Mission

ELPC's Clean Energy Program seeks to improve environmental quality and public health by reducing both the pollution from coal plants and the environmental, public health and safety risks from nuclear plants. Achieving that goal requires increasing the use of less-polluting energy efficiency and renewable resources to meet energy needs in the electricity services marketplace of the Midwest/Great Lakes states. Learn how you can make a difference.

 

Iowa Governor Signs Energy Efficiency Bill

May 7, 2008 - Governor Chet Culver signed a bill designed to boost the state's energy efficiency in a number of ways. Highlights of the bill include a new energy efficiency commission that will develop stricter standards for building construction, and a requirement that the state's electric utilities develop efficiency goals and formally report on progress toward achieving them. ELPC and our partners are leading the Iowa Global Warming Solutions Campaign, which will be working to implement renewable energy, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas pollution reduction policies in Iowa.

 

New ELPC Climate Solutions Blog on MyCarbonPledge.com

April 26, 2008 - The Indianapolis Zoo has launched a new website at www.mycarbonpledge.com that asks visitors to pledge to change their light bulbs to CFLs and make other green commitments. Those pledges are then "green mapped" to show the area covered by the pledges. The site also features blogs by environmental experts, including ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner.

 

Electric utility restructuring and competitive economic pressures provide a new opportunity for public interest advocates to influence the industry that has the most substantial environmental impacts in the Midwest. In many cases, in addition to stressing their environmental superiority, we also focus on the economic and reliability benefits to be gained by the increased use of energy efficiency and renewable resources.

ELPC’s overall goal is to accomplish a transition from the region’s current resource portfolio, currently comprised almost exclusively of nuclear and older coal-burning plants, towards a more diverse, more sustainable and less polluting portfolio including wind energy, biomass and energy efficiency.