Gazette Daily News Podcast, July 27

We'll have another mild summer day Wednesday, with a bit less sun. According to the National Weather Service the day will start mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, then gradually become sunny, with a high near 84 degrees. Then the clouds will return Wednesday night, with a 30 percent chance for rain heading into Thursday morning. The low will be about 66 degrees.

While not a silver bullet, legislation to increase the retirement age for commercial pilots will incrementally help as airlines contend with labor shortages that have caused them to trim flight schedules and drop regional service, Eastern Iowa airport officials say.

Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley joined a group of fellow Republican senators Monday to introduce a bill that would raise the mandatory commercial pilot retirement age to 67 from 65 in a bid to address a pilot shortage that has fueled flight cuts.

Pilot unions and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have pushed back on the idea of raising the mandatory retirement age over safety concerns. Pilot unions and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have pushed back on the idea of raising the mandatory retirement age over safety concerns.

With an aging pilot population and heavy use of early retirement packages during the COVID-19 pandemic, one recent study projects North America will be short 12,000 pilots by 2023. Meanwhile, nearly 14,000 licensed pilots in the nation will reach the mandatory retirement age over the next five years and be forced to retire.

The Iowa Utilities Board issued an order Tuesday granting electric generating certificates for the Duane Arnold Solar projects near Palo — as long as Linn County supervisors agree.

State regulators will issue the certificates for the two separate projects after NextEra, the company pursuing the projects with Duane Arnold Solar LLC and Duane Arnold Solar II LLC, has filed and the board has accepted a final, unappealable decisions to be made next month by the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

The certificate is a permit that authorizes a company to operate a public facility within an area and is typically for public utilities or similar entities.

The Duane Arnold Solar I project proposes to use 316 acres of an 857-acre area to place photovoltaic solar arrays capable of generating up to 50 megawatts of energy. The Duane Arnold Solar II project would use 815 acres of a 1,780-acre area to place solar arrays capable of generating up to 150 MW and a 75-MW, four-hour battery energy storage facility.

NextEra, which has operated in Iowa since 1999, said in June it plans to invest $800 million in the solar project, including $50 million paid to landowners over the project’s 30-year life span.

The company has 11 wind projects in the state. The Palo site — near the decommissioned Duane Arnold nuclear plant — would be its first solar project in Iowa, though it has them in 27 other states.