Letter to the Editor: "Community leaders see the growing energy burden on lower-income households"

"At last count, a precedent-setting 61 city councils and county boards in Iowa have passed resolutions asking the Iowa Utilities Board to deny most or all of Alliant Energy's proposed increase to base electric (and gas) rates.

Community leaders see the growing energy burden on lower-income households, and also on many businesses and industries. They experience the serious competitive disadvantage relative to communities served by MidAmerican Energy, whose rates are much more affordable. They also understand the "insult-to-injury" impact of corresponding efforts by Alliant (and MidAmerican) to steadily close the door on customer and community efforts to keep dollars local through energy efficiency and solar.

This rate case – and its impact on communities throughout Iowa – raises increasingly urgent questions about our economy-wide transition to clean energy: Who will garner the prosperity benefits of a clean energy transition?  Will it be shareholders and executives of out-of-state monopolies or Iowa customers and communities?

To be clear, we need large scale, utility-owned renewables as part of a rapid clean energy transition. We also need rate making and related policies that minimize wealth extraction and prioritize the boundless opportunity for local investment in distributed energy resources and locally-owned clean energy prosperity.

The regulator's responsibility is not to "balance" the interests of shareholders and customers, but to prioritize the interests of Iowa's citizens. The rights of customers and communities to participate, invest, save, and prosper in the clean energy economy are primary; the interests of investor-owned utilities and their shareholders are secondary.

It is clear that local governments throughout Iowa are listening to their households, businesses, farmers, and institutions, and are taking a stand to reduce wealth extraction and accelerate locally-owned clean energy prosperity. We hope the Iowa Utilities Board is also listening, and ready to do the same."