Iowa in green pact
By: Patrick Larkin - The Daily Iowan
Posted: 11/16/07
Five governors, including Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, and a
Canadian premier signed a bill Thursday to reduce greenhouse gases in the
Midwest.
The accord is aimed to curb greenhouse gases by 60 to 80
percent by 2050, a goal that is on par with national environmental activists'
standards.
The Sierra Club, a national environmental organization,
insists upon an 80 percent reduction by 2050.
"The threat of global
warming is real, and it is our responsibility to take steps to reduce greenhouse
gases," Culver said in a statement.
Culver, along with the governors of
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Kansas, and the premier of Manitoba, signed
the Midwestern Regional Greenhouse-Gas Reduction Accord Thursday in Milwaukee.
The governors of South Dakota, Ohio, and Indiana also signed as
observers.
Nathaniel Baer, energy program director of the Iowa
Environmental Council, said the goal is "likely and realistic."
Details
of the plan, including specific targets for gas reductions and accompanying
timelines, will be chiseled out over a 30-month period, to be complete by May
2010.
In addition, the nine leaders, plus the governors of Nebraska and
North Dakota, signed an Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform.
The platform is intended to reduce sales of natural gas and electricity
2 percent by 2015 and 2 percent every year thereafter. It also aims to further
integrate wind technology and establish a domestic fuel supply infrastructure
for electricity, biofuels, hydrogen, and other low- and zero-carbon
fuels.
Environmental activists were pleased with the pacts.
"This
is pretty bold stuff," said Mike Carberry, the head of the Iowa City branch of
the Sierra Club.
Carberry said the pacts "will boost Iowa's economy" by
creating "green-collar jobs."
Baer said they will "speed our transition
to a clean energy economy," and noted that the federal government should "step
up and pass legislation."
Mark Kresowik, an organizer for the Sierra
Club's Midwest Clean Energy Campaign, said that while the pact was a good first
step, he said the Midwest has a long way to go.
Kresowik noted two
proposed coal-fired power plants in Marshalltown and Waterloo, saying the plants
threaten to undermine the pacts signed today.
He said his campaign has
called Culver about the plants on a weekly basis, and Culver is currently
reviewing them.
If built, the plants would emit greenhouse gases
equivalent to 1.6 million cars and create only 150 jobs, Kresowik said,
comparing the plants to five recent wind-power plant projects in Iowa which he
said will create upwards of 1,000 jobs.
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