Iowa’s elected officials must lead on climate-friendly energy

I recently heard a radio discussion on global heating that concluded, “We have to learn to live with less.”

I couldn’t disagree more. It is not about what we give up, but about what we get.

We recently built an aging-in-place home with a 5-HERS rating. We have comfort, lots of natural light, and fresh air. The only thing we have “less” of is energy costs.

Right now, a few Republicans are holding the Inflation Reduction Act — an act democratically approved by the entire Congress — hostage in a “negotiation” to raise the debt ceiling. Meanwhile, China, our economic enemy, is already way ahead of us: They produce about 75 percent of the solar panels in the world. They are partnering with BASF to improve storage technology.

Here in the U.S., a country responsible for at least 20 percent of the carbon burned since the Industrial Revolution, Republicans are fighting for fossil fuels.

All four of our Iowa congressional representatives sided with Speaker Kevin McCarthy once he agreed to keep ethanol — when the world is switching to EVs (and China is no slouch there, either).

The world is undergoing an energy revolution. We must elect people who are looking ahead and insist that our existing representatives take their blinders off to see what 21st-century energy looks like.

Are we — governed by our legislatures and public policymakers — going to be leaders or losers?

Mary Hoyer

Salem

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