This month three Iowa cities – Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City - submitted their climate action plans to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The Des Moines plan covers Polk, Guthrie, Dallas, Story, Jasper, Madison, and Warren Counties.  The joint Cedar Rapids and Iowa City plan covers Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, Washington, and Jones Counties.  See the EPA news release, "45 states, large metro areas submit climate action plans under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act", March 11, 2024 

Implementing these plans will have great community benefits – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, providing good-paying jobs, lowering energy costs for those residents’ who take advantage of the programs, and improving the energy efficiency in government buildings.

As part of the next steps, the communities will develop Comprehensive Climate Action Plans.  Also EPA will be awarding grants to implement the plans, as part of the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program.

You can review the plans: Des Moines plan and the joint Cedar Rapids/Iowa City plan

Money became available for Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City when the state of Iowa rejected a $3 million grant to plan for climate pollution reduction.  The money was being offered to every state by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.  Debi Durham, head of Iowa Economic Development Authority, indicated that she recommended to Governor Reynolds that Iowa not participate because the program had strings attached.[1,2]  It is not clear what the strings were or are.  However, a spokesperson for Iowa Economic Development claimed that the state has the Iowa Energy Plan which was published in 2016[1,2] and they claim that the 2016 plan is sufficient and that there is no need for a plan to reduce climate change pollutants.

[1] Erin Jordan, “Iowa shuns $3M federal grant for climate plans”, Cedar Rapids Gazette, April 6, 2023

[2] Todd Dorman, “Iowa’s approach to climate change is daffy”, Cedar Rapids Gazette, April 16, 2023