Economic common-sense – the case for an MEU, Part 3

The vote to establish a municipal electric utility is an opportunity to explore an alternative to save money, invest locally and build resilience for our infrastructure. Opportunity — you never know until you try.

Saving Money: I don’t know about you, but I always shop for the best deal with the greatest value. When dollars are tight, I can’t afford not to look at my options. I also try to shop with my values in mind; if I can spend my money locally, that’s the first place I’ll go. Dollars spent here in Decorah are economic drivers circulating in our community, supporting local businesses and generating more economic activity right here at home. A local electric utility is guaranteed to keep our dollars local. And there’s a very high likelihood it will lower our energy costs. If we find out it wouldn’t, the Iowa Utilities Commission, which looks out for citizen’s best interests, will not approve the plan.

My motive for supporting a Decorah MEU is purely economic. Energy is one of the largest household bills I pay each month, and if I can save on my electric bill, that’s money I can invest in other things. Beyond my own financial savings, I’m excited about how these savings can translate across our community.

The recent analysis by the Clean Energy Districts of Iowa recently compared the costs of electricity of several MEUs and the two investor-owned utilities, Alliant Energy and Mid-American. They analyzed what the average Alliant customer would pay if another utility served them and how much they would save comparatively. When they totaled the community savings possible for 3,000 households served by an MEU over Alliant Energy, savings were millions. Imagine millions more dollars circulating in Decorah.

Below (in the January 23 Decorah Leader) are details of that table, including sister communities to Decorah served by MEUs. (https://www.cleanenergydistricts.org/news-resource/alliant-energy-customers-experience-high-costs)

Community Investment: More dollars in our pockets isn’t the only motivation to vote yes on March 4. MEUs across Iowa help their communities in countless ways. They can access grants that cities alone cannot, grants that fund energy resilience projects, like batteries and micro-gridding, and can even extend to other essential community needs like schools, fire stations, etc.

MEUs make payments to the city’s general fund in lieu of taxes, called PILOTs. These payments can be used for city infrastructure, like streets, wellness centers, parks, etc. A MEU makes decisions aligned with the community’s best interest, including how rates are set, what infrastructure improvements to make, etc. We use our energy dollars to invest right here at home.

Decorah has named sustainability, including climate goals, among our core values. As an MEU, we can decide our power mix, generation capacity, and how to best work with folks already generating power here in Decorah. Whether through net metering, power purchase agreements, or other types of partnership, we make these decisions locally. We can choose to build community solar, invest in storage, or a combination of both. As an MEU, we can be nimble and take advantage of the innovation in the energy sector.

Resilience: An MEU is an investment in our future. We live in a world where the energy landscape is rapidly changing. Gone are the days when generation costs were inaccessible to small communities and individuals. Communities across the country served by MEU’s are building microgrids to protect themselves from large-scale power outages and to use battery storage to lower overall energy costs. With an MEU, we can make the necessary improvements over time to keep our grid secure, generate green power, and use storage capacity to lower costs and protect against outages. MEUs are part of mutual aid networks, so when outages happen, a network of utilities is ready and willing to help each other. The data shows that, on average, mutual aid networks translate to better reliability than investor-owned utilities: https://www.publicpower.org/reliability-data.

Across Iowa, 135 MEUs provide these services and more for their communities, and on March 4, we can take the first step to learn if this would be best for Decorah. By voting yes, we gain access to the information we need to complete an accurate feasibility study. Without a vote in March, any feasibility study done by Alliant Energy or the city of Decorah, without the oversight of the Iowa Utilities Commission, is only based on assumptions and estimations.

The truth is, I don’t know if a Decorah MEU will be the economic driver that I believe it could be for us. No one does right now. But what I do know is this: Alliant’s rates aren’t going down, energy innovation is the need of the future, and opportunities to own are often more lucrative than renting. Investing in Decorah will always be a yes for me.