Dear Mike,
Iowa electric utility MidAmerican Energy is at it again. The company is lobbying the Iowa legislature to let it raise customers’ electric rates to pay in advance for the construction of new nuclear reactors.
Friends of the Earth and you, our activists in Iowa, were instrumental in preventing this radioactive rate hike from passing last spring. It’s nothing more than a handout to MidAmerican, and these reactors would endanger Iowans -- if they are ever even built at all.
MidAmerican is trying to ram its plan through as soon as possible at the start of this year’s legislative session because it knows that the more Iowans learn about this swindle, the more allies we have in our fight to stop it. We are already on the ground, airing radio ads in the state to sound the alarm, but we need your help.
Please email your state senator today to urge the legislature to reject MidAmerican’s radioactive rate hike.
MidAmerican wants Iowans to foot the bill for new nuclear reactors because banks and investors won’t touch the industry with a ten foot pole. It would be unconscionable for the legislature to let MidAmerican shift the burden to Iowa families and businesses in turn. In fact, the staff of the Iowa Utilities Board recently warned that the bill isn't in the public interest.1
The risks of MidAmerican’s plan do not end at customers’ pocketbooks. It hasn’t yet been a year since multiple nuclear reactors melted down in Fukushima, Japan, forcing people from their homes and poisoning miles and miles of land with radioactive contamination. Rice is still turning up unsafe to eat. Short of disaster, all nuclear reactors produce deadly waste for which there is no safe, long-term solution for storage.
Last spring, pressure from you and from other concerned Iowans convinced senators to buck MidAmerican lobbyists' demands. And with your help, we can do it again.
Tell your state senator: Reject MidAmerican’s effort to fleece the people of Iowa.
Thank you for taking action,
Mike Carberry
Iowa nuclear campaigner, Friends of the Earth
1. Associated Press. "Regulators: Nuclear plan could cost Iowa residents." January 23, 2012.
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