Friends,

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement has made it easy to contact the Iowa Utilities Board about the proposed coal plant in Marshalltown!  Take advantage today and spread the word (and the link)...

http://capwiz.com/iowacci/issues/alert/?alertid=10503416&type=CU

See the press releases from the Office of Consumer Advocate and Plains Justice below for suggested talking points!

Mark
[log in to unmask]
319-621-7393

Marshalltown Coal Plant Proposal under Fire

National Experts Testify in Opposition

Dr. James Hansen to return home to testify against coal, global warming
 

Today the Cedar Rapids-based public interest environmental law center Plains Justice submitted testimony to the Iowa Utilities Board opposing the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, on behalf of a coalition of Iowa organizations.  The joint intervenors oppose the plant's global warming pollution and air and water quality damage.  Before the plant can be built, the Iowa Utilities Board must determine whether Alliant Energy's proposal meets the criteria for what is commonly referred to as a 'Certificate of Need'.  

Dr. James Hansen, noted climate scientist and international voice for global warming solutions, grew up in Denison, Iowa and is testifying for the first time in such a case.  Hansen and experts Dr. Neil Harl, Professor Emeritus of Agriculture and Economics at Iowa State University; Tom Sanzillo, former First Deputy Comptroller for the State of New York; and Dr. Kristen Welker-Hood, Director of Environmental and Health Programs for Physicians for Social Responsibility, have filed testimony and will appear at the IUB public hearing in January as witnesses for the coalition. Plains Justice attorneys Carrie La Seur of Mount Vernon and Jana Linderman of Cedar Rapids are representing Community Energy Solutions, Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Farmers Union, Iowa Renewable Energy Association and the Iowa chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

"If we cannot stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains – no less gruesome than if they were boxcars headed to crematoria, loaded with uncountable irreplaceable species," said Dr. Hansen, who is testifying as a private citizen.  "It is important in this proceeding for the decision makers to realize that the least cost technology to the firm generating the electricity is not the least cost for society," Dr. Harl notes.  

Dr. Welker-Hood testifies that "emissions from the operation of [the Marshalltown plant] would negate more than 90 percent of the CO2 reductions that would be achieved in New York State under draft regulations for implementing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative." Expert witness Sanzillo concludes bluntly that the plant is "unnecessary."

The massive new plant is proposed for the east side of Marshalltown, adjacent to a smaller existing coal plant.  Damage inflicted by the plant may include "diminution of the value of the state's existing renewable energy generation facilities, damage to the development of new renewable energy generation facilities, displacement of renewable energy from the grid, increases in retail electricity rates, damage to air and water quality, increased fuel costs due to inefficient ethanol refining processes, civil rights violations of minority communities targeted by the highly polluting coal industry, damage to Iowa's ecosystem and agricultural economy from the increasing impacts of global warming, violation of state energy policy, and future damage to electricity consumers who will pay the eventual cost of carbon regulation," according to the petition drafted by Plains Justice

The 660 MW coal plant proposed by Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy would emit approximately 6,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.  Alliant projects a 40% increase in emissions in the next 7 years, making them one of the worst global warming offenders in the Midwest.  The Iowa Utility Association, of which Alliant is a member, recently commissioned a study that demonstrated that capacity for nearly 1,000 MW of cost-effective energy efficiency potential is available in their service territory in the next ten years at half the cost of Alliant's proposed coal plant.  Kansas and Florida regulators rejected similar large coal plant proposals in 2007 because of global warming impacts. 

Sally Wilson, a biology professor at Marshalltown Community College and member of Community Energy Solutions, opposes the plant as a private citizen. "We deserve clean air and water as much as any other town in Iowa," says Wilson.  "There's no reason for Iowa to be building more coal plants.  It is critical that we protect our environment for the health of our community and its members. We are dependent on clean air and water," says Wilson. "It makes no sense to build a coal plant when much better alternatives are now available."

The Iowa Utilities Board will hold public hearings starting January 14th in Marshalltown.

"The single most important action needed to decrease the present large planetary imbalance driving climate change is curtailment of CO2 emissions from coal burning," said Dr. Hansen.  "Because of the danger of passing the ice sheet tipping point, even the emissions from one Iowa coal plant, with emissions of 6,000,000 tons of CO2 per year, could be important as 'the straw on the camel's back'."
Consumer Advocate Opposes Interstate Power and Light Company Proposed Coal Plant
Consumer Advocate urges company to evaluate more cost-effective and environmentally
sound supply resources.

            The Iowa Consumer Advocate has filed testimony with the Iowa Utilities Board, recommending that the IUB reject Interstate Power and Light's application for authority to site a 630-megawatt coal-fired generating unit (SGS Unit 4) adjacent to Interstate's existing Sutherland Generating Station in Marshalltown, Iowa.  Interstate is a subsidiary of Alliant Energy of Madison, Wisconsin.

            "When the risks to consumers and the public associated with building a new coal-fired power plant are properly taken into account, the advantages are clearly demonstrated of Interstate Power meeting its supply needs through lower-cost and environmentally-friendly energy efficiency and renewable energy generation resources," said Consumer Advocate John R. Perkins. 

            The Office of Consumer Advocate filed the testimony with the IUB late Monday.  The OCA represents gas, electric and telephone utility consumers generally and the public generally in all proceedings before the Iowa Utilities Board. 

            Expert testimony submitted by the Consumer Advocate interpreting current scientific analysis and consensus argues that the proposed coal plant would inject enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for 50 years or more, contributing to a worsening of the dangerous buildup of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere and to accelerated global climate change for centuries to come.  

            According to the testimony, emissions from the proposed plant would be equivalent to the CO2 emissions from about 740,000 additional cars – an additional 40% of current emissions today from all of the cars registered in the state in 2005

            Human-induced climate change presents a grave and increasing threat to the environment and to human societies around the world, according to the testimony. The primary source of increasing atmospheric CO2 is the combustion of fossil fuels by industrialized societies.  Unless squarely addressed by effective public policy, the increasing buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gases will likely cause dramatic environmental and economic harm to societies around the world, including communities
in Iowa.  Policymakers within and beyond Iowa are evaluating policies to achieve electricity production by less carbon-intensive or zero-carbon means, the testimony said. 

            "The proposed coal plant stands in stark contrast to this goal," Perkins said.  "Undertaking construction of a coal plant in these circumstances presents an enormous risk for IPL's customers and the environment – a risk that is unnecessary. Moreover, our recommendations would allow for the potential development of cleaner energy sources which may occur over the next decade and eliminate the need for a baseload coal plant in the future."  

            Perkins said that in the course of the OCA's detailed analysis of Interstate's electric resource planning model, OCA's experts determined that IPL failed to properly model the costs of CO2 regulation and other energy resource potentials.  Adjusting
for these errors, the OCA experts concluded, IPL can defer the need for the base load coal plant beyond the planned 2013 in-service date of SGS-Unit 4.  Energy efficiency and wind generation would be a more cost-effective means of meeting Interstate's energy needs, and with little to no adverse environmental impact, Perkins said. 

            "Energy efficiency and renewable energy resources actually deliver greater and more evenly distributed economic benefits to the State of Iowa than the proposed coal plant," Perkins said.  "Removing IPL's modeling constraints that limited Interstate's wind generation capacity to 9.1 % of its projected retail energy needs in 2022,  and allowing the model to increase wind generation to 25 percent of IPL's retail energy needs, would result in 1,657 MW of wind in 2022, or 1,039 megawatts more than IPL assumes in its base resource plan.  Similar environmentally sound results will accrue from increased investment in energy efficiency."

Mark Kresowik
Midwest Clean Energy Campaign
Sierra Club
[log in to unmask]
319-621-7393 (cell)
515-276-4690 (office)
515-251-4811 (fax)
3839 Merle Hay Road
Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]

Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp