Thanks to creation of the Iowa Power Fund and Office of Energy Indepedence two years ago, Iowa is one of the first states in the nation to receive $16 million from President Obama for renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts.
The U.S. Secretary of Energy came to Iowa to make the announcement on Monday. The $16 million is the first installment of federal recovery funds for energy that will total about $40 million. (more…)
In the 2007, the Legislature created the Iowa Power Fund and the Office of Energy Independence to keep Iowa a world leader in renewable energy production and technology. The Power Fund Board made its largest award yesterday with a $14.5 million grant to Poet LLC to build a new ethanol plant in Emmetsburg using the next generation of technology, cellulosic ethanol.
State Representative Nathan Reichert of Muscatine serves on the Iowa Power Fund Board of Directors and said the Poet award is exactly what the Legislature had in mind when they created the Power Fund.
Commissioned by the Iowa Legislature and Governor Chet Culver earlier this year, the Iowa Office of Energy Independence released the Iowa Plan for Energy Independence today, which aims to make Iowa energy independent by 2025.
State Representative Nathan Reichert of Muscatine helped draft the legislation last spring and now serves on the Iowa Power Fund Board of Directors, which governs the Office of Energy Independence and drafted the plan.