After enjoying
Stephen Lacey’s post – “The
5 Biggest Clean Energy Turkeys of 2013”, I decided to rate Iowa’s own top 5
renewable energy gobblers this year. I have been watching Iowa energy policy
for quite a while and there were no shortage of potential “winners” this year. Here
are my nominations:
1- MidAmerican energy company - for that company’s apparent lack
of transparency on how they determine property tax rates for their wind
projects in Iowa. Yes, no surprise that I would rate them as top turkey. As noted in several previous posts, the
utility sent me information that they negotiated much higher installed cost
estimates with the Iowa Utilities Board than MEC was assessed on local property
taxes. And it is very difficult for Iowan’s to access public information if
they are concerned about their county and school district receiving proper
revenue. If this is your first visit, please check the numerous posts here
about what I learned so far.
2- Private Energy Companies with
eminent domain power-
Clean
Line Energy is planning a HVDC line in Iowa. If the project proceeds, the
company will register as an Iowa utility and have eminent domain authority to acquire
land for the project. I’m opposed to allowing private companies to condemn land
for their own purpose. So are a number of other Iowa farmers, and for that
reason, the project seems to be generating opposition in our state. Check the reader comments
on the op ed linked above.
I’ve been
watching efforts to stop the tar sands pipeline by several groups in Nebraska,
by opposing that company’s use of eminent domain to gain right of way for Keystone XL.
I’ve been wondering for a while if those
same groups (some with Iowa ties), will look the other way, or even support
the use of eminent domain for wind transmission lines in Iowa. Hey, Opponents to,
and advocates for both projects are using the same talking points. Hmmm…
3- Iowa Senate leadership - Given my nominations above, these
days, a lot of Iowa Farmers are interested in investing in their own wind and
solar projects instead. The Iowa Senate let them down this year by declining to
allow a floor vote on a bill to specifically allow farmer owned wind energy
here. I wrote several posts about this when the senate was considering the
bill. I just couldn’t write the epilogue about the bill when the senate bowed
to utility pressure and “killed” farmer owned wind policy for another year. This has been a recurring problem for many
years in Iowa. Both of our political parties can share the blame for the lack
of progress on this issue since the 1980s. However, this year, the award goes to
Iowa senate Democrats.
4 – Iowa energy advocates – For quite a while Iowa advocates who
do like farmer - residential owned small scale wind, solar, and biomass, have
been out-spent, and out lobbied by interests who like things just the way they
are, thank you very much. You would think that after several years of this,
advocates would work together and craft policy that addresses several of Iowa’s
policy shortcomings, and send a united message to Iowa’s elected policy makers.
That hasn’t happened. In fact, after reading this post about “building
Science fight club”, I see similarities to Iowa energy advocates. Oops, I
talked about “renewable energy fight club”, I will not, however, mention names,
as I hope folks unite and improve this situation.
5 – Midwest renewable energy donors - Maybe I should have rated this
group at number 4, as a number of the advocates above depend on them for their
organization funding. Iowa renewable policy
looks the way it does because of the way these groups fund federal and state
advocates. If you don’t like the way things are, and have contacts with any of
these groups, maybe you should let them know. Maybe you should contact legislators
and the media while you’re at it.
So, that’s my
list, I thought about including Iowa media outlets for their dismal coverage of
Iowa renewables and climate policy, but, hey, you have to stop somewhere.
That said, I’m
really pretty thankful, despite sounding like quite a “downer” above. Iowa has
moved the needle on renewables, and we’re really starting to debate how we want
renewable policy to develop here. That’s
a good thing, and long overdue. Iowa
will be judged some day on how well we maximized the renewable energy opportunity
to use the resources we were blessed with. Maybe we will actually do better
than we’ve managed so far.
