Friday, August 8, 2008
Pocahontas and Humboldt
As I continued through Northwest Iowa, I had the opportunity to tour MidAmerican Wind Farm in Pocahontas. This program helps place wind turbines on individual farms across four areas in Iowa. Currently they have 136 wind turbines installed and have plans to install an additional 35 more before winter. I met Brian Wells and his family, who are going to have four wind turbines installed on their farm as part of an effort to switch to renewable energy sources. Special thanks to Matt Bartlett of the MidAmerican Pomeroy Wind Farm project for giving me a detailed briefing on how these wind farms are helping move Iowa forward. I was happy to meet the team of maintenance professionals from Enxco who joined us at the briefing. I also want to mention how lucky Pocahontas County is to have a team of County Supervisors who had the vision to encourage these wind farms be raised through MidAmerican Energy. Jack Dewolf, Paul Beneke and Ralph Christiansen all were there to show their support for a project that is great for the region’s economy and for reducing our dependence on oil. The county is also well represented in the State House by Delores Mertz who has been so supportive in making sure we are providing access and incentives to businesses like MidAmerican who want to invest in Iowa’s future.
Iowa has made great strides increasing the amount of wind power that is created across the state, from 2,000 mega-watts in 1997 to over 16,000 mega-watts today and we are still continuing to grow. Soon other states are going to catch up to the incredible progress that Iowa has made. I believe that we should increase our wind production by 20 to 30 times in Iowa and I know that Iowa will be able to meet this goal. This is the future of energy and I am excited to see the innovation and planning happening right here in Iowa.
I finished up my day at the Family Table Restaurant in Humboldt where I had the opportunity to chat with Iowans about a variety of issues. I addressed their concerns regarding disaster relief, and also discussed how we are going to start solving our need for more renewable fuel sources. I was happy that local radio reporter Michal Cation, from KHBT, was there to listen in. State Representative Delores Mertz as well as Mary Mulligan, from Humboldt, and Martin Brown, from Bradgate expressed their concern about the progress that has been made in getting disaster aid to Iowans. Immediately after the flooding occurred, I took the lead in the Senate to secure $2.65 billion for Iowa as well as other affected states. That was just the first round of funding and as more information comes in from damage estimates, we will see additional funding going towards rebuilding homes and businesses here in Iowa. Martin Brown, who is the former Mayor of Bradgate, reminded me of the tornado that destroyed much of that town in 2004. We discussed the improvements that FEMA has made, and the good work that they are currently doing in Iowa.
