MidAmerican Wind Property Tax Update

The Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) is another potential source for verifying the accuracy of wind  property tax filings submitted by MidAmerican to Iowa counties for determining valuations. A wealth of information on the utility's wind projects and other generation assets are submitted by the utility in order to get approval by state regulators
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Unfortunately, most of that information is confidential and not available to Iowans. Interested tax payers could jump through the hoops and forms necessary to access this information (see IUB letter below), but they would likely have to sign a non disclosure agreement. How then, do interested persons use that information to insure accuracy of the utility's property tax filings?

As an example, The Calhoun County assessor was able to receive an exact cost of the turbines located in that county when she called the IUB. She contacted the IUB when I filed a petition to review MidAmerican's turbine valuations. The information IUB provided supported my position, but the review board dismissed the petition anyway. So, having access to IUB records would useful if I were to pursue an appeal process. However, it appears unlikely I could access that information, or use it in a public appeal process, or share it with the media if I believe that I didn't receive fair treatment from public officials in this matter.

When a letter was sent to the IUB asking for this same information for several more of MidAmerican's wind projects. This was the response received from an IUB staff person.

      


Frankly, it would have been quicker the for the IUB staff person to just provide the same project cost information for these projects that was provided to the Calhoun county assessor. Instead he notes that much of this information is not available online invited the interested parties to drive to Des Moines and look for it ourselves. He also notes the one Docket available online,     RPU-2013-0003 . 
I had already downloaded a document from the six pages of filings listed for this docket, which included an actual cost listing for MidAmerican's wind VII project. The request for information letter sent to the IUB referenced that this information appeared to be available, and asked them to provide that same information for additional projects.  I also asked for the specific project cost items listed in this filing, but figured I would only get the basic information highlighted below. 

    

 It's understandable that IUB would maintain confidentiality while the utility is requesting project bids. Much of projects specifics of this heavily redacted 50 plus page document were blanked out.  But, IUB rightly saw no reason to redact the previous completed wind project cost, since no project specifics were listed. This will be useful information to verify the utility's property tax filings for the "wind vii" locations.

However, since this request letter was sent to the IUB,  the document above no longer appears to be listed when you search the IUB electronic filing system.  A Wikipedia page for MidAmerican's Highland wind project lists a now broken link to the same docket, probably the same document I downloaded.

       


 So now , anyone who travels to Des Moines for this information will probably find it a waste of their time. It also no longer appears to be available online . IUB has this information readily available, so why won't they provide it? Especially since MidAmerican provides information about their wind project costs to FERC. Why can't the public easily access this basic IUB info to see if those wind project costs match the Utility's county and federal filings, Unless the numbers don't match for some reason.   
Comment from the IUB is welcome.  

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