Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Iowa imported all the coal its power plants burned in 2008. To pay for that coal, Iowa sent $496 million out of state —primarily to Wyoming, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
According to Burning Coal, Burning Cash: Ranking the States that Burn the Most Coal, more than 76 percent of Iowa’s energy comes from coal, far outpacing nuclear in second place at 10 percent. In 2008, Iowans spent an average of $166 per person on net import of coal, the 10th highest average in the country, and imported 25.3 million tons.
Iowa sent $474 million to Wyoming, $9 million to Mississippi, $8 million to Illinois, $3 million to Colorado and $1 million to Indiana to pay for imported coal.
The group contends that residents would be better served if more money were spent in-state on energy efficiency programs and clean local renewable energy technologies.
Iowa is also poised to reduce its dependence on imported coal by tapping its own wealth of renewable energy resources. The state has the technical potential to generate nearly 39 times its 2008 electricity needs from renewable energy, primarily from wind and bioenergy. Though economic and physical barriers will curb some of that potential, Iowa is already a national leader in deploying wind power, with more than 3,600 megawatts of installed capacity. That helps Iowa and other Midwestern states meet their renewable electricity standards, which require utilities to gradually increase their use of renewable resources. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have already adopted this proven policy.
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