Nebraska.

But the town’s former Stoddard Elementary School underwent a $6.4 million renovation to reopen last week with an entirely new purpose — as Stoddard Place residences.

Now instead of kids marching down the hallway to the principal’s office or math class, senior tenants age 55 and older will be strolling to their apartments or perhaps the community room to socialize.