By:David Grebe
Mid-Iowans can think about the future of Iowa's energy during a town meeting in Ames Wednesday.
Ames is one of seven Iowa cities picked for the energy meetings.
The meetings will ask residents to make their own difficult decisions about energy use and to chart a 15-year course in Iowa.
Sponsored by Alliant Energy and The Tribune, the meetings will include a novel computer simulator known as the "Energy ED."
"The public has a lot of influence on how decisions are made concerning our energy, and to make those decisions, they need to be informed," said Lisha Coffey, a spokeswoman for Alliant Energy.
The program's goal is to ask citizens to make difficult energy decisions that will keep Iowa's lights on until 2018.
The model shows customers the trade-offs necessary to meet Iowa's needs and understand such things as the financial costs of switching to renewable energy, or the environmental costs of using fossil fuels.
All meetings are open to the public. Citizens can register by calling 1-800-419-0279 or by logging on to www.bluesparkgadgets.com.
Energy ED allows citizens to make efficiency, conservation and transmission choices, and to decide which resources they may need to generate future electricity - coal, clean coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar and biomass. The system then illustrates the consequences of those choices by calculating how much your electric bill would cost and how much more pollution would be released into the air.
The "Energy Ed" simulator uses actual electrical energy consumption, generation and transmission figures for Iowa to set an accurate baseline. Armed with that information, residents will estimate the state's future demand for electricity, set goals for environmental safety, ensure energy reliability and estimate how much residential users would be willing to pay to accomplish the state's energy goals.
The forum will take place Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Scheman Building at the Iowa State Center.
