Iowa exports more than $12 billion a year for energy. That wealth has taken jobs and opportunity with it for decades. But we are now on the cusp of a new clean-energy era, one that generates power and green jobs here at home.
Already, our state is experiencing the economic benefits of cleaner energy. While other states are struggling to produce jobs, our six wind manufacturing plants have created 2,000 new, high-paying jobs in just the last two years. These businesses have been so successful that Iowa Lakes Community College, which trains wind technicians, is struggling to keep up with demand. We lead the nation on a percentage basis by generating 5.5 percent of our electricity through wind. However, we can and must do more to achieve the greenhouse-gas reductions recommended by the world's best scientists to prevent the most devastating effects of global warming.
The continued expansion of wind is just one part of the solution. Building and installing solar panels, solar-water pre-heaters and retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient also has the potential to create large numbers of green-energy jobs - jobs that can't be sent overseas. And the money saved from these steps stays in Iowa, directly and indirectly creating additional jobs.
Iowa could benefit enormously from expanded clean-energy production. According to a recent report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, more than 21,000 green jobs would be created in the next two years if Iowa industry and government invested $968 million in clean energy, a tiny amount compared to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
Iowa stands at a crossroads. We can choose a path to expand our policies that will encourage the growth of renewable-energy businesses and labor, a critical step for expanding our economy and preventing the most dangerous consequences of global warming. Or we can choose a dirtier, more economically damaging path that looks deceptively easy. That path will, for 30 to 50 years, guarantee a steady export of our wealth and jobs to Wyoming and Wall Street and will destroy any gains made against global warming. We can choose to build two new coal-fired power plants - plants that will pollute our lungs with soot, our air with nitrogen and sulfur oxides, our fish with mercury and our planet with carbon, all while creating significantly fewer jobs.
But what about "clean coal"? The term has been everywhere this election year. Usually when people say it, they mean the ability to burn coal and capture carbon. This does not mean all the other pollutants are cleaned up, despite more than 30 years of taxpayer-funded research.
Plus, the still very experimental carbon-capture technologies identified to date will more than double the price of coal-generated electricity. As our economy adjusts to include the cost of pollution, these coal plants will become an albatross hung around the necks of ratepayers as sure as the poor decisions of today's Wall Street investment banks have landed on taxpayers.
Which is to say nothing of the damage done to the mountains and streams of the United States where coal is mined. In short, it is unlikely there will ever be "clean coal."
Instead of continuing to choose an outdated and polluting path, Iowa must embrace a brighter future, a path that will create thousands of good-paying jobs, keep our wealth here at home and help prevent the worst effects of global warming. The choice is clear.
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