By Jeff Biggers, Opinion, The New York Times
By 2020, thanks to MidAmerican Energy’s planned $3.6 billion addition to its enormous wind turbine operations, 85 percent of its Iowa customers will be electrified by clean energy. Meanwhile, Moxie Solar, named the fastest-growing local business by The Corridor Business Journal of Iowa, is installing solar panels on my house, and is part of a solar industry that now employs 200,000 nationwide . . . With or without significant federal support, reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require major private investment, as it has here in Iowa, and ambitious private-public initiatives from mayors and governors. We need to activate a new era of “regenerative” cities and states . . . Over 10,000 climate initiatives are underway in cities worldwide, according to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which represents 80 major cities. Read more. Photo of a wind turbine in Adair, Iowa by Charlie Neibergal / Associated Press
Jeff Biggers is the author of Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, and the founder of the Climate Narrative Project at the University of Iowa.
The Climate Narrative Project is a special initiative in the Office of Sustainability at the University of Iowa, designed to reach across academic disciplines and chronicle regenerative approaches to energy, food, agriculture, water and waste management, community planning and transportation.
ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING
- Nebraska needs own climate plan, by the Lincoln Journal Star Editorial Board
Thirty-four states have adopted climate action plans, according to a special legislative committee chaired by Sens. Ken Haar of Malcolm and Tyson Larson of O’Neill. A preliminary report shared at a legislative preview with incoming senators said the committee “heard one universally supported recommendation, which was the need to create a climate action plan for the State of Nebraska.” The preliminary report concluded, “The University of Nebraska Lincoln has the background, staff resources and expertise to create such a plan. The plan should be based on empirical evidence and Nebraska-based data, developed through outreach to the public and coordination with public and private sector interests.” The proposal is sensible and prudent. We hope that senators follow through. Read the entire editorial here.
- Climate Adaptation: The State Of Practice In U.S. Communities, November 2016 Report written by Abt Associates and funded by the Kresge Foundation
By Krysti Shallenberger, Associate Editor, Utility Dive
Memo to CEOs who don’t consider themselves in the electricity business: You may not be in the power business today, but you’re more than likely to be in it tomorrow. Consider Apple, hardly a byword in the energy business. This summer, the company applied for federal licenses to sell directly to customers the excess renewable energy it generates on its new campus and in facilities across Oregon, Nevada, and California . . . A 
A 
Michigan and Minnesota are exemplar Midwest states when it comes to state-level policy pushing for clean energy development, according to a 
“Phasing out coal-fired electricity and expanding clean power sources will create new jobs and opportunities,” [Canada’s Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna] said Monday, speaking to reporters in Ottawa. Eliminating smog caused by coal power generation will also reduce health impacts, she said. 
“The train to a global clean-energy future has already left the station,” she said. “We can choose to get on board — to lead — or we can choose to be left behind, to stand stubbornly still. If we stubbornly deny the science and change around us, we will fall victim to our own paralysis.”
