Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Guest Column: Leopold Center could spearhead local energy districts

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By ANDY and PAUL JOHNSON

EDITOR'S NOTE: Local Policy is one of six core issues that help guide the work of the Leopold Center and clarify our role and response in critical areas. We asked Andy Johnson and his father, Paul who helped write the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act that created the Leopold Center in 1987, to explain their idea for local policy regarding a timely issue. These innovative ideas are presented to generate discussion; they do not represent the position of the Leopold Center or Iowa State University.

Today, no issue has more potential to harm Iowa’s farms and farmers, our landscapes and biodiversity, our communities and economies, than does energy costs and climate change. On the bright side, nowhere is there greater potential to plug the leaks, revitalize household/farm budgets and community economies, and generate new income streams and jobs, as there is in energy efficiency and small-scale, distributed renewable energy. How do we get there from here – quickly, dramatically?

The answer, we believe, is local – local policy, local organization, local implementation. International agreements, state standards, and utility programs can bring slow and steady progress, but not dramatic change. They can’t create a movement, instill a sense of responsibility, or create an energy ethic on main street America.

The soil conservation movement in the 1930s and 40s, however, provides a model. Poor farming practices nationwide – magnified by the Dust Bowl – threatened to turn large portions of America the Beautiful into wasteland. Most people don’t realize that could have happened, if not for the advent of the soil conservation movement.

Out of the crisis of the Dust Bowl was born the Soil Erosion Service, promptly renamed the Soil Conservation Service, now the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Demonstration projects were begun around the country and field days drew hundreds and even thousands of farmers, but the federal conservationists quickly realized they would accomplish relatively little without local leadership and organization. Soil Conservation Districts became the local preachers of conservation, and created a climate of urgency and a community-wide expectation of action.

Movements mature, and we still have much potential for improvement in soil management. But those who know the history know that the soil conservation movement dramatically changed – some would say saved – America’s working lands.

It is time for Iowa to lead the nation in the establishment of Energy Districts in every county in the state. Districts would have a local board and a staff of technical energy conservationists capable of holistic energy analysis, planning, and implementation assistance for farms, households, businesses, and communities. Their mission would be both economic and ecological, and all would work from a common base of technical tools provided by a state-level partner.

This is where the Leopold Center and Iowa State University enter the picture. Many of the tools for such a toolbox exist and would only have to be integrated into a common platform, while others would require research and development. An Energy Services group integrating various parts of ISU – with the Leopold Center leading the agricultural effort – could serve this function well, bring in valuable research dollars, and continue the proud land-grant tradition of directly assisting the citizenry. No sector has received less study or holds greater potential for both energy efficiency and distributed renewables than agriculture. In fact, agriculture can not be sustainable without such an effort. It is time for the Leopold Center to return to its roots.

Nitrogen remains a good example. In 2008 Iowa farmers planted 12.9 million acres to corn, and applied an average of 140lb/acre of nitrogen. At over 33,000 BTU/lb to manufacture, commercial nitrogen applied to Iowa cornfields represents about 60 trillion BTUs each year, costing Iowa farmers roughly a billion dollars. For perspective, that is close to Iowa’s entire 2007 residential natural gas usage, and about 30 percent over our entire residential electrical energy consumption. Commercial nitrogen is obviously just one piece of agricultural energy use ripe for Leopold Center leadership.

At what cost? “What will it cost to do nothing?”, we ask. In the early years, upwards of $200 million/year (today’s dollars) were put towards soil conservation in Iowa alone. Well over $100 million of ratepayer funds are now spent annually by the utilities in their energy efficiency programs, and that is just one possible source of funds.

Many states have energy efficiency and renewable programs, but no state has invested significant resources into a grassroots energy district-style approach. It is time for Iowa to lead the nation in local leadership and the development of an energy ethic among all our citizens. Iowa agriculture – and the Leopold Center – are in a position to lead the way.

Back to Leopold Letter Fall 2008