Des Moines, IA—The Iowa Senate today took an important step towards solving global warming by approving a bill that gives the Iowa Department of Natural Resources the authority to quantify and assess potential greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other sources of pollution.
“Today we saw two wins for the environment, both nationally and in Iowa” said Nathaniel Baer, policy advocate with Environment Iowa. “The U.S. Supreme Court stepped up to fight global warming pollution from cars, and the Iowa Senate stepped up to fight global warming pollution from power plants, factories, and similar sources.”
Senate File 485 (formerly Senate File 153) provides the Iowa Department of Natural Resources with the authority to assess greenhouse gas emissions from proposed power plants and other sources of air pollution that apply for permits from the DNR. This authority will allow the DNR to better account for these emissions in the permit process. The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Bolkcom (D-Iowa City).
The U.S. Supreme Court today held that the U.S. EPA has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants from cars under the Clean Air Act. The case is Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 05–1120. Environment Iowa’s federal advocacy office, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) is a petitioner on the case.
“We applaud Senator Bolkcom for sponsoring this legislation and all the Senators who voted to approve it,” said Baer.
Several of Environment Iowa’s recent reports highlight the problems and solutions to global warming, in both Iowa and the United States. In Feeling the Heat, Environment Iowa found that temperatures across Iowa have been rising since year 2000. In Rising to the Challenge, Environment Iowa shows how use renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies can achieve the necessary short-term reductions in global warming pollution by year 2020.
Environment Iowa encourages the full House and Senate to approve the bill and the Governor to sign it.
Please see www.environmentiowa.org for copies of our global warming reports.
Environment Iowa is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide environmental organization that advocates for clean air, clean water, and open spaces.
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