I was visiting family in 2019 in the home where I grew up in Northeast Iowa. Conversation drifted to the weather and then to the climate. My dad started talking about the changes he had seen and my brother soon spoke up about how his snowmobiling hobby had drifted away along with the snow in recent years. We agreed – things are changing, people are the cause. Two weeks ago, my parents visited me in Des Moines at the tail end of the warmest February on record. They were discouraged, worried, as we all are, especially as people who watch the land and the weather, like migrating birds or hibernating animals. My family members are farmers and these shifts have real meaning for them: risk, instability, and loss.
The values I learned growing up have much to do with my commitment to environmental work: kindness, fairness, humility, and justice. It’s not okay to show up at a party and eat the entire birthday cake before any other guests arrive. It is, frankly, very bad manners. For years, we have watched MidAmerican Energy flaunt such poor etiquette by claiming to be doing the right thing for the climate while continuing to operate one of the largest coal fleets in the U.S. Like a guest who leaves muddy footprints all over the carpet again and again, MidAmerican plans to burn coal through 2049. This is disrespectful to Iowa’s families, communities, and values.
We have to recognize that part of the issue with MidAmerican is poor parenting. When their parent company – Berkshire Hathaway – is the 4th-largest climate-polluter in the U.S. and increasing investments in oil companies, while complaining about the costs of climate change to their utilities, there’s little hope that MidAmerican would have proper guidance on manners.
But MidAmerican is no child. In fact, the company is managed and run by folks who are very much adults and who have made the conscious decision to forcefully shirk responsibility for the climate crisis and toxic pollution they are dumping into Iowa’s water and air. We cannot let this bad behavior stand.
This is why our collective work with the Clean Up MidAm campaign is so important. We will not stand by as we watch MidAmerican and Berkshire executives disregard what we hold dear for the sake of money. We will speak up and call out bad manners when we see them, because nobody is above reprimand for coming in and trashing the place we love and call home.
We must do whatever it takes to scale up carbon-free energy, move away from coal by 2030, and all fossil fuel generation by 2035, when my own kids will be just 24 and 15 years old. Will they show the courage, kindness, generosity, and humility humanity requires? I can only do my best to pass on those values. Likewise, it is our collective job to make sure companies like MidAmerican Energy hear us loud and clear that anything less is not good enough for Iowa.
One way you can be a part of raising that voice is to join Iowa IPL and the Clean Up MidAm campaign on Earth Day to tell MidAmerican that it’s time for a plan to transition Iowa away from coal by 2030 – we cannot wait!
-Kerri Johannsen, Energy Program Director with Iowa Environmental Council