MidAmerican Energy offers big prize if Legislature approves deregulation

MidAmerican Energy has plans to build two, new power generating stations — and that announcement has put some energy back into the effort to pass a bill which would deregulate Iowa’s electric utilities. The bill has been foundering for weeks, with support waning, but yesterday MidAmerican officials chose to tell Senators of their expansion plans. Senator Mary Lundby, a key member of the Commerce Committee, says it’s big news.Lundby says such big time investments generate big time excitement among legislators.A document from MidAmerican Energy indicates the utility plans to spend two-hundred-85 million dollars to construct two electric generation plants But it comes with a big caveat: “if the business climate is appropriate” — a not-so-subtle reference to the deregulation bill before lawmakers.