Editorial: Iowa must act now 

Iowa is poised to become a world leader in renewable energy if we seize the opportunity offered last weekend by the U.S. Senate to jumpstart real action against climate change. The $369 billion package, which is set for House approval this week, includes $20 billion annually for climate-smart agriculture and a lot more for solar, wind and hydrogen development. 

Renewable energy development is almost by definition a rural economic enterprise. Solar and wind take space. Conversion of biomass into hydrogen fuel cell production could supplant the 40% of our row-crop acreage currently devoted to biofuels production while eliminating our suffocating surface-water pollution problems. Farmers could fetch 50% more per acre growing switchgrass for hydrogen production than corn for ethanol, according to modeling by Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy. It could be a complete game-changer for agriculture, rural communities and, of course, the health of our soil, air and water. 

Most of the money will go to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Reserve Program, and the Conservation Stewardship Program for working lands. That $20 billion is in addition to whatever funds the administration is able to scrape up from places like the Commodity Credit Corporation, and funding through the five-year farm bill (depending on who controls Congress after November). Prospects are better today for an agriculture that can enhance natural resources while feeding and energizing a growing world population. 

The climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act include tax credits for electric vehicles, wind and solar energy production, residential geothermal pumps and, yes, carbon capture and sequestration using pipelines. 

An analysis of the legislation by Princeton and Dartmouth energy economists shows that the United States will be a leader with Europe in reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Energy, both fossil fuel and renewable, will become less expensive as new sources come online. 

Installed wind capacity will double in a decade and solar will quintuple, the report projects, depending on how projects can clear significant local resistance. Iowa, an early leader in wind energy, has allowed counties to block new wind and solar developments based on a combination of concerns, some substantial and others frivolous (wind turbine shadows can drive you buggy). Iowa decided that it could not have 99 sets of rules for hog production so it adopted a state standard. Iowa should not have 99 sets of rules for renewable energy development, either. It is essential that wind- and solar-generated electricity can make it from Storm Lake to Chicago. The Senate bill makes some permitting easier, but local opposition fueled by the fossil fuel interests remains a significant hurdle to Iowa meeting its energy production potential quickly. 

We already are a leader in wind, and we have plenty more room along Buffalo Ridge to clutter the horizon. Let’s clear the way for clean power that enriches local communities, as we have seen with the complex around us. Property tax collection from turbines is keeping Ridgeview and Pocahontas schools flush, and helps offset the load on ag property. Despite the many clear benefits, renewable energy development remains stunted by local opposition and portends an Iowa future that relies too heavily on natural gas for electricity. 

The legislation will put more money in carbon capture from ethanol plants and power plants, and pipelines to carry the liquefied CO2 to underground caverns for sequestration. Opponents are tilting at windmills. At this point, the pipeline developers are negotiating over the cost of right-of-way with holdout landowners. The Iowa Utilities Board will grant eminent domain to just about any pipeline. Get used to it. We have do do something with the carbon from these ethanol plants, which will operate through the foreseeable future despite what many would hope. Biofuels remain the most viable cleaner-energy option for air transport and will remain part of the mix probably for the life of the pipelines. 

Iowa can vault its economy forward by leaps and bounds through renewable energy development made possible in this bill. It oversells the title written by Democrats for the midterm elections. We won’t see the benefits of the legislation until well beyond November but it will be well on track before the end of the Biden Administration’s first term. By then, the provisions will be embedded into our expectations. We must take advantage now among all of us who want this state to realize its potential in a new energy economy. We know what to do to adjust to a changing climate. We know how to feed the world while protecting precious natural resources. We can make ourselves resilient to the derechos and floods and droughts. We have no choice. We must.