Sierra Club sends gift basket with letter calling on new MidAmerican CEO to retire coal plants and plan for 100% clean energy

Des Moines, Iowa -- Today the new CEO of utility company MidAmerican, Kelcey Brown, received a gift basket with a petition signed by over 1300 Iowans and letters from the Sierra Club Iowa Beyond Coal campaign calling on the utility to commit to a plan to go 100% clean energy.

With a new CEO, MidAm has the chance to catch up with other utilities that are much farther ahead in their transition to clean energy. In a recent scorecard of utility climate plans, MidAm scored a 23/100, or a D, because despite investments in clean energy, the utility has kept five massive coal plants online with no retirement date. Retiring the George Neal North and South coal plants by 2023 would save customers $92 million, improve public health, and help mitigate extreme flooding that has already impacted countless Iowa farmers and families. To become the responsible utility and climate leader they claim to be, MidAmerican needs to make near-term commitments to phasing out coal and investing in clean energy.

“Iowa has weathered multi-billion dollar natural disasters in each of the last two years, and is starting 2021 in a continued state of drought. We know these weather extremes are due to a changing climate, and public awareness of our new climate reality is growing. That is why we are calling for MidAmerican to retire its coal fleet by 2030,” said Katie Rock, Iowa Beyond Coal Campaign Representative.

Photo is Emma Colman delivering a gift basket and petitions calling on MidAmerican to retire coal plants and plan for 100% clean energy.