Iowa utilities, along with the majority of utilities across the country, scored an F grade in a report from the Sierra Club that rates utilities’ plans to transition to clean energy and to meet increased demand rates through 2035. Iowa utility companies said the report “oversimplifies utility planning” and that they are still striving for […]
Climate Change
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa AG leads letter questioning legality of net-zero, saying it’s part of a ‘radical green scheme’
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led a multistate letter Friday questioning whether a new net-zero carbon emissions standard for businesses is illegal under state and federal law. The letter was sent to David Kennedy, CEO of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a group that recently released its Financial Institutions Net-Zero standard. This standard is meant […]
Posted inCommunity/News
NIH ends future funding to study the health effects of climate change
The National Institutes of Health will no longer be funding work on the health effects of climate change, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica.
Posted inCommunity/News
State plans to remove references to climate change and evolution from Iowa’s science education standards
The Iowa Department of Education (DOE) wants to remove references to climate change and biological evolution from the science education standards in the state’s middle and high schools. The state’s current science teaching standards were adopted in 2015, and closely follow the Next Generation Science Standards that are in use in 20 states and the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa scientists address ‘climate despair’ and individual action as disasters from human-driven climate change increase
For the first time in its 14-year history, the Iowa Climate Statement is focused on what individuals can do about climate change. “We want to be clear that the solution is bigger than individual action, and we need leaders at all levels to enact policies if we want to avert even greater disasters than those […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Sweaty’ crops are exacerbating Iowa’s sky-high humidity
When summer temperatures turn brutal along the Gulf Coast in the deepest depth of the American South, locals always say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” Iowa has been suffering through that one-two punch of heat and humidity this week, but here it’s not just the humidity, it’s also the “corn sweat.” Corn sweat […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Reynolds thanks AG Bird for suing the Biden administration to stop new greenhouse gas reporting requirements
On Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a news release praising Attorney General Brenna Bird’s work to overturn Biden administration rules that would inform the public about the amount of greenhouse gases being produced by large corporations. Reynolds called President Biden “a radical climate alarmist” because the Securities and Exchange Commission issued new rules last month […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa was one of eight states setting records during the country’s ‘warmest winter on record’
The seasons don’t officially change until next week when the spring equinox occurs at 10:06 p.m. (central time) on Tuesday, but meteorological winter is already over and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has now confirmed what seemed obvious on many days these past few months. “Meteorological winter was the warmest winter on record for […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City to start charging a fee at its EV charging stations
Next week, Iowa City will begin charging the public to use its electric vehicle charging stations in the city’s parking ramps. Starting Monday, EV drivers topping off their batteries will have to pay 16 cents per kilowatt/hour. The city estimates the average EV driver will pay $4 for a four-hour charging session. “Payment should be […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa state parks preserve lush corners of a landscape 98% altered by agriculture
Since the onset of Americanization during the early 1800s, Iowa’s environment has changed more than any state in the union. Over 98 percent of Iowa’s lands were altered in service of agriculture. Forever spreading fields of corn and soybeans line highway shoulders, stretching out east to west, north to south. The state ranks second to […]
Posted inCommunity/News
KCCI chief meteorologist resigns after receiving death threat for discussing climate change
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox. KCCI chief meteorologist Chris Gloninger announced on Wednesday he is leaving the Des Moines television station, citing family health issues and PTSD resulting from a death threat he received because of his […]
Posted inCommunity/News
University of Iowa sued by its corporate partner in billion-dollar utility deal
Just three years into a 50-year, billion-dollar partnership with a utility company, the University of Iowa is being sued over an alleged failure to abide by the terms of the deal. The University of Iowa Energy Collaborative is suing the public university in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. The UIEC […]
