Andy Johnson, Executive Director The June 2nd print edition of the Des Moines Register led with the headline “Iowans warned of rolling blackouts”, and utility sources proceeded to make repeated connections between the growth of renewable energy and a less reliable grid. As Mark Twain said: “Few things are more irritating than when someone who is wrong is also very effective in making his point.” Sure, it sounds sensible that
With energy costs high and rising, fossil fuel execs and some politicians and pundits are claiming we need more domestic oil, coal, and natural gas in order to tame energy cost inflation. This is about as true as Brer Rabbit not wanting to get thrown into the briar patch. In reality, it is the volatile and global nature of fossil fuels that lead to inflation, community wealth extraction, and even
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed in late 2021, and the Biden administration released a valuable Rural Playbook to help rural America identify and access funding opportunities. The BIL will bring major investment in many aspects of the clean energy transition that we’ll discuss going forward, but we want to highlight the Clean School Bus Program Funding, which is NOW OPEN. This $5 billion pot is administered by EPA directly (not through states), and
Andy Johnson, Clean Energy Districts of Iowa Energy Democracy notched an important success in Iowa this year, as the legislature agreed to fund the Iowa solar tax credit waitlist. (solar homeowners: the deadline to apply is June 30th) The Clean Energy Districts of Iowa (CEDI) has been working on the waitlist issue for over a year, since it was clear the 2021 legislature was not about to extend the state’s
Andy Johnson, Clean Energy Districts of Iowa In addition to the solar tax credit waitlist funding, the defeat of restrictive utility scale solar energy siting and changes to building energy codes were both positive outcomes from the 2022 legislative session. “The debate over large-scale solar energy in Iowa has reached the Capitol. A bill recently passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senate File 2127, would effectively outlaw solar panels