Pipelines

• Pipeline Update

Protecting the Environment

• Does Iowa have too many Boards & Commissions?

• Get to know your candidates for city council and mayor

• Save the Date: September 16, Annual meeting - Grinnell, Iowa

Plus

• Join us for interesting and informative Lunch and Learns

• Contribute to the Iowa Chapter

• Volunteer for the Iowa Chapter

• Calendar of events

• To see the archive of previous Iowa Chapter newsletters

• To see the White Pine Needle newsletter

Pipeline Update

Over 460 parties intervened in the Summit Carbon pipeline proceedings before the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), including the Sierra Club.  The proceedings are scheduled to begin on August 22.  The plan is for the landowners who are not represented by counsel and those who have not intervened to begin their testimony to the Utilities Board on August 22.  Then Summit will be presenting materials about their pipeline.  The intervenors, including landowners represented by counsel, will be presenting their materials next.  Finally those landowners who have intervened but who do not have counsel will be testifying.  The IUB proceedings are expected to last several weeks. 

Affected landowners who did not intervene will still be allowed to participate in the IUB hearing but may be limited to speak only about their affected parcel and not about other issues that will be coming before the Utilities Board.

Over 1,000 parcels of land are not covered by voluntary easements.

IUB is set to release a new order with hearing clarifications.  Many intervening parties still have unanswered questions and outstanding items that need to be addressed before the hearing begins including the Motion to Dismiss and ongoing discovery disputes. On top of many unanswered questions, intervenors have concerns over the IUB’s ability to handle this big of a case considering hundreds of parties.

Does Iowa have too many Boards & Commissions?

As a result of this year's government reorganization legislation (bill number SF514), a committee has begun reviewing all of the state government boards, commissions, and task forces to determine if they should continue in the future.  It is called the Boards and Commissions Review Committee and is led by Kraig Paulsen, director of the Department of Management. 

The committee will look at the efficiency and effectiveness of each board and determine if it should continue to exist, should be eliminated, or if it should be reorganized.  They will be reporting on their determination on September 30 of this year.  The legislature is expected to introduce bills to address their committee's recommendations.

This may appear to be a wonky exercise.  Indeed 256 boards, commissions, and task forces seem like a large number.   If a board is no longer needed, it makes sense to eliminate it.

On the other hand, boards, commissions, and task forces serve a useful function.  Most of the members of the boards are volunteering their time and talent.  They are often experts in their field of work.  Most of the boards' members are not paid for their service, with a few exceptions such as the Transportation Commission.

Those who serve on boards, commissions, and task forces gain expertise which leads to further government service and leadership positions.

Furthermore, the boards and commissions offer citizens to come before the board to participate in public comment periods, to participate in stakeholder meetings, and to participate in the rule-making processes.  By eliminating boards, commissions, and task forces, public input into government actions and decisions can become extremely difficult.

Furthermore, the citizens serving on the boards provide a level of oversight in how government functions and makes decisions.  Likewise, citizens who attend the board meetings serve in an oversight role.

The Sierra Club will continue to monitor the review committee, offer public comment if we have a chance, and follow legislation implementing the recommendations.

Save the Date: September 16, Annual meeting - Grinnell, Iowa

The annual meeting will be at the Joe Rosenfield Center at Grinnell College, Room JRC 101, in Grinnell, Iowa.  Doors will open at 10:30 am on September 16.  We will have speakers plus a really great lunch.  Neil Hamilton will be reading from his newly released book, "The River Knows".  Save the date!

Get to know your candidates for city council and mayor

Mayors and city council members can have a huge impact on the environment, including increasing the use of clean energy, supporting clean water initiatives, creating outdoor public recreation areas, expanding recycling programs, and working on environmental justice.  Get to know the candidates and ask them some environmental questions.   A list follows.

Environmental priorities

1. Do you have any environmental priorities for the city?  If so, what are they?

Clean Energy

2. What efforts would you support to reduce fossil fuel consumption by the city?

3. Do you support developing a climate action plan for the city? 

4. Setting a goal of 100% clean energy will put the city on a path to cleaner air and will guide job training, economic development, grid infrastructure, and other efforts to ensure your workers, consumers, and communities are put first in planning for this clean energy future. Would you support the city setting a goal of 100% clean energy? 

5. Would you engage with your local utility company to ensure that the utility is moving to 100% clean energy as soon as practical? 

6. Electric vehicle technology is improving rapidly and the costs to consumers are on the decline. However, the lack of widespread infrastructure to charge or otherwise support electric vehicles is a major hurdle for potential drivers. Would you support public investment in electric vehicle infrastructure in the city? 

7. Do you support the purchase of electric vehicles for the city?  

8. Public transportation and rail investments create jobs, improve air quality and reduce energy consumption. Do you support increased funding for public transit? 

9. Would you support increased flexibility in what types of vehicles that the public transit funds can purchase?  

10. Would you support municipal ordinances to reduce the night-time lighting while still keeping the community safe?

Clean Water

11. Clean water infrastructure projects create good jobs in your community and, of course, keep waterways clean. However, drinking water for many is still contaminated with lead, and Iowa’s rivers, lakes, and streams are threatened by nutrient pollution, invasive species, and other kinds of pollution. Are there particular clean water projects in your community you would like to pursue? 

12. Nutrient pollution is Iowa’s most wide-spread water quality problem, contributing to increased costs for drinking water providers and negative impacts on aquatic life and recreation. There are a variety of solutions to reduce nutrient pollution from urban and agricultural areas, including the installation of rain gardens to capture urban stormwater and the restoration of floodplains along drainage ditches to process nutrients.  Would you support proposals to reduce nutrient pollution from urban and agricultural sources? 

13. Would you support a local ordinance requiring the return of 4-inches or more of topsoil to building sites after construction?   

Public Land, Natural Areas, and Recreation

14. Parks are not just areas for recreation. Parks can also provide needed habitat for native fish and wildlife. Would you support investment in improving and increasing wildlife habitat and ecosystem restoration at the local parks and public lands?

15. Would you support adding land to the city park system?

16. Walking, running, biking, and paddling are important components of a healthy lifestyle and are transportation alternatives that improve air quality and reduce energy consumption. Would you support proposals to improve and expand multi-use trails in the city? 

17. Would you support efforts to reduce building on environmentally sensitive areas, such as wooded areas, prairie, wetlands, and floodplains in the community? 

18. Would you encourage your community to pursue infill rather than expanding into agricultural land?

Recycling and Waste Reduction                                      

19. Do you have any plans or ideas for increasing recycling, composting, or waste reduction in your city? 

Environmental Justice

20. Minority and low-income communities often share a disproportionate burden of pollution and risk from disasters such as flooding. Would you strive to engage minority and low-income leaders in the decision-making process to ensure environmental policies do not adversely affect these vulnerable members of your community? 

21. If elected, will you work to identify and address those specific environmental threats and needs that are unique to low-income and minority communities? 

Lunch and Learns

Every Friday at noon, we do a Lunch and Learn livestream.  See us on Facebook at "Sierra Club Iowa Chapter".  These will be recorded so you can watch them anytime.  Topics will be selected based on what is happening during the week and will be announced the day before the livestream.  During the legislative session, we cover issues coming before the Iowa legislature.

In case you missed our past webinars and lunch and learn sessions, you can still see them. 

• Watch "Pipeline Update: Record number of parties intervened in IUB process!", July 14, 2023
• Learn about "Should Boards and Commissions be sunset?", July 7, 2023
• View "Pipeline Update - IUB Fast-tracked Summit's Schedule", June 30, 2023
• Watch "Beyond Coal Campaign Update", June 23, 2023
• See the "discussion of the revised Summit hearing schedule", June 20, 2023

Volunteer for the Iowa Chapter

Almost everything we do is done by volunteers like you.  If you would like to volunteer for the Iowa Chapter, please let us know by sending an E-mail to Iowa.chapter@sierraclub.org.  Or sign up by using the online form.  There are many opportunities for you to make a difference:

• making phone calls

• developing graphics for banners and flyers

• working on legislative issues

• working on elections

• fundraising

• organizing events

• joining an issue committee 

If you would like to join our legislative action team, sign up here.  Keep on top of what is happening at the Iowa legislature.  Be alerted when you should contact your legislators about pending legislation.

Sierra Club - working every day on Iowa’s environmental problems

Sierra Club is Iowa’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization.  Not only that, we are the best bet in the state for achieving bold solutions to Iowa’s environmental problems.

We work in the courts, before Iowa’s public agencies, and in the halls of the legislature.  The Iowa Chapter's effort to protect the environment takes financial support.  The Chapter receives very little financial support from the national Sierra Club.  Can we count on you for a donation to ensure even more victories?  Your contribution will be put to work here in Iowa on issues that affect every day Iowans – water quality, clean air, protection of Iowa's soil, parks and natural areas, and a strong democracy.  The Iowa Chapter is relentless in fighting back bad legislation that affects every one of us. 

Your non-deductible contributions make it possible for us to fight bad legislation and to promote good legislation.  We appreciate your past and on-going support of these efforts.  You can make a non-deductible donation with a credit card.   A non-deductible donation supports the Chapter's effective, citizen-based advocacy and lobbying programs.  If you prefer, a non-deductible check can be written to the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter and mailed to:

Treasurer
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter
PO Box 1058
Marion, IA 52302

You can also make a tax-deductible donation with a credit card.  Tax-deductible activities are limited to public interest education, research and legal actions.  A deductible check can be written to the Sierra Club Foundation with “Iowa Chapter” written in the memo line.

Thank you for your support.

Donate your used vehicle

As the Sierra Club Foundation's Iowa Chapter continues to raise charitable funds to support its work in Iowa, won’t you consider participating in our vehicle donation program?  Our partners over at CARS have made the process of donating your unused or unneeded car, truck, motorcycle, boat or RV easy, efficient and secure.  They’ll take care of everything from picking up your vehicle to sending you a tax receipt for your generous gift.  To learn more about The Sierra Club Foundation's Iowa Chapter vehicle donation program, please call 844-674-3772.  Or visit our webpage to get started today!

Sierra Club Foundation promotes climate solutions, conservation, and movement building through a powerful combination of strategic philanthropy and grassroots advocacy. The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of Sierra Club’s charitable environmental programs.

For more information 

Planned giving . . . naming the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter in your will 

Ensure your environmental legacy by naming the Iowa Chapter in your will or trust. These gifts cost you nothing now. You can hold onto your assets for as long as you need them.

Thank you for supporting our work!