Iowa Feed in Tariff effort

An update on the Iowa feed In Tariff effort. The legislation has a new bill number- SF372.

Iowa Senate Democrats claim to be big supporters of renewable energy AND rural economic development. Here’s hoping they’ll prove it. They should schedule this bill for a Senate floor vote and support it. The success of this bipartisan effort depends on the Dem. caucus willingness to stand up to the utility lobby. I look for this bill to be supported as well by conservatives interested in free markets and helping Iowa small businesses. It will be hard for them to show support if Senate democrats sit on this bill, however.  Call your legislators!

The legislation also got some great national coverage this week by some of the best energy writers in the nation.  David Roberts @ grist.org wrote an excellent article . “Bipartisan support for clean distributed energy in Iowa of all places”.    Iowa legislators - if you want to lead on energy policy … here’s your chance.     

Leading national Feed in Tariff advocate Paul Gipe also wrote a great piece .


Another at National Law Review by Ari Peskoe.

There was also coverage from Midwestenergynews.com, An excellent source for energy wonks in the Midwest. It’s interesting to note that this is a project of REAMP , also a major funder of Midwest advocates of energy and environmental issues. To date, my research indicates that Midwest REAMP has not supported feed in tariff efforts, or other efforts to increase distributed generation in the Midwest, apart from a minor Iowa effort to support tax credits for solar PV, instead of funding efforts for education on the need for underlying regulatory reform needed to advance distributed generation. Hey REAMP … Germany – 25% renewable energy and on track to have lower electric prices than much of the Midwest by 2015.   Also, German renewables are heavily owned by German Farmers and citizens, building solid public support for renewable energy policy there. The United States – 4.72  percent renewables, with little local ownership in the Midwest. REAMP does not yet support feed in tariffs- preferring mainly to support energy efficiency, large scale wind farms and transmission efforts , and tax credits to advance renewable energy. None of which seems to have built sufficient public support for the renewable energy policy we need.  Maybe REAMP should take note of the Winston Churchill quote:   “Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing — After Exhausting All the Alternatives”