MidAmerican: Largest Carbon Polluter in Iowa Scores a ‘D’ on Coal-to-Clean Transition Sierra Club Report Finds
Des Moines, IA – The Sierra Club released today the second edition of its ground-breaking report, The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges, that exposes how most major electric utilities greenwash their climate action commitments. The report grades utilities across the country based on their plans to retire coal plants, cease building new gas plants, and invest in clean energy. The report demonstrates if, and to what extent, each utility’s plans make the necessary changes to confront the ongoing climate crisis by curbing CO2 emissions.
The largest carbon polluter in Iowa, MidAmerican Energy, scored a ‘D’ grade, despite significant investments in wind energy, because the utility has no plans to retire its five Iowa coal plants before 2049. Berkshire Hathaway, MidAmerican’s parent company, likewise earned a ‘D.’ MidAmerican, a monopoly public utility in Iowa, has not released any plans to meet its aspirational goal of eliminating carbon pollution by 2050.
Katie Rock, Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Iowa, released the following statement:
“From crop-destroying droughts to life-threatening derechos, Iowans are front-and-center in facing the climate crisis. MidAmerican must address its contribution to the climate crisis and commit to retiring its coal plants. Iowans deserve better.”
Background
The Dirty Truth, Version 2, scores the largest 50 utility parent companies and 77 utility operating companies based on their plans for coal retirements, new gas generation, and clean energy commitments. The report highlights the massive discrepancies between the climate pledges utilities make publicly and their actual plans to meet those pledges. Dirty Truth exposes the “greenwashing” tactics many companies use to make false, misleading, or untrue claims about utility impacts on the environment. The report also highlights the unprecedented potential of the newly-passed Inflation Reduction Act, which includes nearly $370 billion in clean energy incentives that utilities should tap into in accelerating their response to the climate crisis.
Accompanying the report is an updated interactive website which allows the public to look up their utility’s grade, its coal plant retirement schedule (if one exists), its planned gas plant capacity, and its investments in clean energy. The website also includes a national map to help users look up their utility service area and a digital dashboard for researchers, energy analysts, and media partners to keep track of each utility’s progress over the next decade.
Read the report "The Dirty Truth About Utility Pledges"
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.
