Renewable Energy in the Midwest
The Great Plains region, with its vast open lands and agricultural production, is particularly well suited to exploring resources such as large-scale wind farms, corn-based ethanol and other bio-based fuels. This was recognized in the Farm Bill of 2002, which created a number of programs for rural America including a grant and loan program (in Section 9006) to help fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in rural America.
Renewable energy is gaining ground as a viable economic and ecologic pursuit in rural and agricultural America. Bio-based fuels, made from soy beans, corn, oat hulls or switchgrass, are receiving increased attention as the country more aggressively seeks ways to reduce its dependence on foreign-based oil. Currently, more than 10% of all fuel sold for passenger cars in Minnesota is made from biomass and nearly 8% of Iowa’s motor fuel purchases come from that source. On the production side, Iowa ethanol production was just under two million gallons per year in mid 2007, and surpasses the amount of gasoline imported into the state.
Iowa is the third largest state producing wind powered electricity and Minnesota is the fourth. Both of Iowa’s investor-owned electric utilities get more than 5% of their power from the power of blowing wind. EHSRC investigators believe that renewable energy is an important economic and environmental health issue and that this area of outreach is important to rural populations in the central part of the country.
More than 50% of the nation’s electricity is produced from burning coal but in the central part of the nation which is EHSRC’s purview, it is much higher. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, nearly 86% of Iowa electricity was generated from coal in 2000. In 2004, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, over 77 percent of all electricity generated in the West North Central part of the country where Iowa is located and 70% in the East North Central was generated by coal plants. A typical coal plant generates carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, airborne particles, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium. With such large community and occupational exposures, replacing coal with renewable energy moves in the direction of better environmental health among our Midwestern community.