Prairie Bend: Baseload
Out past the last Chicago exit, a fictional Illinois nuclear plant just found 890 more megawatts, and Colonel Hollis Brandt (Baseload) has one dry question: who gets them first? Gridline (Maeve Okafor) answers from the rural feeder line.
The story
A story follow-up to Michael’s October 12 posts on Illinois data-center tax incentives and nuclear uprates. The plant and the town of Prairie Bend are invented, but the question is real: when new power shows up, who gets it first, a data center or the town down the road?
Baseload: “Funny thing about megawatts. They always know who gets them first.”
Gridline: “Then I’ll stand on the feeder. Somebody’s got to keep the porch lights on.”
Baseload: “That’s a small wire.”
Gridline: “It’s a big town to the people in it.”
The great wire serves the hungry ones.
The small wire keeps the light.Verse from the episode
What is real behind the fiction
- Illinois has stopped processing new applications for its data-center tax incentive program. The state Department of Commerce says it stopped as of July 1, 2026, under a June 5 directive from the governor.
- The POWER Act (House Bill 5513) would have required data centers to supply their own clean energy, report water use and enter community benefit agreements. It did not pass by the May 31 spring deadline, and lawmakers said talks would continue to the fall veto session.
- On October 6, 2026, Google announced an agreement with Constellation Energy for 890 MW of additional nuclear capacity from upgrades at six operating plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to be added to the PJM grid before the end of 2032.
- New power still has to get through substations, interconnection queues and a utility commission. The episode asks who decides who is served first.
In this episode
Sources
- Illinois DCEO: Data Center Investment Tax Exemptions and Credits
- Capitol News Illinois: governor suspends data center tax breaks, POWER Act status
- Google: agreement with Constellation Energy on 890 MW of nuclear uprates
- Michael Brown on X, October 12, 2026 (data-center tax credits)
- Michael Brown on X, October 12, 2026 (Illinois nuclear uprates)
Fictional characters. The Infrastructure Guard and all of its characters, places and events are original GOTB creations. Any resemblance to real persons, companies or facilities is coincidental. Real-world facts in each episode link to public sources.
The video is an illustrated slide-style animation with synthetic narration and music.
About
Meet Michael E. Brown
President and Managing Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Michael E. Brown has 20+ years of governmental and municipal consulting and lobbying experience. He was lead contract negotiator on the $8.5B O’Hare 21 program and the $800M O’Hare rail extension, and lead lobbyist and contract negotiator on the $400M Chicago Department of Water Management lateral redevelopment. (Dollar figures are program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
He has worked with the Illinois legislature and public officials on public-private partnership (P3) policy, and has consulted to the Cook County Commission on reducing duplicative administrative offices. He is a frequent speaker at governmental and municipal functions, focuses on good government and healthier social and economic solutions for safe, successful neighborhoods, lives in Chicago, and serves on the Board of the March of Dimes.
- M.S., Psychology (1997), University of Iowa
- B.S., Psychology (1995), University of Iowa
About
Meet Richard Butler
Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Richard (Rich) Butler is a partner at GOTB Consulting and a 38-year veteran of Chicago city government. From August 2019 to February 2020 he served as First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), responsible for day-to-day administration and operations of O’Hare and Midway, including finance, contracts, operations, legal, human resources, workforce development, concessions, real estate and vehicle services. CDA manages the two airports with a federally funded budget of $8.5 billion. (Dollar figures are budget and program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
Before that, Rich was First Deputy Procurement Officer at the City’s Department of Procurement Services and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Park District, where he oversaw procurement, audit, finance, warehousing and general administrative services on an estimated annual budget of $385 million and established district-wide policies and procedures. His City career began at the Department of Aviation as Director of Contracts Administration, and he also served as General Superintendent of the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
He completed the Chicago Accounting and Purchasing System Training Program and the City of Chicago Executive Management Program, was a key team member on the design and implementation plan for the City’s new eProcurement system, and is a member of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing and the Purchasing Management Association of Chicago. He has served on the board of the Chicago Municipal Employees Credit Union and on the US Communities board, representing the City of Chicago, and traveled to South Korea to represent Chicago in the Kotra Alliance to bridge contracting opportunities. A native of Englewood, he attended De La Salle High School.
- B.S., Northern Illinois University
Fictional characters from GOTB’s original stories. Real-world facts always link to public sources.