Letter: Who is responsible for keeping our communities safe?

For more than a year, residents of Dubois County have been asking a simple question: Who is responsible for keeping our communities safe when massive industrial energy projects move in?

The troubling answer, as the Crossvine Solar and Battery Energy Storage project has shown, is that no level of government seems willing to take responsibility.

At the state level, approval for this project was granted through a regulatory process that focuses heavily on utility finances and electricity generation, but gives little weight to local safety, emergency response capability, or the real-world risks of large battery energy storage systems. Once that approval was issued, the project was effectively put on a fast track, even though nearby towns and residents were still trying to understand what was being built, how it would operate, and what could happen if something went wrong.

At the county level, there was no comprehensive zoning framework in place to evaluate whether a project of this scale belonged so close to homes, schools, churches, and farmland. Instead of proactive standards, residents were left reacting, scrambling for information after decisions had already been made elsewhere.

The Town of Holland eventually stepped in where others did not. Local officials were forced to compile a formal list of safety and equipment questions simply to get basic information about fire risk, battery chemistry, emergency response coordination, and notification procedures. That alone should alarm every resident. Town councils should not have to chase down safety details after a project is approved.

What makes this more concerning is the growing national record of battery storage fires that require prolonged responses, large exclusion zones, and shelter-in-place orders. These are not hypothetical risks. Yet no countywide emergency preparedness plan was required before approval. No independent local safety review was mandated. No binding commitments were made to ensure that local fire departments are equipped, trained, and funded to respond to a worst-case event.

Instead, the burden has fallen on residents and small-town officials to ask uncomfortable questions and demand accountability—often being told, after the fact, that the project is already approved and moving forward.

That is not how public safety should work.

State regulators approved a project without ensuring local readiness. County government allowed siting without strong protective zoning. And residents were left to piece together answers on their own, long after critical decisions had been made.

Dubois County deserves better than a system where industrial-scale projects advance first, and safety questions come later. Clean energy should not come at the cost of transparency, local control, or public trust.

Dubois County voters should remember who stood up for local safety, and who stood aside, when it mattered most.

John M. Kaltenbacher
Dubois County