LWV-ASC February Program:  Waste-to-Energy: Understanding the Risks to Ames’ Energy Future

Speaker: Bob Haug: Bob Haug was co-chair of the League committee that produced the 2020 report on the Ames Resource Recovery System.  His experience includes 40 years working with city-owned utilities, including 27 years as executive director of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities.  The association represents municipal utilities before the legislature and both state and federal regulatory agencies and provides information and training to city utility personnel.  During his tenure, the association build an award-winning education and training center on a 25-acre campus in Ankeny.  Bob retired in 2014.  A Wisconsin native, he has lived in Ames since 1975.

Abstract:  

We’ve put the electric utility in the garbage business.  If we want an energy system that meets future demands and enables a meaningful response to climate change, we have to free it.”

• How 45 years of operating a waste-to-energy system (WTE) has obscured the cost and limited the development of both our energy and waste systems
• Ames plans to investigate a new WTE system, but here’s what we already know:
• They are expensive to build and operate
• The cost of energy produced is likely 8 to 10 times the cost of renewable energy
• Modern WTE systems serve populations 10 or more times that of Story County
• How WTE could be made compatible with a smart energy future
• What the League study suggests about how to proceed