Dr. James Hansen, noted climate scientist and international voice for
global warming solutions, grew up in Denison, Iowa and is testifying
for the first time in such a case.  Hansen and experts Dr. Neil Harl,
Professor Emeritus of Agriculture and Economics at Iowa State
University; Tom Sanzillo, former First Deputy Comptroller for the State
of New York; and Dr. Kristen Welker-Hood, Director of Environmental and
Health Programs for Physicians for Social Responsibility, have filed
testimony and will appear at the IUB public hearing in January as
witnesses for the coalition. Plains Justice attorneys Carrie La Seur of
Mount Vernon and Jana Linderman of Cedar Rapids are representing
Community Energy Solutions, Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Farmers
Union, Iowa Renewable Energy Association and the Iowa chapter of
Physicians for Social Responsibility.

“If we cannot
stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains
will be death trains – no less gruesome than if they were boxcars
headed to crematoria, loaded with uncountable irreplaceable species,”
said Dr. Hansen, who is testifying as a private citizen.  “It is
important in this proceeding for the decision makers to realize that
the least cost technology to the firm generating the electricity is not
the least cost for society,” Dr. Harl notes.   

Dr.
Welker-Hood testifies that “emissions from the operation of [the
Marshalltown plant] would negate more than 90 percent of the CO2
reductions that would be achieved in New York State under draft
regulations for implementing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.”
Expert witness Sanzillo concludes bluntly that the plant is
“unnecessary.”

The massive new plant is proposed for
the east side of Marshalltown, adjacent to a smaller existing coal
plant.  Damage inflicted by the plant may include “diminution of the
value of the state's existing renewable energy generation facilities,
damage to the development of new renewable energy generation
facilities, displacement of renewable energy from the grid, increases
in retail electricity rates, damage to air and water quality, increased
fuel costs due to inefficient ethanol refining processes, civil rights
violations of minority communities targeted by the highly polluting
coal industry, damage to Iowa's ecosystem and agricultural economy from
the increasing impacts of global warming, violation of state energy
policy, and future damage to electricity consumers who will pay the
eventual cost of carbon regulation,” according to the petition drafted
by Plains Justice.

The 660 MW coal plant proposed by
Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy would emit approximately 6,000,000 tons
of carbon dioxide a year.  Alliant projects a 40% increase in emissions
in the next 7 years, making them one of the worst global warming
offenders in the Midwest.  The Iowa Utility Association, of which
Alliant is a member, recently commissioned a study that demonstrated
that capacity for nearly 1,000 MW of cost-effective energy efficiency
potential is available in their service territory in the next ten years
at half the cost of Alliant's proposed coal plant.  Kansas and Florida
regulators rejected similar large coal plant proposals in 2007 because
of global warming impacts.