The ethanol industry is building plants in many states that will convert corn plant residue, wood scraps and garbage into additives for fuel.
Two of these plants will be built in Iowa – one in Nevada and one in DuPont. The DuPont facility will be the largest cellulosic ethanol plant in the nation. It’ll be completed in 2014 and will cost $200 million.
Read more here.
New legislation aims to reduce the threat Chronic Wasting Disease poses to Iowa’s deer herd.
Senate File 59 would increase the height requirement for fences surrounding Iowa deer farms from eight feet to ten feet, and would also require an additional 10-foot secondary fence.
“It’s a long-term disease you don’t solve in a couple of days,” said Dale Garner, Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife bureau chief. “When you get into this, you’re in for the long haul.”
For more information, read the full article at The Gazette.
While the drought had many negative consequences, there were also a few benefits.
Iowa Public Radio highlighted some of these benefits in a story last week.
The drought provided near ideal conditions for Iowa’s wineries, since grapes grow better in drier conditions. It also helped Iowa’s pheasant population. Pheasants struggle to survive in cold and wet temperatures after hatching. Finally, the drought meant that there was less agricultural runoff.
Read and listen to the full story here.
The new farm bill extension that went into place on January 1st could limit the amount of organic agriculture.
This new legislation cuts most funding for organic agriculture programs. This includes a program that reimburses much of the cost of organic certification.
For many farmers, this means that they will not pay the $800 it costs annually for organic certification.
Listen to the whole story here.
Listen to this week’s radio segment here or read the transcript below. This week’s segment discusses a proposal by Governor Terry Branstad to reduce Iowa’s nutrient runoff.
Governor Terry Branstad has released a 200-page proposal to reduce Iowa’s impact on the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone.
This is the Iowa Environmental Focus.
University of Iowa professor Burns Weston and activist and writer David Bollier have released a new book about changing human policies to better account for environmental needs.
The book, Green Governance, offers new ideas for shaping environmental law and public policy.
Check out an article drawn from their book here.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is training volunteers around Iowa to help monitor the state’s wildlife.
The volunteers will get trained in February, March and April to monitor either raptors and colonial waterbirds or frogs and toads.
Monitoring these populations can indicate issues with different wildlife habitats. For instance, the frogs and toads depend on clean water, so a decline in their population may indicate a lack of clean water sources.
For more information on the training sessions, click here.
Following a complaint from the Sierra Club, MidAmerican Energy Co. has agreed to reduce emissions at three of their Iowa-based power plants.
The Sierra Club threatened to sue MidAmerican this past summer for releasing more pollutants than permitted at their plants in Sergeant Bluff, Bettendorf and Council Bluffs.
To avoid the lawsuit, MidAmerican agreed to stop burning coal in two boilers at both the Council Bluffs and Sergeant Bluff facilities by April 2016. They will also convert three coal-fired boilers in Bettendorf to natural gas.
Read more here.
The Iowa City landfill that was damaged during this summer’s fire could soon be rebuilt.
The city council is considering plans to rebuild the landfill today. If approved, the project will likely be completed this summer.
Plans for the new landfill will include new precautions to prevent fire.
Read more here.
The U.S. Department of Energy has designated its laboratory in Ames as a new hub for research on rare earth minerals and other materials critical to renewable technologies. The Ames Laboratory has been at the forefront of research on rare earth minerals for a many years, but the establishment of the Critical Materials Institute should bring more focus to supply alternatives, efficiency, and reuse of these critical materials.
David Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency with the Department of Energy, announced the institute in a press release on January 9.
“The Critical Materials Institute will bring together the best and brightest research minds from universities, national laboratories and the private sector to find innovative technology solutions that will help us avoid a supply shortage that would threaten our clean energy industry as well as our security interests.”
Iowa Environmental Focus 