February 9, 2012

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New rules proposed for deciding cow-zapping cases of stray voltage

January 31, 2012 By

Ag groups and utility companies are being challenged to propose changes in a bill that would set up a new statewide standard for addressing cases of “stray” electric voltage that zap farm livestock. 

“It’s just easy to say, ‘No, no, no.’ How do we solve the problem?” asks Representative Stewart Iverson, a Republican from Clarion who is the bill’s manager. “Because we know stray voltage can be a huge problem.”

It’s mainly a problem on dairy farms where, for example, cows hooked up to milking machines sometimes can get zapped if there’s a power surge. Matthew Steinfeldt, a lobbyist for the Iowa Farm Bureau, says farmers and utilities are doing just fine in resolving any problems and the bill’s unnecessary.

“The best thing is to quickly identify and resolve stray voltage (issues). That’s what farmers want to do, but what this bill does, I mean, it’s a major change that will have a significant effect,” Steinfeldt says. “In a way, it takes away a right to due process. No other group in the state of Iowa is subject to something like this.”

Kellie Paschke lobbies for the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, another group that is opposed to the bill.

“This bill goes beyond just setting a standard for stray voltage,” Paschke says. “It completely changes how stray voltage claims can be pursued.”

A three-member subcommittee gave initial approval to this controversial bill earlier today, but the three legislators say they’re hoping the interest groups involved suggest “major” changes in the legislation. Representative Brian Quirk, a Democrat from New Hampton, was a member of the three-member committee. Quirk, who happens to be an electrician, said the bill needs to better define the standards for the stray voltage tests.

“Cattle are a lot like people…Their tolerance levels (for pain) are a lot different,” Quirk said during today’s subcommittee meeting. “Where is that threshold?”

Quirk supports the bill’s requirement that the state Utility Board be the first stop for resolving disputes over stray voltage.

“I like the fact that the Utility Board, being a third-party resource, to actually define where the fault did occur,” Quirk said. “Should it be with the utility or with the consumer?”

Critics say the bill limits a farmer’s ability to sue for damages if their livestock are harmed by stray voltage.

“As Rural Electic Cooperatives, we’re very supportive of the dairy industry. This bill is not to take a shot at the dairy industry, but more about resolving safety issues that result from stray voltage,” said Timothy Coonan, a lobbyist for Iowa Rural Electric Cooperatives. “The process we’re proposing leads to resolution of those issues much quicker, much safer and less costly for everyone concerned.”

The bill as currently drafted tries to combine laws and regulations from the states of Idaho and Wisconsin. Those states rank in the top five nationally in terms of dairy production. Iowa ranks 12th in the number of pounds of milk produced per year.

According to the Iowa Dairy Association, there were more than 200,000 dairy cattle in the state in 2010. There were more than 1900 dairy farms that year in Iowa.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Featured Story, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Changes made to nuclear plant bill, opponents say risk remains

January 27, 2012 By

A three-member panel has made changes to a bill that would put in place the regulatory framework for construction of a new nuclear power plant in Iowa, but critics say there’s still too much risk for consumers. Anthony Carroll of the AARP says his group doesn’t oppose nuclear power, but believes the bill is a bad deal for rate-payers.

“This is a game changer, an expensive raw deal for consumers,” he says. Environmentalists complain the bill doesn’t properly resolve questions about nuclear waste disposal. Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, says adjustments proposed in the bill give the Utilities Board more discretion in deciding whether MidAmerican can build the plant.

“The Iowa Utilities Board has asked for some time to properly staff up their agency so they can deal with some of these issues to bring on board consultants to look at the business case and rate case,” he says. McCoy also points to MidAmerican’s past record, as the utility hasn’t raised its electric rates in 16 years.

“They’ve always been honest with consumers and they’ve always worked hard to keep consumer bills down,” he says. The AARP’s Anthony Carroll says he doubts rates will stay low if MidAmerican starts planning to build an expensive new nuclear power plant.

Carroll says, “If you use last year’s reported numbers, it was one-to-three billion, and according to the utilities board, that translates into 7-to-21-dollars a month. Overruns are the norm,” he says. “You can quadruple early estimates.”

The legislation MidAmerican has been seeking cleared a three-member subcommittee Thursday and it appears headed for passage in the full Senate Commerce Committee.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Utilities Board says memo on nuclear bill is a discussion point, AARP calls it affirmation

January 24, 2012 By

An internal memo from the Iowa Utilities Board that raises concerns about a bill introduced in the legislature last year making it easier to build new nuclear power plants has critics of bill saying it supports their stance. But, I.U.B. general counsel, David Lynch, says the memo wasn’t intended to shoot down the bill.

“If the bill passed as it is, we are confident the we could implement it without changes at all. But I think staff was looking at the legislation to try and say ‘are there areas that might be made better or clearer, are there technical things that we’d like to air maybe some discussion about’, so it’s really just an effort to identify points that were worthy of a little discussion,” Lynch says.

Lynch says the memo was developed after a meeting with legislative leaders who asked if the board had any updated analysis of the law, and that’s how it came about. “They’re subjects that we’d like to see some discussion on it would help us understand what the legislature is looking for so we can be sure we implement it the way the legislature intended, so it’s more of a talking point I think,” according the Lynch.

The memo cites concerns over allowing the utility to charge customers the costs of licensing and construction of the plant, a key issue for opponents. But Lynch says that was not the biggest issue for the board.

“What we thought might be the most important one for us was really related to the staffing, for us to get up to speed on these issue, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a nuclear plant,” Lynch explains. He says they have since talked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy and a manufacturer of reactors, and the staffing issue is not as big a problem as they thought.

While the memo mentions concerns about who would pay the costs associated with a new plant, Lynch says there’s a process for handling those concerns. “I think those are issues that we’d take up when we had an actual application in front of us, something to look at and let all the parties come in and argue over what the costs would be, and whether it would make economic sense or not,” Lynch says.

The AARP has been a critic of the bill. The group’s associate state director for advocacy, Anthony Carroll, says the I.U.B. memo provides clear evidence of their concerns about the cost of the power plant.

Carroll read directly from the memo to support his position. “House file 561 would shift nearly all of the construction, licensing and permitting risk associated with one or more nuclear power plants from the company to its customers, it’s a confirmation, an affirmation of what we’ve been saying all along.” Carroll says if you read further in the memo you find more to raise concern.

“It says some of these provisions could create incentives for the company to engage in behavior that could be contrary to the public interest in certain situations,” Carroll says. “So in our mind that’s a confirmation that House File 5-61 not only fails to protect consumer interest, but that proposed changes to Iowa law would actually provide incentives for utilities to behave in a manner contrary to public interest.”

While Lynch says both sides could argue the costs once a proposal is before the I.U.B., Carroll says there wouldn’t be any chance for argument. Carroll says, “It’s pretty clear if you just read what’s in this memo, if you read page two, one of the first things it says is ‘House File 561 will require the board to establish advanced rate-making principals within 180 days after the application is filed.’ That’s not speculative that’s a will, will require, again another confirmation, the idea that this is speculative, it’s not factual.”

Carroll says AARP has done polling on the issue. “Seventy-two-percent of Iowans over 50 oppose this legislation, so we’re on solid ground in terms of our work, and we’re trying to do everything we can to remind our lawmakers to listen to Iowans, who have as this memo suggests, really everything at risk, versus listening to the companies themselves who are seeking a shift of risk and costs to customers,” Carroll says.

Carroll says AARP does not take a stance on the type of energy plant, just the way it is funded. MidAmerican Energy sought the bill, but it failed to clear the legislature last session.

The bill lost momentum in part because of the problems with nuclear plants following the earthquake in Japan.

See the memo here: Amended-HF561-Bill-Analysis1-AARP

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

MidAmerican Energy announces plans for more wind farms

January 6, 2012 By

Wind turbine at the Iowa State Fair.

Iowa’s largest utility is making another big investment in wind power. Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy is announcing today it will build three new wind farms in five Iowa counties.

 Ann Thelen, spokeswoman for MidAmerican, says the moves will enhance the company’s energy portfolio, adding more than 400 megawatts of power from wind.

“We have signed agreements to acquire (all) of these new wind projects,” Thelen says. “For example, we signed an agreement with Clipper Windpower to acquire about 200 megawatts of wind projects in Audubon and Guthrie counties and also a 101.2 megawatt wind project in Adair County.”

Another agreement is with RPM Access for a 103 megawatt project in Marshall and Tama counties. Combined, 176 new wind turbines will reach into the sky with the projects. There will also be expansion at the existing Rolling Hills project, which covers parts of Adair, Adams and Cass counties.

“When the 2012 wind projects are complete, approximately 29% of our total generation capacity will be powered by wind,” Thelen says. “We are the #1 rate-regulated utility in the United States in terms of wind generation ownership, so that’s pretty exciting for the state of Iowa to be such a leader with an important renewable energy resource.”

She says all of the projects are in the early stages of planning and construction and all of them should be complete before the end of the year. While dollar figures for the latest agreements were not released, Thelen says the utility is making a very significant investment in wind.

Thelen says, “We started building wind projects in 2004, so when we have these 2012 projects complete and we have that approximately 29% of our total capacity from wind, we will have invested approximately four-billion dollars in the state of Iowa for our wind generation projects.”

She says MidAmerican will again be working with Seimens Energy to manufacture the turbines at its facility in Fort Madison. Adair, Adams, Audubon, Cass and Guthrie counties are clustered in southwest Iowa while Marshall and Tama counties are in the east-central region.

Filed Under: Business, Environment & Conservation, News Tagged With:

Group speaks out against nuclear power in Iowa

January 6, 2012 By

The possible expansion of nuclear power in Iowa will likely be debated during the upcoming legislative session that begins next week. Legislation that would have made it easier to construct new nuclear power plants in the state failed to pass last year after increased concerns of a nuclear meltdown tied to the earthquake in Japan.

Sonia Ashe with the Iowa Public Interest Research Group says plans for nuclear power expansion should also be dismissed this session.

“Our research into Iowa’s energy options identified nuclear power as one of the most expensive approaches to meeting Iowa’s energy needs and certainly the most financially risky,” according to Ashe. At this point, it’s unclear how much the construction of a new plant would cost.

 

“Iowans would be forced to pay a lot more now for uncertainties in the future. Worse they would be on the hook for covering the costs and the risks associated with the nuclear power plants without a final guarantee of costs and no guarantee that a reactor would be built at the end of the day at all.”

MidAmerican Energy pushed for the change in the legislation and Ashe says the company would pay for new plants by raising the rates of their customers.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, News Tagged With:

Advocacy group gives water infrastructure a D-

December 14, 2011 By

AFSCME leader Danny Homan.

A coalition of unions and environmental advocacy groups held a press conference in Des Moines today to draw attention to the nation’s “crumbling” water infrastructure.

The American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave a D-minus grade to both drinking and waste water infrastructure in the U.S.

Des Moines Public Works Director Bill Stowe is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, but said it doesn’t take an engineer to recognize the problem. “The real point of today’s discussion is to try and wake up voters, taxpayers and rate payers to the seriousness of the situation,” Stowe said.

 Jim Piazza is executive director of the Heavy Highway and Construction Contractors Association. He said federal funding is needed now in Iowa to make improvements and ensure public safety.

“Much of our state’s underground infrastructure was built 80 to 100 years ago and is insufficient for the growth our communities have experienced over that same time period,” Piazza said. “Our system is badly in need of repair, upgrade or rebuilding.” The coalition is calling on Congress to support President Obama’s jobs bill, the American Jobs Act, as a way to begin tackling the needed repairs.

“When we compare the needs of our crumbling infrastructure — our roads, bridges and underground water systems — with the fact that our nation’s construction industry is suffering double-digit unemployment…it only makes sense, as a nation, we invest in the critical needs of our infrastructure and as a result, put hard working Americans back to work,” Piazza said.

A press release from the group noted 40% of rivers and 46% of lakes in America are “too polluted for fishing, swimming or even aquatic life.” Stowe believes the situation is even worse in Iowa.

“Any of us who’ve lived any place other than Iowa — I’m a native Iowan, but I’ve lived in other places — recognize that Iowa’s water quality is the worst in the United States,” Stowe said. On Monday, a malfunction at a pumping station in Des Moines resulted in nearly 400,000 gallons of raw sewage being discharged into the Des Moines River.

Stowe said the station’s aging equipment was partly to blame. “In this case, it was a 1960s, vintage technology that failed and discharged sewage into the Des Moines River,” Stowe said. “Certainly, it’s an example of if we had more up to date equipment — both in energy delivery and the automated systems that control that – the risk of that happening would be substantially less.”

Stowe and Piazza both criticized federal lawmakers and the field of presidential candidates for focusing more attention on tax cuts and social issues – rather than addressing infrastructure needs that could boost employment.

Filed Under: Human Interest, News Tagged With:

MidAmerican seeks electric rate hike in Iowa; parent company buys California solar farm

December 7, 2011 By

MidAmerican is asking state regulators to let the utility increase in its rates for electricity. MidAmerican spokeswoman Tina Potthoff says if approved, customers will see a three-to-four percent increase in their electric bills, starting in March.

“The increase is necessary in order for us to comply with expensive environmental requirements and because of increasing energy production costs,” Potthoff says. 

About 566,000 Iowa customers get their electricity from MidAmerican, including 513,000 residential customers in the state. Potthoff describes this rate-hike request as a rarity.

“MidAmerican Energy has not raised Iowa-based electric rates since 1995 and our customers have benefitting from more than 16 years of rate stability,” she says.

MidAmerican’s electric rates are among the lowest in the country, according to Potthoff.

“MidAmerica’s total retail electric rates are actually sixth-lowest nationally, at an average of about six cents per kilowatt hour,” Potthoff says, “and we’re approximately 40 percent lower than the national average for investor-owned utilities.”

MidAmerican Energy is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway and is part of Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company today announced it’s purchasing a solar farm in California and company spokeswoman Ann Thelen says it’s capable of generating enough power for 160,000 homes in California. 

“There’s a power purchase agreement in place for 25 years where Pacific Gas and Electric Company will be purchasing all the electricity output from the Topaz Solar Power project in California,” Thelen says.

There are six energy companies operating under MidAmerican Energy Holdings, including MidAmerican Energy and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. This is the first solar farm in the MidAmerican Energy Holdings portfolio.

“We have demonstrated our committment to renewable energy by becoming the number one owner of wind-powered energy generation in the U.S. among rate-regulated utilities,” Thelen says, “so this provides us an opportunity learn how…solar energy may benefit our customer at our different utilities.” 

Iowa is home to many of MidAmerican’s massive wind farms, but it’s unlikely large “solar farms” will be springing up here.

“There are maps that show the best places for solar generation and, certainly, out in California — where this project is located — that is one of the prime locations,” Thelen says. “Maximum output, as you might imagine, of solar energy occurs during the summer months, due to the earth’s tilt.”

Solar farms work best in “sunny, arid environments,” like California, according to Thelen. The Topaz project in Calfornia is one of the world’s largest solar farms, worth an estimated $2 billion.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:
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