Ask The Answer Person: "What is this 'REAL Coalition' that's running so many TV ads?"

John e-mails The Answer Person, "I was watching basketball games over the weekend and it seemed like every time they took a break, there was a commercial about solar energy sponsored by a group called 'REAL Coalition.'  I've never heard of them before.  Who are they?"

The Answer Person says: "The short answer is that no one knows.  That's because political campaign finance laws allow what's called 'black money,'or contributions that are difficult to trace to political action committees such as REAL Coalition.

The website www.bleedingheartland.com searched the records of the Iowa Secretary of State's Office and found that Des Moines trial attorney Steve Wandro is listed as the only officer of REAL Coalition, but another news website, Energy News Network (www.energynews.us/?category_name=news®ion=midwest)
said they spoke to Wandro, who told them another attorney in his firm completed the process to create the organization and he personally knows almost nothing about REAL Coalition.

Solar energy activists have said they believe MidAmerican Energy is behind the group in an effort to create support for two measures in the Iowa Legislature which would drastically revise the rules about net metering and distributed solar energy.  A MidAmerican Energy spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny the utility's involvement, according to the Energy News Network.