Senate rejects La Seur confirmation

DES MOINES – The Iowa Senate voted Wednesday to reject Gov. Chet Culver's nomination of environmental activist Carrie La Seur of Mount Vernon to the Iowa Power Fund Board.

A total of 18 Republicans and two Democrats – Tom Rielly of Oskaloosa and Steve Sodders of State Center -- voted against her reappointment, while 30 majority Democrats backed the governor's nomination. A two-thirds majority of at least 34 affirmative votes are required to win Senate confirmation.

Sen. Roger Stewart, D-Preston, spoke in support of La Seur's confirmation, saying he served with her for two years on the state panel where she has done excellent work. “Her credentials and experience are outstanding,” he said of the founder and president of Cedar Rapids-based Plains Justice.

No one else spoke publicly before the Senate's 30-20 vote to reject the governor's nominee but Senate GOP Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton issued a statement following La Seur's failed confirmation, criticizing her as “a driving force behind the Iowa Power Fund Board ignoring legislative intent regarding base-load energy.”

“The Legislature's intent through the creation of the Iowa Power Fund Board is to provide assistance and opportunities to grow Iowa's energy economy and create jobs, yet Ms. La Seur has taken an active role in killing the Alliant Energy Marshalltown coal plant,” McKinley said in the statement.

“As President of Plains Justice, a Cedar Rapids-based environmental law center, Ms. La Seur has raised money and brought forth litigation intended to stop the construction of that plant as well as others like it,” he added.

“She has ignored the guidelines and intent outlined by the governor and the Legislature for the Iowa Power Fund and instead pushed the power fund to become a policy making institution instead of its original intent to expand energy production in Iowa,” McKinley said in his statement.

La Seur said she was not surprised by the outcome, given that she had discussions with GOP senators who indicated to her they equated her involvement in the coal plant issue as a “disqualifier” making her unfit to serve on the Power Fund Board. She said she was “baffled” to understand the connection.

“To my knowledge, nobody has criticized my performance on the board, only my job-related activities outside it,” La Seur said in a statement.

During her time on the Power Fund Board, La Seur said she sought to expand clean energy economic development opportunities and to work on behalf of disaster-affected communities like Cedar Rapids.

“Serving on the Power Fund Board has been a great experience and opportunity. I greatly appreciate all the support people have expressed to me in the last few weeks,” she said in her statement. “My only regret is the message this vote sends to other young professionals interested in public service.”

La Seur noted she was the only board member under the age of 40 and that, ironically, she was a member of the negotiating team for a grant to Consumers Energy of Marshalltown for a plug-in hybrid car demonstration project.

“As part of that team I've been working to expand the scope of the grant to include training opportunities for Marshalltown Community College students,” she added. “I sincerely hope the expanded project goes forward in my absence.”

Culver pledged this week to maintain roles in his administration for La Seur and two other nominees who failed to clear Senate confirmation. The Senate also rejected the nominations of Gene Gessow as director of the state Department of Human Services and Shearon Elderkin of Cedar Rapids to the state Environmental Protection Commission.