America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
Land Use Revolution
What happens when rural communities face development projects that promise prosperity but threaten local resources and way of life? Trent Luce, the voice behind Luce Trails Media for 26 years, joins us for a frank conversation about the changing landscape of America's heartland.
Trent shares his journey as a sixth-generation American farmer whose family built their Illinois barn in 1889—a structure that still stands today as his nephew prepares to become the seventh generation of land stewards. This deep connection to agricultural heritage frames our discussion about modern challenges facing rural America.
We dive into Trent's formative experience managing a pig farm on the Rosebud Reservation, where he hired and trained tribal members amidst 87% unemployment rates. While the project initially offered hope, it ultimately revealed how development initiatives can divide communities along unexpected lines. This experience transformed Trent into a passionate advocate for transparent communication about food production and rural development.
The conversation shifts to today's pressing rural development issues—particularly AI data centers consuming unprecedented amounts of electricity and water in small communities. When Trent reveals that a single AI center in Cheyenne will use five times the electricity of every home in Wyoming combined, we're forced to question the true cost of these projects. Are the promised jobs worth the resource drain? Who truly benefits when tax credits drive development decisions?
We also explore the status of controversial CO2 pipeline projects across the Great Plains and how South Dakota's grassroots opposition has effectively challenged corporate interests. Throughout our discussion, one message rings clear: when communities organize and show up at public meetings, they retain control over their future. As Trent powerfully states, "We haven't shown up to hold accountable the people representing us in this representative republic. If we start showing up, we actually dictate the direction of the ship."
Ready to understand what's at stake in your community? Listen now and discover how property rights, resource management, and citizen engagement intersect to shape rural America's future.
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Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Steve Link, broker for Pifers Auction and Realty, and today we have an engaging dialogue featuring Trent Luce, the voice behind Luce Trails Media. Featuring Trent Luce, the voice behind Luce Trails Media, tackling all things land use, from dairies to data centers, as always, if you want to listen back, go to Piferscom, click on the podcast tab or find us on Apple and Spotify. And I have to mention our sponsors, pifers Auction and Realty and Piffer's Land Management, your partners for honest farmland sales, equipment marketing and stewardship advice. All right, trent Luce, I have heard you over the years. Trent, how many years have you been doing media?
Speaker 3:Apparently too many, steve, because it's becoming a common occurrence that adult men and women are telling me yeah, as a kid I used to listen to Loose Tails. 25 years this is my 26th year 26 years.
Speaker 2:Well, piper's auction is celebrating 25-year anniversary, so our trajectories may have been similar trajectories. So, trent, where do you live? Where did you grow up? What's your? Uh, what's it? What's your? What's your favorite? What's your favorite day? What's? What do you like to do?
Speaker 3:so I live in central nebraska, hazard nebraska. I moved to nebraska, I chose nebraska. Everybody gives me a hard time because they say you didn't't grow up here. No, I picked it. You guys didn't leave and just live here your whole life. You don't know what you have. My wife grew up in Sherman County. We operate about 12 miles from where her parents are at she's fifth she's fourth generation, no, she's fifth generation. I'm sixth generation.
Speaker 3:But I grew up at Quincy, Illinois, which is 100 miles straight north of St Louis, on the banks of the Mississippi River, and my family came from Germany to Adams County, Illinois, in 1839. Wow, I got a picture that you know. I was prepared. If I didn't know we were talking about this, Steve, I could have had that ready. I was prepared. If I didn't know we were talking about this, Steve, I could have had that ready. There's a barn that my family built it would be my great, great, great grandfather in 1889, on the farm that as a kid I grew up on, my dad grew up on, my grandfather grew up on, and that barn still stands today. In fact, behind me is a door that don't tell anybody. I stole out of that barn and so you know the history and the heritage of where we come from and what we do is very relevant to me. The good news is that my sister has a son who's currently a student at Oklahoma State University. That will be the seventh generation to take care of that land there in Adams County, Illinois.
Speaker 3:I had to leave Illinois. I left Illinois in Adams County, Illinois. I had to leave Illinois. I left Illinois in 1988, in fact, and then, when I met my wife Kelly, ended up in Nebraska, although we did live five years on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and that was really formidable years for me and it's where loose hills began and it's interesting and thinking I know what we're going to talk about today. You never know what we can take any path.
Speaker 3:But I went to the Rosebud because the Bell family Rich Bell and his three sons from Wahpeton, as in North Dakota, were building a pig farm as a joint project with the Rosebud Sioux tribe and I actually was hired to interview and hire tribal members and teach them to raise pigs. I interviewed 132 Rosebud Sioux tribal members. I hired 17. And we put together a pretty significant little project there that's just no longer there at. Little project there that's just no longer there.
Speaker 3:But because of what we did and the media that came about, I turned into a tour guide for what a modern day livestock facility was actually like, and I had Minnesota Public Radio. I had people from New York. They would come in and I'm explaining what it is that we're doing and how it works in conjunction with the environment. And finally, one day I said, you know, this is, somebody needs to do this. Somebody who gets their hands dirty every day producing food needs to tell people who, where and how their food is produced. And so in May of 2000, I literally walked into Jim Thompson's radio studio in Spearfish, South Dakota. I said hi, my name is Trent Luce, sixth generation United States farmer, and I want my own radio show. And Jim laughed at me and then I sat down and he said oh, you're serious. I said I'm not leaving until we get a deal. And three months later we began producing a program together. Six months later, I began producing Luce Tales, and that was now coming on 26 years ago.
Speaker 2:Wow, when is Loose Tails? That gets broadcasted all over the Great Plains here right 21 states.
Speaker 3:I have three states in California, one state in Lawrence, beautiful Lawrence County, south Carolina, in Lawrence, beautiful, lawrence County, south Carolina, but the main corridor is Minnesota and the Great Plains of America. That's really where I'm at A couple of good stations in Nevada. What I did, steve, was that I've spoken in 48 states and on four continents in the past 25 years. And so I go speak in Fallon Nevada, for example, at a Fallon Nevada cattlemen's event Nevada cattlemen's and people would say why don't I hear your radio program? I said because you haven't called your local station and asked for it. And that's how I built the network, just grassroots everything.
Speaker 2:That's. That's interesting. So there's so many parallels that you've talked about. My heritage is from Germany. In fact, my, my, my would be, my great grandpa was, was in Germany and Poland and and and got got kind of run out of there because of his political stances that he had.
Speaker 2:And that's a great thing about, about, about North Dakota and South Dakota and Nebraska. And you can have difference of opinions and hopefully you can do in a respectful, respectful way that you don't actually get run out of town, that you have platforms like your radio show, like our radio show, that you can speak your voice and not everybody may agree with you, but you're not going to get run out of the country. And and and they ended up. They ended up in North Dakota and my, my grandpa, was in politics in North Dakota back in an age where you could there again talk about disagreements but you'd figure it out. You'd go to the back room and talk about it and figure it out. So the Rosebud Reservation doing a hog facility on that site, what was the? Why did the developers decide to pick that location, to do it on the Rosebud Reservation?
Speaker 3:Norman Wilson. Norman, excuse me, Steve was the tribal chairman at the time. He has now passed. He was. I sat down with him so much and he was so insightful. And Norman said Trent, we have 87% unemployment on this reservation. We need to give these kids a picture of hope and a future, and one that they can be a part of.
Speaker 3:And I think every one of us can walk through the stereotypes of life on a reservation, and some of those I lived and I was a part of.
Speaker 3:But what I did was I expected excellence and what I've learned through my life, whether you're parenting, whether you're I heard somebody talking about coaching a ball team you get what you expect, Yep, and if you expect people to come to work drunk, if you expect people not to have work ethic, if you expect people to not take pride in what they, that's what you're going to get.
Speaker 3:So you get what you expect. And I expected excellence and in fact I'll tell you this is kind of a funny story I told Rich Bell. I said we're going to establish the award of excellence and you're going to give it to us, and he laughed at me and he did. Two years later he said what you've accomplished here with this crew is absolutely amazing, and of the 17 people I hired, one of those I terminated one day and the other 16, they lasted longer in that employment than I did, because I got to the point where I started doing the media work and I started telling that story and explaining how important domestic food and fuel was, and so that operation carried on without me and I was only employed for two years, but it was two years that really shaped what needed to happen in terms of education about domestic food and fuel. That is what determines our free future.
Speaker 2:Was the infrastructure there? Did you have to create that infrastructure? You had to build the barns, you had to. How far was it to the facilities that would process the? Were you guys finishers or were you guys fair to finish, or how did you guys handle? What kind of setup did you have?
Speaker 3:Well, steve, you've already proven you know more about pork production than the average Joe on the street, or I should say the average Mo Mo might know a lot about pork production than the average Joe on the street, or I should say the average Mo Mo might know a lot about pork production too. But anyway, we were part of a system and the Bell Farms network was pretty significant. The farrowing units were in southeast Colorado, down around Lamar, and we got pigs at weaning time which weighed roughly 15 pounds and we fed those pigs to finish, and at one point in time, see, we had 85,000 head on inventory. That was the most we'd ever had. And then the pigs were fed out and they were loaded on the truck and sent to Fremont, nebraska, at Hormel Foods.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, we're running out of time here on this first segment, but we got a minute or so. You know, in a lot of this I want to tee up people in this Fargo Moorhead market that may be listening this morning because there was an announcement this last couple weeks of putting a new AI center near Harwood, a small town north of Fargo. This last couple of weeks of putting a new AI center in near near Harwood, a small town North North of Fargo, and you know there's a lot of reasons why they pick these locations and that's why I asked that question is why you picked that location and and labor force was one of the things that that that directed that and this. This particular center is already in Ellendale and and and is is looking to expand, and at other locations, and you have a lot of experience too with the, with the carbon capture and wind turbines and solar projects and all that. So when we come back, I really want to talk about what goes in, involves some of these site locations and what your experience is and and and really the idea of the fact that the public hears about it at certain times and they're not always happy about when they hear about it.
Speaker 2:So if you can stick with us, trent, we will come back shortly. Again, I want to thank Piper's Auction and Realty and Piper's Land Management your partners for honest farmland sales, equipment marketing and stewardship advice. We'll be right back after these messages welcome back to america's land, auctioneer.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, steve link, broker for piper's auction and realty.
Speaker 2:and again we are here with trent, loose from loose tails, um, trails, tails, trails, whatever. Where are we going with that? But, uh, um, trent is gracious enough to spend some time this morning with us, um, to talk about all things land use, and we've had some really engaging conversation about um the rosebud reservation and putting a project out there and what that did for the employment out there. Um, yeah, 16, 17 employees doesn't sound like a lot, but when you have that much unemployment in a location, it is a big deal and it's a big deal to bring that infrastructure in, it's a big deal to bring that knowledge and workforce ability there and I hope that that started a process where the next generation can feel like they have hope and that they have an opportunity. On that, is that a little bit. Did you see a little bit of that, trent, where it's going to be a multi-generational response to that project?
Speaker 3:No, that's not the right answer, steve, but it's the truth. That's not the right answer, steve, but it's the truth. I think it's worth spending some time on this, so we will. I mentioned Norman Wilson, who was a tribal chairman who had the vision and he knew what could happen In the next election. Norman Wilson was unelected because he supported the pig farm and then it became this whole division. He's for the pig farm. We've got to get rid of him. So I was a guy who was going to tribal council meetings every week and being reminded I was a white guy. That's not funny. They did remind me every single week. But in the two years after we started that there was a new tribal chairman and 21 of the 22 council members all changed hands because of the pig farm. So that was like a microcosm of politics right there. And today there are no pigs on the Rosebud. That facility has been taken down. In fact it's been parted out. Some colonies bought the equipment out of the facilities and it was very divisionary, and that's why I can talk about dairy farms. I can talk about these AI centers.
Speaker 3:I lived through that particular scenario where I saw people who didn't want it to come into town, people who saw that it was a great opportunity and all of the above. And so just to point blank answer your question no, it did not create generational hope. And I just want to say one other thing I mentioned I interviewed 132 people tribal members, 132 tribal members for those positions. I didn't need to interview that many people, to be honest, but it got to be where it was.
Speaker 3:Just this great sociological process for me, and you know, the ones I hired were the ones that were talking about what they wanted to accomplish in their life. About 110 of the people that I talked to thought about today. They didn't think about what they wanted to accomplish next year or for their kids or the next generation. And that, to me, is why Norman Wilson was so insightful is because he knew the kids did not have hope or plans or any dreams of what they wanted to accomplish, and so you need to create something that they can be a part of, and it's the sense of accomplishment was what makes that happen, and that is absolutely the best part of raising kids, and Kelly and I raised three daughters on our ranch in central Nebraska and not every day goes right. I mean it's not like the auction world where everything just comes and goes perfectly as planned, right, steve? I mean, it just lays out like it planned for two, for two weeks.
Speaker 2:I want you to go on the road with us for a couple of weeks and you'll Be careful what you ask for.
Speaker 3:I think this would be great trend on the loose material. So anyway, raising kids in that environment teaches them problem solving skills, because when things don't go right, you've got to figure out how to use bailing water and duct tape, the right way to make it work, and then when you make that work and you get that sense of accomplishment, it builds confidence and it teaches you you can accomplish whatever you want. And that's what Norman Wilson wanted to bring to the tribe and that's what people really rebelled against. Because when I moved there it was explained to me like this you think about the tribe and the barrel of monkeys, and there are monkeys that want to come out, but instead of coming out, there are other monkeys still in the barrel pulling them back in. I'll never forget that story. And a tribal member told me that and that's not just about right, that's about life as we know it today. Right, and how can we separate ourselves and not let other people pull us down and keep us restricted? That's really what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yep. Well, let's, let's, let's, change gears a little bit to the to the Fargo-Moorhead area, and we have right now on the news two that are slated to come to the area. One, the AI data center purchased 900, over 900 acres north near Harwood, north of Fargo, and they're talking about doing a $3 billion AI data center. The player is Forge 2. It's planned in Harwood. It promises, you know, a couple hundred jobs, high-tech investment. You know the construction project there is going to be pretty massive and you know it's an interesting dialogue that people are having up there, because Harwood is a small town and the people there are not necessarily embracing the change. As you can imagine, it's something that most people don't understand. I don't understand. I use AI on a daily basis, not to say that I'm a proponent or a big backer of it, but it is something that has creeped into business and alike, and so that project is happening. What kind of advice can you give the residents and the people from your standpoint on a project like that?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I know that here, within the last week, there was a community meeting in Harwood and I am very, very happy to be told that there were 600 people in attendance. Too many times these things happen without people recognizing what's happening in their community. I'm also told that half of the attendance of the 600 were young people with young families. That's. What's been missing, steve, is that people just don't pay attention to what's happening. I am adamantly opposed to AI digital data centers. I've been working on this. I thought I would never find anything that bothered me more than CO2 pipelines and I spent four years, every waking moment, studying and learning and trying to figure out how to handle the CO2 pipeline. And now I've determined that the CO2 pipeline pales in comparisons to the dangers of what these AI centers. I've been to Ellendale. I've driven around that entire complex. In fact I got a video driving around the entire complex. That Ellendale facility, when complete, will use the equivalent of seven and a half times of the energy that Denver uses on a daily basis.
Speaker 3:There was an AI data center just approved in Cheyenne two weeks ago. It's going to use one gigawatt of electricity 24-7. I don't know what a gigawatt is. You may know what a gigawatt is. Well, the mayor of Cheyenne, after it was permitted, said just so everybody knows, this one AI center is going to use five times the amount of electricity that every home in the state of Wyoming uses at one AI center.
Speaker 3:Wow, in my home state I've been to two AI centers that have been constructed in my home state of Nebraska. Both of them were constructed in my home state of Nebraska. Both of them were constructed and using five megawatts and with the third phase coming in, we'll use 15 megawatts. Five megawatts is equivalent to about 700 homes. 15 megawatts is obviously three times more than that and there are 80, I am told by Nebraska Public Power. There are 80 proposed in the state of Nebraska. We cannot supply the electricity or the water that's needed for these AI centers.
Speaker 3:So, aside from and then I asked why did Saudi Arabia give the United States business entities on that Trump plan? When he got a free plane out of the deal, he took a group of people who were all using and chasing this AI, like Meta and all the Palatir, all the AI players. They gave the United States $20 billion to develop AI in the United States. Why didn't they develop it in Saudi Arabia Because it's too intense with the resources. So, steve, this week, for one of my broadcasts, I thought I'm just going to have a little fun with this and I can share this audio with you, because I did it on radio, on a little station.
Speaker 3:You probably never heard of, called KFAR, and so what I did was I did a search and I used Google, which I don't normally use because I they're one of the entities using AI. I try to avoid AI, which you can't avoid it, but I try to avoid it. I don't use it intentionally.
Speaker 2:Oh, can we key this up? I'm lost track of time, I think here you did. You're over time Seven seconds. This is a cliffhanger when we come back after this. I want to listen to that Again. Thanks Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty and Pfeiper's Land Management for sponsoring the show. But we'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 2:I'm Steve Link, broker for Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty. Again, we have Trent Luce and we were just diving into some great, great topics here and again. If you want to go back and listen to this, go to Pfeiffer'scom, click on the podcast tab or go to Apple and Spotify and search us up. Thank you to Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty and search us up. Thank you to pifers auction realty and pifers land management, your partners and honest farmland sales, equipment, marketing and stewardship advice. All right, trent, I cut you off on that last segment. We were just getting into um, some some interesting, interesting um dialogue about these ai centers and uh, um, hopefully you can come back to your thoughts that you were just teeing up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, the funny thing is my memory is pretty bad. I thought we were talking about the advantage of Piedmontese beef from the tenderness standpoint. Apparently, that's not what we were talking about.
Speaker 2:We should, we should, we should. Make sure we talk about that, though, before the show is because we are, we are cbbeefcom. Well, we're labor day weekend. What do you think people are doing? I hope they're out barbecuing. I hope they're out eating. I hope they're uh golfing. Um, um, I hope they're out. Uh, I hope they're out. Uh, maybe bow hunting starts um, here started this weekend in north dakota. I don't know about nebraska, but I hope they're enjoying the outdoors and doing it and eating beef on their plate, right, correct.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Beef is the best upcycled cellulose material and nutrient-dense food you can find on the planet. So little story. And then we'll get back to AI and you can search this on AI if you like. My mother-in-law is 85. She's 84. She'll be 85 soon, and she fell this week and has been in the hospital for three days. She's doing well, but before she left the hospital, her doctor was very stern with her. Doctor was very stern with her. Elsie, you have to make sure you eat enough beef and eggs every day. Your strength is dependent upon the best protein you can put in your body, and so I was. I was like, thank God we finally have the medical community embracing the animal proteins for what they are.
Speaker 2:That's a that. That that's a great point. That's a great point. So now you're all right, yeah, well, no, I, I, I like talking about and I and sorry to hear about your mom falling. Those are, those are tricky times and and hopefully you know that's.
Speaker 2:Another subject that we could probably talk about is rural healthcare and and the lack thereof in some areas and some regions. And and, uh, I think all of us, uh, if it's, if it's them, the listeners themselves, or mom and dad, or or or some kind of relative, we're all suffering from the lack of healthcare in these rural areas and it's a, it's a, it's a real problem. And and, uh, god bless their hearts. Mom and dad want to stay on the farm, they want to stay where they're where, where, where they've gone to every Legion meeting, you know for the last how many years and done all of the community service, and to expect them to live the rest of their life out at another community. It's just tough, tough decisions. But there again I'm getting off track here.
Speaker 2:We talked to Beef, we talked about health care. We talk to beef, we talk about health care, but these data centers, these data centers that are coming to rural North Dakota and Nebraska and everywhere in between. They're touting the fact that these areas are good and right, because half of the year they do not have to cool the big computer system, because you have natural cooling and they can use that. They're also touting the fact that the water usage is, although a lot, they're using it in a closed system. So when we're sitting through these meetings, can you trust the people that are telling us these stories? The electrical companies are there, shoulder to shoulder, telling us that the electric rates aren't going to go up, that they have enough energies to supply these. Can we trust that, trent?
Speaker 3:So what I started to tell you and that gave me an opportunity to redo what I did. First of all, I did want to comment on the water. Yes, they are in a self-contained system, but there is evaporation in every situation and we are struggling in permitting new water sources now and there is a tremendous amount of water going to be used, even though it's going to be recycled for the most part. So the water issue really needs to be addressed. The number one issue is electricity. Nationwide we have moved to and this is just a sad state of affairs when you come from a great lignite state like North Dakota, where we have between 800 and 1,000 years of lignite to fuel us we're now nationwide, not in the Great Plains. Miso is worse, obviously, than the Southwest Power Pool, but we are at 16% of our total electric supply coming from coal. Interesting side note the number one contributor of emissions now happens to be landfills and food waste. You can go search this on AI if you like, or just the old-fashioned search. Food waste is the number one emitter of emissions. In fact, the emissions from food waste in landfills alone has the emissions equivalent of seven times the number of cars on the road every day in the UK and the United States combined, the emissions from food decaying in landfills has the equivalent of 42 power plants, 42 coal-fired power plants burning coal generating electricity. We're shutting down coal plants left and right. At one point in time in 2009, illinois was the number one electric producing coal fired power plant state in the nation. They have one left and they're supposed to shut that down. It's kind of like the same stupidity that we've seen out of Minnesota and what they're talking about in terms of going net carbon zero. All of that feeds into this situation with energy for AI data centers.
Speaker 3:So this week, for one-on-one broadcast, I decided that I was going to go to AI via Google, which I use DuckDuckGo. I don't know if it makes a difference, steve, to be honest, but I feel better about it. I try to avoid AI when I can, but I went to AI and I said will AI destroy humanity? Because the guy who's recognized as the godfather of AI says this thing has gotten out of hand. It will destroy humanity because it will replace humans. It will replace humans. And if you go, look at what AI says, it says there is no consensus on whether AI will destroy humanity, with experts divided between optimism and deep concern about the potential risk of misalignment and misuse, which could lead to societal disempowerment or catastrophic outcomes. Ai tells us that AI will destroy humanity. Right, and another search that I had earlier in the week I did the same thing.
Speaker 3:Just see how random or how consistent the answers are. The first part of each sentence would say there's really nothing to the fact that AI will destroy humanity, and then, before the sentence ends, it says but the truth of the matter is that AI could take over. Is this biblical? Are we trying to live out revelations or what exactly is happening? And probably what's most concerning is that let me just take I'm going to pick on one federal legislator, because I'm not often lost for words.
Speaker 3:I've known Harriet Hageman from Wyoming representative from Wyoming for 15 years. So when she in fact I did a meeting with her, I emceed a meeting where she was at a county fair and I was the emcee. She was one of the panel members when she was running against Liz Cheney at the time and my question to her was I said Harriet, if elected, how will you maintain your conviction for property rights, because it's been her number one thing all along day one. When you get to DC and you get in that cesspool, which that's what I'm going to call it. She said, oh, I will remain close to the people.
Speaker 3:And she gave the right answer when the big beautiful excuse me, when the big ugly bill was first passed by the House, harriet Hageman voted yes for the big ugly bill, which had two provisions in there that nobody in my world liked, and that was to federalize CO2 pipelines so that South Dakota cannot say, no, we don't want that here, or any state.
Speaker 3:I'm just using South Dakota because it's been the glaring example of how a state should tell the federal government to stay home, leave us alone. And the other thing that was in there was a 10-year moratorium for any local control over AI data centers. And Harriet voted for this. And I had her on an interview and I said okay, final thing, harriet, is, you've been a property rights champion as long as I've known you and yet you voted to put a moratorium on any local control state or county, excuse me control of AI data centers. She said I did. And you know I first didn't want to do that, but then we got to listening to the developers of AI and we recognize that there are some across state issues that we're going to have to work on in order for this to continue to propel us to be the global leader in AI.
Speaker 3:Wow yeah what did you just say, harriet? You just said you're going to cave on property rights because foreign interests. These are foreign people who are investing in data centers and you referenced as what they tell the county commission when they come in and do their dog and pony show. We're going to create all these jobs and they have built these new homes in Ellendale. I've seen these new homes in Ellendale and how long do those jobs last? Until the construction crews leave. They're gone. They're not part of that community. They're not. You're not even. Back to my pig farm experience. We had people who were working there, who had children in the community, who were part of the community and were trying to build something exactly as you brought up, steve, for generational progress. That's not what these AI centers do. These AI centers have a few people, however many. Come to town, build the data centers and they're gone and the computers run, with a couple people monitoring to make sure the electricity doesn't go out.
Speaker 3:And it's going to go out because we can't afford to supply the electricity for these monstrosities.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, we are. We are heavy into this and this is really, really, really on topic for this area. We're short on time on this segment, trent, when we come back, I'd like to talk about where we're at with those CO2 pipelines, and then I also want to talk about dairy, and then I want to give the people of the region some hope and what maybe they can do about all of these projects. So stick with us. This is Piper's Auction and Realty America's land auctioneer. We'll be right back after these messages.
Speaker 1:And I have something to say right there Get bird to straight by.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Steve Link, broker for Piper's Auction and Realty, and today we are talking with Trent Luce. But before we get into this last segment, again, go back. If you want to listen to anything we've talked about so far. Go to Piferscom, click on our podcast tab and you can find us on Apple and Spotify. And thanks to Pifers Auction and Realty and Pifers Land Management for sponsoring this, we have a whole flurry of land auctions to take care of before the end of the year and some equipment sales. So go to pyferscom and read about all of the interesting opportunities that are out there. All right, trent uh.
Speaker 3:So, steve, yes, if this uh radio host thing doesn't work out before, you should think about being an auctioneer, because every time we come back into a break, welcome back to america's land auction. I mean, it's like you capture my attention. We got a new item. I've got a new bull in the ring. He's probably better than the last bull, so I mean, you're good at that.
Speaker 2:So my problem is I talk fast, but I can't count. So that's not a very good auctioneer when you can't count. So I happen to be the broker. I set and, and, and, and, and, uh, hand that part, and then I hand it over to Andy Murdoch or Kevin Piper or our great auctioneers, and they do the uh, they do the chanting, cause they can actually talk.
Speaker 3:Well, that's one thing for sure Nobody from Bowman County, North Dakota. We're like he's a talking fast, Exactly, Exactly. So, we talked a little bit about.
Speaker 2:We talked bad about Hereford cattle. While we're talking, we should you. You might get.
Speaker 3:You might get a text message or a call here shortly because, uh, we, uh, because we're talking about hereford cattle. But yeah, I have a daughter with the hereford herd that she started, um, she bought heifers, showed those heifers and every one of the heifers she showed is now a functional cow. So not every breed can say that they show them, even though they get them all globular fat. Well, they're not blood in there, though I got to say they are horn though Are they?
Speaker 2:So you have an Oklahoma State college participant in your family right.
Speaker 3:My nephew is on the judging team this year at Oklahoma State.
Speaker 2:He'll be finishing up through this fall, so that Andy's an alumni of that. So they would.
Speaker 3:They would have a lot to talk about, so I may or may not have been at Andy's place a time or two when he was a wee young lad. There you go, with zero influence of anybody named Brooks or Pope involved.
Speaker 2:Good times, good times, so all right. So, where you've talked a lot about the CO2 pipeline, where are they at on that whole project? The Big Beautiful Bill was not the friends for the opponents of that, but where truly are they at in these different states in that project? Are they moving forward? Did that? Is it falling apart? And there's some really interesting dynamics that I want to talk about on the CO2 pipeline.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm sad to report, the only state that we're really in trouble on is my home state. Co2 pipelines are in the ground. They're coming from the ethanol plants and I was told the other day that they are going to be active running CO2 to Cheyenne by the end of the year. That happened because four years ago, before any of us were really paying attention, legislative action preempted any local control on the CO2 pipeline. So there has been zero public service, commission or local county governance in the CO2 pipelines in the state of Nebraska. I'm not telling you what's going to happen yet. I still have plans to get it shut down From the pipeline that obviously comes through Iowa, south Dakota, north Dakota, a bit Granite Falls, just one little line through Minnesota. That's pretty much on hold and Summit is in a quantity that they don't know how to deal with because of the efforts of the people of South Dakota. South Dakota has just been amazing in this regard House Bill 4135, which has a provision in it which would fast track the CO2 pipelines. Despite me witnessing Dusty Johnson last week and Mitchell disputing, that was the fact. It's written right in the language. So we still have people at the federal government trying to circumvent local control, and at every turn.
Speaker 3:Steve, I'm going to be a champion for property rights and local control, and I just want to clarify that when you talk about being a champion for property rights, that means that you're doing on your property, with your money, what you see fit. If you're doing on your property, like with the wind turbine, with taxpayer tax credits you lost, you have just forfeited your property rights. So I still claim to be the nation's largest there's a lot of good ones Nation's largest property rights zealots. All of these problems that lead to division within our communities can be fixed if we just stop creating government incentives and funding and giving tax credits to the wealthy. That at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:And I just want to do one other thing while we have a moment. You didn't say that we had a moment, I'm just going to take a moment and that is that there's a big difference between a subsidy and a tax credit. Right, warren Buffett last year bragged about getting $37 million on wind alone with Berkshire Hathaway and tax credits. Tax credit is a 100% deduction of your tax liability. A subsidy is income that you get. That, at least, you have to report as income. That's not the case, and so that's why these wealthy individuals chase these tax credits, and that, at the end of the day, is why our debt continues to skyrocket, which this morning I looked it up, it was $108,642 per person in the United States is what each one of us owe the federal government.
Speaker 2:Well, this is hitting near and dear to my heart. We had a project close to where I lived and the tax credits and the things that they proposed or that they actually did to promote that business to come in With the guise of creating jobs and creating all this euphoric opportunity for everybody. We're right in the middle of that and it's an interesting dynamic and you pointed that out. You know the people that are behind this project may lean right or left and they're usually not wanting to have government handouts. They're not wanting to have that type of thing and the property rights has shifted to people that may be on the right or left. And so it's this interesting dynamic, especially in the CO2 project and the carbon capture project, how it's just roles have reversed and money, I think, has really catapulted. What's influencing people on that?
Speaker 3:It no longer matters the alphabet behind their name. They're either representing the will of the people or they're representing the corporate interest. It's that simple, and an R or a D does not indicate anything in that regard.
Speaker 2:So we are short on time for the end of this show, again, again, and that's that that means you're going to have to come on um soon again and we're going to revisit some of this stuff. But just in 30 seconds can you give the folks, the listeners you already kind of teed up some of that, some hope on what they can do, what they should do, in their daily life to try and help these causes?
Speaker 3:Turner County, south Dakota, earlier this week there were people that showed up with a petition of 770 people from the county that said we want a moratorium on wind and solar and that night the county commission granted it. You talked about Harwood at the beginning. We know that we had 600 plus people there at an event. The only reason all of these violations of our constitutional rights have occurred is because it's our fault, not their fault. Rights have occurred is because it's our fault, not their fault. We haven't shown up to put pressure and hold accountable the people who are representing us in this representative republic. If we start showing up, we actually dictate the direction of the ship.
Speaker 2:Well, that's powerful. That's powerful, All right. So show up, trent. What do you got planned for the rest of the weekend in this Labor Day weekend?
Speaker 3:I actually have a wedding in Ballantyne, nebraska, back on the Rosebud. I'll be on the Rosebud fairs this weekend, so I'm going to take in a powwow while I'm there and then I'm going to make a little trip to Utah. I've got a couple of things I need to nail down in the state of Utah next week.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fantastic. All of that is wholesome, and I encourage everybody to eat beef. What kind of beef?
Speaker 3:Trent Piedmontese beef. You find that at cpbeefcom Grown by Great Plains Cattlemen, 100% by Great Plains Cattlemen.
Speaker 2:All right, folks, remember, go to peiferscom if you want to re-listen to this episode. You can Google or whatever you want to do Trent Luce and get to his media site he's got a lot of great content on there and follow him and like him and follow him on that. So again, thank you from Pifers Auction and Realty and Pif's Land Management. We'll be back next week with another riveting show Happy trails.