Renewable Energy Legislation in Iowa

I received an email from the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRenew) discussing all of the energy related bills introduced at the state level. I was surprised at how many bills there were and at how far-reaching and large-scale some of them are.

Here is a look at the different bills...

Senate:

• Senate File 314 Would require all utilities in Iowa to provide net metering
• Senate File 241 Would increase the percentage of electricity to be produced from renewable energy sources- 20% by 2020
• Senate File 355 Would create a community-based wind energy program in Iowa
• Senate File 122 Would give a sales tax exemption for energy-efficient appliances
• Senate File 229 Would add an Energy conservation technician for the capitol complex
• Senate File 285 Would promote energy efficiency in schools, biodiesel transportation, and green buildings
• Senate File 286 Energy efficiency performance standards for utilities, 20% reduction in consumption by 2020.
• Senate File 288 Adoption and enforcement of energy conservation requirements in building code.
• Senate File 301 Requiring utilities board to establish energy efficiency rules for merchant power plants.
• Senate File 242 Would require energy usage information to be included in real estate disclosure statements.
• Senate File 296 Would create a local government energy innovation competitive grant program.

House:

• House File 347 Establish energy utility assessment and resolution program for low-income persons who have need or deferred payment agreement for home energy utility costs.
• House File 166 Would extend the time period that a qualified facility, using wind energy, to be placed in service to qualify for the state wind energy tax credit.
• House File 498 Would establish an Iowa energy independence office and the Iowa power fund

IRenew is asking that people contact their State Representitive and State Senator and ask them to support renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.

Obama Visiting Iowa This Weekend

It is going to be a busy weekend for presidential canidates. Not only is John Edwards coming to the state, but Barack Obama is visiting eastern Iowa.

Here are the details for Obama's events...

SATURDAY

Loras College Fieldhouse
1450 Alta Vista, Dubuque
Doors open: 11:30 AM

Clinton Community College
1000 Lincoln Blvd, Clinton
Doors open: 3:00 PM

North High School Gym
626 W. 53rd St., Davenport
Doors open: 5:30 PM

SUNDAY

West Middle School
600 Kindler Ave., Muscatine
Doors open: 10:00 AM

Southeastern Community College
West Burlington Campus
1500 West Agency Rd., Burlington
Doors open: 1:30 PM

Burlington is the lucky one that gets Edwards on Saturday and Obama on Sunday.

John Edwards Visiting Iowa This Weekend

John Edwards will be in Iowa this weekend making stops in Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Newton, Ottumwa, and Burlington. I am hoping to attend the event in Newton.

Here is more information...

Friday, March 9, 2007 at 12:15 PM
Council Bluffs Senior Center
714 Main Street
Council Bluffs, IA

Friday, March 9, 2007 at 5:15 PM
Sanford Community Center
1700 Geneva Street
Sioux City, IA

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 11:00 AM
UAW Local #997
1813 1st Street North
Newton, IA

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Indian Hills Community College
Advanced Technology Center
Ottumwa, IA

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 5:45 PM
Burlington Convention Hall
310 Jefferson St.
Burlington, IA

DFA Night School tonight: Holding Elected Officials Accountable

Passing on info about the DFA Night School session taking place tonight. I have participated in these before and they are very good. The session is about holding elected officials accoutable. You can sign up here.

Here is more info...

DFA Night School is our interactive online training program. In this session we will be joined by our guest expert Tom Swan, Director of Connecticut Citizen Action and former campaign manager for 2006 DFA-List candidate Ned Lamont.

You'll learn the skills for citizen lobbying and the tactics to make sure you're effective.

The workshop will start at 8:30pm Eastern Time and continue for approximately one hour. It will consist of a conference call with an accompanying downloadable slideshow which you can save to your computer in advance

You are not required to be online during the presentation, you simply need to dial into the conference call with a regular phone. The call-in number will be sent to you before the event, as long as you have RSVPed.

Rants Kicks Republican Out of Republican Caucus for Disagreeing With Him

I teach 2nd grade and occasionally have to settle arguments that take place on the playground. The incidents usually begin with 2 students disagreeing with each other over little things. Then the students will say they don't want to be friends with each other and one says the other can't play with them anymore.

This is basically what happened in the Iowa House last week when Minority Leader Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) kicked out Walt Tomenga (R-Johnston) from the Republican Caucus debate on raising the cigarette tax. Tomenga favors a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax, a move that Rants has been working hard to stop.

Democrats found a lonely Tomenga in the lunchroom and invited him to speak at their caucus...

Tomenga said he accepted the Democrats' invitation and took some ribbing from them about possibly changing parties. He said he has no plans to do so, even though he sometimes is out of step with Republican leaders. "I admit I'm probably an unusual Republican," he said with a smile. "But you could make the case that anybody who calls themselves a Republican is unusual, so I fit right in."

It is pretty easy to tell who Rants' real friends are. Last year, Rants received $138,497 from RJ Reynolds Tobbacco's political action committee. It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you are in, when you have work to do on behalf of your largest campaign contributors.

Stop Funding the War and Start Funding the Troops

"Stop funding the war and start funding the troops"

This should be the message from every Democrat in Congress.

Democrats have a chance to take a stand and finally give our troops the support they deserve. Our troops were sent to Iraq lacking proper body armour, the VA budget was recently cut, troops are being sent to Iraq without the proper training, and now the news about the mistreatment of our Vets have received at Walter Reed. It is an embarassment to our nation that puts so much pride in our freedoms that we don't support those who fight for them.

The American people sent a message in the November election that they wanted a change in policy in Iraq. In a ABC/Washington Post Poll 64% of Americans say the Iraq War was not worth fighting and 56% say our troops should be withdrawn out of Iraq.

Our elected officials in Congress should be putting legislation together that sets a deadline when all troops must be redeployed. Then take the money that was going to be spent on combat in Iraq and put that into Veteran benefits, upgrading Walter Reed, and the VA hospitals.

It is time that we invest in our most valued treasure. Now if only all the Democrats in Congress would stand up and say, "Stop funding the war and start funding the troops."

New Straw Poll Up

I just posted a new straw poll asking who do you support for the Democratic Nomination for President in 2008. The last straw poll was back in August. Here are the results from August, with 92 votes cast...

1. Russ Feingold 27%
2. John Edwards 22%,
3. Al Gore 12%
4. Tom Vilsack 9%
4. Wesley Clark 9%
6. Mark Warner 5%
7. Hillary Clinton 4%
8. John Kerry 3%
8. Bill Richardson 3%
10. Joe Biden 2%
11. Evan Bayh 1%
12. Tom Daschle 0%

5 of the top 6 vote getters have said they are not running or haven't made an announcement yet. It will be interesting to see the new results.

The poll is located on the left sidebar and will run through the end of the month.

Harkin Hires Staff for 08 Re-election

Last week, the rumors were that Tom Harkin was not going to run for re-election and Tom Vilsack was going to step in. Jane Norman of the Des Moines Register writes that Harkin has hired some staff and has been raising money for re-election. Norman writes...

In case you harbored any eensy-weensy shred of doubt that Sen. Tom Harkin is running for re-election, word comes that he has hired veteran Democratic operative Jeff Link as his general consultant for the 2008 campaign.

Matt Paul, who works for Link as vice president for public affairs at the Des Moines political consulting firm Link Strategies, said that a strong organization and campaign staff for Harkin is being put together.

"The senator is actively raising resources, and is energized, and looks forward to the campaign," said Paul, a former aide to former Gov. Tom Vilsack.

Translation: Harkin is out and about raising money like crazy and issuing blizzards of news releases, even if no prominent Republican appears ready to announce a challenge to the four-term senator. He's also looking to secure the hard-working 20-somethings not already scooped up by presidential campaigns.

I hope that Harkin does run. He is a strong voice in the Senate and holds an important position as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. As for Vilsack, I hope he has his eyes on running against Grassley in 2010.

Generation Iowa Commission to Stop Iowa's Brain Drain

From the Sioux City Journal...

Four lawmakers age 30 and younger, including Rep. Elesha Gayman, D-Davenport, want to create a Generation Iowa Commission to make recommendations on how best to keep young, educated adults from leaving Iowa. Statehouse leaders have tried numerous strategies to keep the best and brightest at home -- including an ill-fated bill two years ago that would have exempted Iowans under 30 from paying income tax.

I know Elesha Gayman and know that keeping young Iowans in the state is one of her top priorities. Gayman writes...

The “Generation Iowa” initiative will be housed in the Department of Economic Development and it will serve three purposes; make recommendations to the legislature on behalf of young Iowans, help the Economic Development Department recruit businesses and promote Iowa, and finally outline best practices for businesses to utilize when trying to recruit and retain young people.

It is also a subject that I have written about numerous times, including these posts about rising cost of college, our debt for diploma system, and investing in our Universities.

It is good to see Elesha and other young legislators taking action this issue.

YouTube's You Choose 08

YouTube has a new site up called You Choose 08 that includes official campaign videos from the candidates.

From ABC's Political Radar...

Jordan Hunter, YouTube's director of content partnerships, told the Associated Press, "This is such an important election coming up that we just wanted to make sure we did everything we could in terms of helping candidates get their messages out, but also helping voters start a dialogue with those candidates on issues that really hit home at them individually."

Power is Finally Back On

I finally got power back on last night at around 9 pm. The temp in the hosue was getting pretty low, so we rented a genarator and hooked up some space heaters. Then not even 3 hours later, my power was back.

All in all, I was without power for 130 hours. The first thing that one of my dogs did when she got in the house was run over to the couch and make a nest in the blanket. It feels so good to be back at my house, warm, and with high speed internet.

In honor of having my power back, here is a video of one of my favorite songs by Cat Power from the movie V for Vendetta.

Still in the Dark and Follow Up on the Immigration Summit

I am still without power at my house, which is the reason for the lack of posts this week.

I wrote about the Summit on Immigration that was held in Marshalltown on Monday (here and here). The Marshalltown Times Republican has been having more in depth reports each day on the issues discussed at the Summit. Here they are...

• Conversation is diverse at immigration summit
• Enforcement is topic at immigration summit
• Leaders explain challenges and benefits of immigration
• Summit panel puts more responsibility on Congress
  

On Saturday afternoon, Governor Bill Richardson is going to be in Marshalltown. I am planning on attending and will post my thoughts after the event. I am eager to meet Gov. Richardson.

Richardson has the resume to be a top tier candidate and with Vilsack now out of the race. Richardson might be able to pick up some votes from people who think Senators don't make good candidates and we need a Governor's executive experience.

**Update**
Here are 2 more articles from the Times Republican about the immigration summit...

• Rights, responsibilities, and the roadblocks to living them out
• The problems of immigration policy - and a call for a fix