Iowa Global Warming

Washington, D.C. — The Senate’s chief architect of climate legislation accused MidAmerican Energy of trying to block reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

“Where I see you going is for the status quo,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told MidAmerican’s chief executive, William Fehrman, at a hearing Thursday. “The problem for you is that the status quo is about to change.”

Boxer leads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which is taking the lead in developing the Senate’s version of legislation that would require utilities, refiners and other companies to reduce carbon emissions. MidAmerican said it is following up on Boxer’s request to “work with us,” and is trying to schedule a meeting with her.

MidAmerican has been leading opposition among coal-dependent Midwest utilities to a cap-and-trade approach approved by the House that would set limits on emissions and require power companies to buy allowances, or credits, for emissions that can’t be eliminated through changing fuels, efficiency or other means.

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In the month since the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the conversation about renewable energy and climate change has gotten more intense in Iowa. Letters to the editor and editorials fill the opinion pages on what should be done in the US Senate. Sometimes the Iowa Global Warming Campaign’s work can be frustrating, especially when huge companies like Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy runs a full scale media campaign designed to mislead Iowans about the costs of action, but the experience is rewarding nonetheless. In an unprecedented move, the Iowa Utility Board is accepting public comments on what the American Clean Energy and Security Act will mean for Iowa. I’m not sure that the Iowa Utilities Board should be making a statement on federal climate legislation, but we will be working to get the right answers incorporated in any recommendation the IUB makes.

We know that transitioning to a clean energy economy will create jobs and improve America’s economic security, but that’s not why I came to work here. What good are rock-bottom numbers on your utility bill if it’s not safe for your children to go outside because of scorching temperatures? What good is 7 cents per kilowatt hour coal electricity when our grandchildren will find half of the species on earth have gone extinct? What good is a small utility bill if millions of homeless climate refugees come to our shores? What good are low energy prices when food prices have tripled due to good farmland turning to desert? I realize that these things can be hard to imagine – climate change is a crisis in slow motion – but we have to realistically look at the costs of inaction. The business-as-usual scenario of burning ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels will assuredly doom future generations of Iowans with more climate-induced catastrophes.

I’m tempted to ask “will we let America lose the clean energy race?” but the stakes are higher than that. Delaying strong action on climate change dooms all of the world’s economies, constraining them with violent weather, useless farmland, disease outbreaks, lost natural resources, and rising oceans.

I decided to spend my summer in Iowa because I believe we can change the way we do things for the better. We are not helpless in stopping the effects of climate change. We can take action to reduce our emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases like CO2 and make a more durable energy and transportation infrastructure. The US Senate needs to pass robust energy and climate legislation this year, and I implore Senators Harkin and Grassley to be leaders in making laws that will effectively deal with the problem of climate change.

Drew

The Iowa Utilities Board has opened an inquiry into the federal climate change bill.

Critics say it will significantly boost electricity costs.

Supporters say it will curb global warming and only have a moderate impact on household budgets.

In a notice of inquiry Thursday, the board said it has had discussions with utilities, the state’s consumer advocate office and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, among others.

“It appears that Iowa utilities generally support the concept of a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions. However, they have a number of concerns with how allowances are allocated in the bill,” the notice says.

Allowances, essentially permits to emit carbon, are at the center of a trading market the legislation creates.

The House approved the bill last month on a 219-212 vote.

Rob Hillesland, a spokesman for the board, said an inquiry into a congressional proposal “is not typical.” But he said the idea is “to learn as much as possible, to gather information and know what the impacts might be in Iowa.”

Read the rest of the QC Times story here.