{"id":28200,"date":"2026-05-12T09:35:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/?p=28200"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:31:22","slug":"5-questions-with-liz-partsch-metcalf-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/5-questions-with-liz-partsch-metcalf-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions for Liz Partsch (Metcalf 2025)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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About Liz Partsch<\/h1>\n\n

Metcalf alum Liz Partsch covers agriculture, energy, and rural news in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia for Farm & Dairy<\/em> newspaper, a regional newspaper based in Salem, Ohio. Liz has a particular interest in covering the oil and gas industry, as well as alternative energy solutions and the impacts they have on rural communities. An award-winning journalist, she is based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Therese Iacono<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Metcalf\u2019s Fara Warner spoke with Liz about her recent reporting on AI data centers<\/a>, what she remembers most about her time at Metcalf, and what gives her hope right now. 
<\/em>
What are you currently working on? I\u2019ve loved reading the first part in your ongoing series on artificial intelligence so perhaps we can discuss that? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LP:<\/strong> I\u2019m working on part two of the energy series we launched in January. We had been thinking about doing a series since 2025 because we knew that the energy landscape under the Trump administration was going to change a lot. Our region is very energy-driven so we knew we needed to write about this for our readers. We kicked off by explaining what a data center is and the second part will focus on nuclear energy, how they may power AI data centers and how they might be used to address the energy crisis that the administration is saying that we’re having. A lot of times it\u2019s data center development that is driving this energy crisis. One story will focus on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. It’s a uranium enrichment facility that was used during the Cold War to enrich uranium for nuclear plants and nuclear weapons. People in the community say there are abnormal cancer rates with multiple generations of family members dying of cancer. The facility is currently being decommissioned, and now they\u2019re trying to clean it up for a data center coming to the area. I\u2019d really like to share that often the communities that are getting data centers are environmental justice areas already, have a history of extractive industries, or just disadvantaged in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is that why this work is so important right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LP:<\/strong> It\u2019s so important because every day I’m seeing projects proposed. In fact, for weeks on end I can’t escape seeing more proposals. All we are thinking about is data centers. People are seeing them come to communities in our region because we also supply a large portion of energy that this country \u2014 and data centers \u2014 rely on. And now we have transmission lines being built\u00a0from Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Virginia to supply energy to those data centers. The communities that are impacted already have had to deal with the costs of energy extraction. Now we are adding data centers. You also have to think about the area in terms of an agricultural context. Rural farmlands are their livelihood. You’re taking this away when you put a data center here, and you’re also taking away people’s choices for what they want in their own communities. One of the first stories I wrote about was the executive order on AI data centers. The Trump Administration\u00a0specifically mentioned that they wanted data centers built on brownfield sites. So the option is to clean them up for more industry. But if you’re living next to the brownfield site, you\u2019re already in an environmental justice area. Now even though the land is cleaned up, you’re going to get a data center that will have a polluting energy source nearby. If we don’t write about it, these people continue to be voiceless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might come as a surprise to some that <\/strong>Farm & Dairy<\/em> <\/strong>would focus on these projects. What is your process for working on the topic for your news organization? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LP:<\/strong> My editor is a farmer herself so she really knows what our readers think and what our readers want to know. She is always pushing me to think about them first. It always starts with farms. If a farm is going to be impacted, that’s the first thing that we’re going to talk about. We also have a lot of land-grant universities in this region such as Penn State University and Ohio State. They do a lot of research on land use and farmland impacts so they\u2019re very helpful with experts. We also have readers who are vocal so we definitely get tips from them. I always think about what would a farmer want to know? How is this going to impact my land? How is this going to impact my electricity bill?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has your experience with Metcalf impacted your work? What do you remember most?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LP:<\/strong> Metcalf definitely helped me connect climate change to science. It\u2019s been incredibly helpful because when you have an audience that is a bit skeptical of the phrase \u201cclimate change,\u201d it helps to pull in science, talk to experts, and have them provide their data. Shortly after [participating in Metcalf\u2019s Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists], I did a story about drought and pastures and I was able to use examples of the weather, and rain and drought levels. Being able to use data like that is extremely helpful to point out what is happening now and what happened last year and you can see it with your own eyes. Also, getting really comfortable with using science was helpful. I think a lot of journalists get a little nervous because science can be hard to simplify in a way that a reader can understand. If you don’t understand it, then how are your readers going to understand it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I remember most? Where to begin? All the labs were just wonderful and being out on the Cap\u2019n Bert research vessel and at the oyster lab at Roger Williams University. But I also really like the exercise on looping. We interviewed each other and then had to tell each other what we had heard. It was really helpful because I never realized how much \u2013 when I\u2019m talking to a source \u2013 I’m jumping ahead to the next question and I\u2019m not really listening. It helped me to slow down and be more present when I’m talking to a source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what gives you hope? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LP:<\/strong> Being surrounded by people who care about agriculture and seeing people do good things even though they know there are problems. That gives me hope. But the biggest thing is walking around in nature. When I am overwhelmed or stressed, I know I need to go for a walk at the park or be on a trail surrounded by the woods and the trees. At the end of the day, that\u2019s why I’m doing this work. It\u2019s why I can do this work in the face of what seems almost impossible with everything going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Find more of <\/em>Liz\u2019s work here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Metcalf\u2019s Fara Warner spoke with Liz about her recent reporting on AI data centers, what she remembers most about her time at Metcalf, and what gives her hope right now. What are you currently working on? I\u2019ve loved reading the first part in your ongoing series on artificial intelligence so perhaps we can discuss that?  LP: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5333,"featured_media":28201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[937,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact-story","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28200"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28208,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28200\/revisions\/28208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}