Iowa
Iowa Utilities Board bill includes a good idea—and a lost cause
Wally Taylor is the Legal Chair of the Sierra Club Iowa chapter.
The Iowa Utilities Board has proposed companion bills on energy production in the Iowa legislature this year. The Sierra Club is focused on two provisions in House Study Bill 555 and Senate Study Bill 3075: including battery storage as part of an energy production facility, and designating nuclear power as an alternate energy production facility.
One of the primary criticisms of renewable energy, specifically wind and solar, is that they provide power intermittently. In other words, wind turbines don’t provide power when the wind isn’t blowing, and solar panels don’t provide power when the sun isn’t shining.
Technology has advanced to the point that batteries can store wind energy when the wind is blowing and solar energy when the sun is shining, and then make the power available when is it needed (commonly called “baseload”). Batteries, combined with wind and solar, would provide baseload. So it makes sense to include storage batteries as part of an electric generating facility. Sierra Club supports that part of the board’s proposal.
In practical terms, energy production facilities (or parts of facilities) would need a permit from the Iowa Utilities Board in order to include battery storage. In considering whether to grant a permit, the board must consider the legislature’s intent to ensure reliable electric service, to promote less carbon intensive energy production, and to comply with reasonable land use and environmental policies. Battery storage that enhances the effectiveness of renewable energy certainly fits the bill.
Sierra Club has opposed nuclear power since the 1970s and is deeply concerned about the provision on nuclear power in the utilities board’s bill. Uranium, which is mined from the ground, is not a renewable resource. Waste from mining and processing uranium creates environmental impacts. Construction of nuclear plants is expensive and subsidized by taxpayers. In addition, the waste from spent nuclear fuel is radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, with no good place to store it. Finally, relying on nuclear power delays the critical transition to renewable energy.
Given those problems, nuclear plants have been closing down over the last several years, including the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa.
The board proposes to designate nuclear power as an alternate energy production facility in the Iowa Code. That would be advantageous for utility companies, because in Iowa, alternate energy projects can qualify for a practice known as “advanced ratemaking.” When the Iowa Utilities Board approves advanced ratemaking, utility companies can “recover costs proactively to reduce risk.”
Alternate energy production facilities are intended to be small renewable energy facilities owned by the person or entity using the power produced. Examples might be solar panels on a roof, or small wind turbines at an industrial or commercial site. It is hard to conceive how a nuclear plant would fit into this framework. Industrial scale wind and solar projects are in another chapter of the Iowa Code, not the alternate energy section.
Even if the intent is to refer to small modular reactors, the inherent problems of nuclear power are still present. Moreover, even if the Iowa Utilities Board hopes to incentivize small modular reactors, no Iowan is likely to have their own reactor. Operating a nuclear reactor requires expertise and experience, which only a company in the nuclear industry would have. And they are expensive. No one would choose nuclear power over renewable energy, which is much less costly.
Electric utilities and the nuclear industry have not given up on promoting nuclear power. It is their Lost Cause.
The utilities board has not explained what it had in mind when it drafted House Study Bill 555 and Senate Study Bill 3075.
Editor’s note from Laura Belin: An Iowa House Commerce subcommittee advanced HSB 555 on January 23, with support from Republican State Representatives Hans Wilz and Brian Lohse and Democratic State Representative Sean Bagniewski. The Senate companion bill has been assigned to a subcommittee, but no meeting has been scheduled.
Top image of solar panels is by Oliver Britton, available via Shutterstock.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) -Water and wastewater utility rates in Iowa City will increase starting July 1, following a city council decision on May 19.
The water utility rate will increase by 3%, while the wastewater rate will increase by 5%.
The increases are part of a funding model to help recover the costs of providing water and wastewater services to Iowa City residents.
The new rates will take effect in tandem with Iowa City’s 2027 fiscal year and apply to customers served by the Iowa City Water Division and the Iowa City Wastewater Division.
The city said the rate adjustment supports its continued provision of safe and reliable water service.
To learn more about the city’s utilities, visit their website.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
Thrive Iowa launches in Warren County and across the state
The new program aims to reduce barriers to families seeking help from local organizations.
Thrive Iowa, a new initiative from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, has officially launched in a number of counties across the state with the goal of helping struggling Iowa families connect with local resources and build a network of support in their community.
On June 23, Warren County celebrated its own program site launch as one of eight initial sites. Other counties that are celebrating their own site launches are Cass, Lee, Black Hawk, Webster, Buena Vista, Fayette and Clayton. A site is officially launched once it has enrolled a minimum of 20 participants, Iowa HHS Director of Communications Danielle Sample said in a statement.
The eight sites serve 11 counties in total, with services also available in Henry, Madison, and Van Buren counties, according to the Thrive Iowa website.
What is Thrive Iowa?
The initiative is focused on serving families, such as parents, caretakers, and pregnant individuals, according to the program’s website. To be eligible to receive help from the program, families must be living in Iowa, be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and have an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
The 2026 federal guidelines consider a family of four to be at the 200% threshold if they make $66,000 or less annually.
The program also outlines 13 core areas of well-being where it offers support. These include housing, recovery, employment, transportation, education, mental health, physical health, safety, dental, financial stability, food, child care and legal assistance.
The overall goal of the program is to reduce barriers to accessing support for families by doing the work of finding the right organization to meet their needs for them. Instead of having to reach out to multiple sources, a family can visit the program’s HopeHub, a case management system, to create a free account and receive a referral. Once referred, the individual is connected with a Thrive Navigator who will create a personalized plan and build local connections to assist the family.
Thrive Iowa is modeled after Restore Hope, an Arkansas-based nonprofit that began in 2015 to reduce the number of individuals in incarceration and the foster care system through community-based approaches. In addition to Iowa, this model is also used in Tennessee and Canada, according to the organization’s website.
The Iowa program plans to expand to other counties in the near future, Sample said. In July, Iowa HHS will begin onboarding more participating organizations and counties, expanding the program to serve 22 counties.
Warren County launch pledges to take families from crisis to careers
At the Warren County launch, the county’s initiative coordinator, Sarah Downard, was joined by Iowa State Rep. Brooke Boden, Ben Segebart, senior pastor at Indianola Freedom Fellowship Church, Sue Wilson, executive director of WeLIFT Job Search Center in Indianola, and Paul Chapman, executive director of Restore Hope.
Downard said the Warren County site is currently serving over 20 families.
To a room of around 75 community members and local organizations at The Hive event venue in Indianola, the five speakers emphasized the importance of the mission behind Thrive Iowa, which is collective impact and helping build strong communities through supporting the families that live there.
The group also invited the whole room to sign the site’s declaration of participation in the program, which stated the goals of the program and a pledge to work together to help take families from crisis to career.
“When families are struggling, we feel the impact everywhere,” Boden said. “We see this in our schools, our health care systems, our workplace, and our communities.”
Isabelle Foland is a communities reporter for the Register. Reach her at ifoland@registermedia.com.
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