Please consider emailing all of Iowa's legislators to ask them to oppose HF 669, using the following list. Just copy and paste it to the "To" or "Bcc" (blind copy) field.
Following the legislators’ list is powerful content to copy and paste into your emails’ bodies. Thank you. Legislators’ email addresses ako.abdul-sa...@legis.iowa.gov, marti.ander...@legis.iowa.gov, rob.ba...@legis.iowa.gov, terry.bax...@legis.iowa.gov, bruce.bearin...@legis.iowa.gov, liz.benn...@legis.iowa.gov, michael.ber...@legis.iowa.gov, brian.b...@legis..iowa.gov, jane.bloomingd...@legis.iowa.gov, jacob.boss...@legis.iowa.gov, wes.breckenri...@legis.iowa.gov, holly.br...@legis.iowa.gov, timi.brown-pow...@legis.iowa.gov, gary.carl...@legis.iowa.gov, dennis.coh...@legis.iowa.gov, karin.de...@legis.iowa.gov, dave.de...@legis.iowa.gov, cecil.dolech...@legis.iowa.gov, molly.dona...@legis.iowa.gov, tracy.ehl...@legis.iowa.gov, dean.fis...@legis.iowa.gov, john.for...@legis.iowa.gov, joel....@legis.iowa..gov, ruthann.gai...@legis.iowa.gov, mary.gask...@legis.iowa.gov, tedd.gass...@legis.iowa.gov, thomas.gerh...@legis.iowa.gov, pat.grass...@legis.iowa.gov, stan.gustaf...@legis.iowa.gov, chris.hage...@legis.iowa.gov, chris.h...@legis.iowa.gov, mary.ann.han...@legis.iowa.gov, lisa.hedd...@legis.iowa.gov, lee.h...@legis.iowa.gov, ashley.hin...@legis.iowa.gov, dustin.h...@legis.iowa.gov, steven.h...@legis.iowa.gov, bruce.hun...@legis.iowa.gov, dan.huse...@legis.iowa.gov, charles.isenh...@legis.iowa.gov, jon.jacob...@legis.iowa.gov, david.jac...@legis.iowa.gov, lindsay.ja...@legis.iowa.gov, tom.jene...@legis.iowa.gov, megan.jo...@legis.iowa.gov, kenan.ju...@legis.iowa.gov, timothy.kac...@legis.iowa.gov, bobby.kaufm...@legis.iowa.gov, david.k...@legis.iowa.gov, jarad.kl...@legis.iowa.gov, jennifer.konf...@legis.iowa.gov, bob.kres...@legis.iowa.gov, monica.ku...@legis.iowa.gov, jeff.ku...@legis..iowa.gov, john.lan...@legis.iowa.gov, vicki.lens...@legis.iowa.gov, brian.lo...@legis.iowa.gov, shannon.lundg...@legis.iowa.gov, mary.masc...@legis.iowa.gov, heather.mat...@legis.iowa.gov, dave.maxw...@legis.iowa.gov, charlie.mccon...@legis.iowa.gov, andy.mck...@legis.iowa.gov, ann.me...@legis.iowa..gov, brian.me...@legis.iowa.gov, joe.mitch...@legis.iowa.gov, gary.m...@legis.iowa.gov, norlin.momm...@legis.iowa.gov, tom.mo...@legis.iowa.gov, amy.niel...@legis.iowa.gov, jo.old...@legis.iowa.gov, rick.ol...@legis.iowa.gov, anne.osmund...@legis.iowa.gov, scott.ou...@legis.iowa.gov, ross.paust...@legis.iowa.gov, todd.prich...@legis.iowa.gov, kirsten.running-marqua...@legis.iowa.gov, sandy.sal...@legis.iowa.gov, mike.sex...@legis.iowa.gov, "Shipley, Jeff [LEGIS]" <jeff.ship...@legis.iowa.gov>, david.si...@legis.iowa.gov, mark.sm...@legis.iowa.gov, ras.sm...@legis.iowa.gov, ray.soren...@legis.iowa.gov, "Staed, Art [LEGIS]" <art.st...@legis.iowa.gov>, sharon.steck...@legis.iowa.gov, kristin.su...@legis.iowa.gov, phyllis.th...@legis.iowa.gov, phil.thomp...@legis.iowa.gov, jon.tho...@legis.iowa.gov, linda.upme...@legis.iowa.gov, beth.wessel-kroesch...@legis.iowa.gov, skyler.whee...@legis.iowa.gov, dave.willi...@legis.iowa.gov, john.wi...@legis.iowa.gov, cindy.winck...@legis.iowa.gov, matt.windsch...@legis.iowa.gov, mary.wo...@legis.iowa.gov, gary.wort...@legis.iowa.gov, louie.zumb...@legis.iowa.gov Subject Line Oppose HF 669 because it's bad solar legislation. Body of Email Why Vote “NO” on HF 669? Each of the following is a compelling reason: Privately owned solar generation benefits all utility customers. By investing their own money in solar, customers save the utility from investing in new facilities, a cost that would otherwise be paid by ALL customers. Distributed generation also provides for values like improved power quality and voltage regulation that benefit neighbors. Solar adds low-cost energy to the grid when it's most expensive, in the hottest days and times of year, lowering the average cost for everyone. Solar panel owners give reliability to the grid and contribute energy to the whole system particularly in times when the grid is stressed by heavy loads. Their panels make a difference in preventing climate change. They add resilience to the system Solar Customers Already Pay Their Fair Share. Customers with solar are producing power at peak times when energy is valued at around $0.21 per kWh and getting credit for that power at $0.105 cents per kWh. The utilities sell that excess at retail rates to other customers and earn a profit on it. All customers, including solar customers, ALREADY pay a monthly fixed service charge regardless of generation. Customers with their own generation pay up front for the costs of interconnecting to the grid along with any necessary upgrades to infrastructure that are needed. This can amount to thousands of dollars of investment by the customer. HF 669 is premature and and is an attempt to circumvent the Iowa Utility Board's responsibility for approving rate changes. The IUB has a pilot project in place to review distributed generation (solar panels on tops of homes, farms and businesses). That pilot project has not been completed. Once the project results are available, the IUB will be able to work with utilities and stake-holders to set fair and reasonable rate structures. The IUB has responsibility for approving rates for investor-owned utilities, through a hearing process, IUB ensures that rates are fair and reasonable for all parties. The IUB should be determining if the charges that are being proposed by Mid-American in this bill are fair and reasonable. MidAmerican is attempting to go around regulators to eliminate customer choice. Many states, including surrounding states like Minnesota, have done a “Value of Solar” analysis that found customers are more than covering infrastructure costs with the high-value energy they provide to the grid during expensive/peak times. The Solar Industry is a Growth Industry with Good Paying Jobs –while the Fossil Fuel Industry is Losing Jobs. Let’s support the Industry that will continue to grow, not the one that is becoming obsolete. The solar industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. We should be doing everything we can to support and invest in renewables and transition away from outdated, antiquated fossil fuel technology. The legislation would make the economics of solar unworkable for private solar projects and allow the utilities to monopolize the sun. The bill would make Iowa consumers pay more for using less. Increased costs to solar customers will change average project costs from a 13-year payback to up to 24 years, a blatant attempt to make solar uneconomical for farmers, business owners and residents. 86% of solar jobs nationally are for residential and business-based solar with only 14% in utility-scale solar. The "sunshine tax" puts at risk the 800+ Iowa solar jobs at small businesses throughout the state. Utilities externalize huge costs to Iowa taxpayers which solar customers help eliminate. Supporters of this bill say they want to make sure that solar customers pay their fair share. Why are the huge costs of healthcare and deaths caused by the fossil fuel industry pollution never mentioned or even acknowledged? Iowans are forced to pay for these fossil fuel industry "externalized" costs to the tune of millions of dollars. Solar customers are helping to eliminate all the negative health and environmental effects and the associated costs that the fossil fuel industry creates. The utilities should be paying solar customers for this! That would be fair. This type of bill was tried in Nevada and destroyed the solar industry. Nevada had a burgeoning solar industry prior to 2015. Nevada Energy Utility pushed Nevada's public utility commission (PUC) in 2015 for permission to charge higher rates and fees to solar panel users - a move that immediately shattered the private solar industry's business model.. After the 2015 decision, Nevada's burgeoning solar industry quickly evaporated. Several companies selling, leasing or installing solar panels - including Sunrun, Vivint Solar, and SolarCity announced layoffs and/or their intentions to leave the state. In 2017, Republican Governor Brian Sandoval signed Assembly Bill 405 into law and re-opened the residential solar market in the state, which had been all but frozen since the 2015 regulatory decision. Today, Nevada's solar market has climbed back up 4th in the nation and employs 6,564 people.
