- Andrew Johnson is executive director of the Clean Energy Districts of Iowa, which serves 13 Iowa county-level Clean Energy Districts engaged in the locally led and owned clean energy transition.
A Bloomberg headline recently read, “This Red Midwestern State is a Global Paragon of Clean Power.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds rightly touted this status in her Condition of the State address last week. It’s a legacy she inherited. But is it a legacy she will grow, or lose?
The legacy
It’s true: Iowa is currently a global powerhouse for renewable energy. The Bloomberg piece cited a major study that ranked Iowa second highest among over 120 countries, territories, and states in the percentage of electricity generation from wind and solar.
As Sen. Chuck Grassley noted last year in these pages, Iowa’s 13-plus gigawatts of renewable energy (mostly wind) generates over $73 million in lease payments annually, employs 5,500 Iowans, provides thousands…
