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Analysis: Utilities have powerful influence in Iowa’s energy policies
Brown University reviews 23,000 lobbying records to track groups’ roles in shaping legislation, their success and their relationships to each other
Brittney J. Miller
Feb. 9, 2024 5:00 am
Utilities have powerful sway in the Iowa Legislature, according to a new Brown University analysis of state lobbying records, and that sway has allowed them to influence energy policy over the last decade.
Researchers within the school’s Climate and Development Lab — a think tank focused on climate change policy — collected more than 23,000 lobbying records on 504 energy- and climate-related Iowa bills from 2009 to 2022.
They focused on the state because of its accessible lobbying records, large wind energy and biofuel presence and conservative politics, said researcher Trevor Culhane, one of the analysis’ authors.
An analysis of the data set, which the study authors say is the first of its kind, reveals which lobbyist groups have swayed the state Legislature the most out of about 600 organizations.
Utilities are extremely active in the state Legislature, the researchers found. The Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives, a utility trade group, had the most recorded lobbying positions on clean energy and climate bills. A coalition of electric utilities, including Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy, was the third-most active group.
Four other groups reporting lobbying over 200 times: the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Iowa Environmental Council and Alliant.
Wind, solar
Within the analyzed time frame, utilities lobbied 461 times on bills supporting distributed wind and solar development — which largely promoted small-scale energy production and distributed generation. All utility positions were either opposed or neutral. Neutral positions could represent “covert opposition or attempts to shape legislation” without going on the record, the analysis authors wrote. No such bills passed.
On the other hand, utilities recorded 323 positions on bills related to wind and renewable tax credits, which incentivize utilities to build clean energy generation. Of those positions, 138 were in support; the rest were neutral. Five of 27 such bills passed — a 19 percent success rate.
“There's still these big gaps (in) allowing citizens to know what's going on in the Legislature,” said Timmons Roberts, a Brown University professor, the director of the Climate and Development Lab and analysis co-author. “It's about transparency, but it's also about balance, fairness and the ability of citizens to influence what happens in their state. It just seems that there's a lot of money and effort being put forward by these groups that are lobbying.”
Efficiency rollback
One of the biggest victories for Iowa utilities came when the state’s energy efficiency programs were rolled back by Senate File 2311 in 2018.
The bill capped utilities’ total spending on such programs at 2 percent of their total revenue, marking a decrease in utility spending in hopes of cost savings for customers. Advocates criticized the legislation, saying it would make energy costs higher for consumers and help utilities expand their assets.
That session, 85 separate groups lobbied for and against the bill — the fourth-most for any bill between 2009 and 2022. Only eight of those groups — six of them utilities — supported the bill. Local governments, labor groups and environmental organizations opposed the bill.
Despite the overwhelming opposition, the bill still passed — hinting at the influence of utilities in Iowa Legislature.
“I think the biggest finding is that utilities are particularly influential. That's something we see across states,” Culhane said. “Utilities are pretty dominant in pretty much every state in terms of energy and climate policy.”
“Important, but not surprising,” added Roberts.
The surprises
Electric utilities’ lobbying aligns most with business and economic development lobbying, according to the analysis. It’s most at odds with the interests of progressive and environmental organizations.
Surprising to the analysis authors, however, were the unlikely partnerships uncovered between agricultural and environmental groups for certain legislation. Although they disagreed on natural gas bans, both groups favored tax credits for renewable energy and energy-efficiency efforts.
For instance, environmental groups and pork producers successfully lobbied to alter a 2019 bill that would have eliminated net metering, which is when customers who produce their own energy earn credits on their utility bills. Several Iowa pork producers had invested in solar energy at their production facilities.
“Those kinds of somewhat unlikely alliances are truly effective in legislatures,” Culhane said. “Pork producers obviously have a fair amount of weight in the Legislature in the state. That really stood out to us.”
Biofuels
Interests were more mixed when it came to lobbying around Iowa’s biofuel industry.
As to be expected, organizations with interests in biofuel, fossil fuels and the auto industry filed the most positions on the topic. Most were in support of biofuel bills favoring biofuel standards and tax credits. More than 500 times, however, the coalition opposed ethanol incentives and biodiesel bills.
That’s because fuel marketers and oil producers largely oppose the biofuel bills that biofuel producers, agricultural services and state government support. Gas stations also often oppose changes to fuel standards that may require them to change their pump infrastructure.
“I think the biofuel conflicts in particular were pretty interesting,” Culhane said. “Groups (within the same coalition) were very, very opposed to each other.”
Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com