Iowa District 1
President
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Iowa Senators
Eddie Mauro
Eddie Mauro is an insurance broker. You can find his campaign site here.
Mauro has a plan when it comes to climate change. He intends to introduce legislation to make America a net-zero CO2 emitter by 2045, and the rest of his plan outlines how he intends to reach this goal.
Mauro intends to increase funding from the federal government to renewable energy research and development. He wants to expand the economic benefits of introducing sustainable technologies in many different sectors, including agriculture and transportation, two of the major issues in Iowa. He acknowledges the role that climate change played in the flooding crisis of 2019, and how this has negatively affected farmers across the state. Mauro wants to introduce incentives to transition farmers to sustainable practices that won’t break the bank, while simultaneously working to restore wetlands and other vital ecological areas to cope with the changing climate.
Another awesome policy that Mauro supports is banning fossil fuel extraction on federal lands. This means no fracking, mining, drilling, or any other method of fossil fuel extraction in any area of a national park.
The real cincher on Mauro is his pragmatism. He acknowledges that climate change, at this point, is inevitable. He wants to upgrade and build infrastructure that reflects the change in our climate to protect the communities that are most at risk. He knows that farmers are the backbone of America, and that without the proper infrastructure and support, our failing agriculture system will snap under the weight of climate change.
Kimberly Graham
Kimberly Graham is an attorney. You can find her campaign site here.
Graham indicates that she supports creating more sustainability in two major areas of pollution: agriculture and manufacturing. She has a few points about creating incentives for farmers to decrease soil erosion and comply with more stringent clean water initiatives. Graham has suggested that she would increase anti-trust legislation, which has hurt sustainable agricultural practices in becoming widespread.
Overall, the lack of information that Graham gives is her downfall. Without platform details and with little expansion on her given endorsements, we can’t say for sure that she’s a strong candidate.
Michael Franken
Michael Franken is a retired Navy Admiral. His campaign site can be found here.
Franken does not have a solid platform for most any subject available, but the little information he does provide indicates that he has worked alongside many different governmental agencies to enforce environmental compliance issues and to facilitate new infrastructure projects. We think he has potential, but there’s just not enough information available to make an informed decision.
Theresa Greenfield
Theresa Greenfield is a real estate agent. You can find her campaign site here.
Greenfield acknowledges global warming and climate change, which is a step up from most of the Senatorial candidates. She has pledged to fight in Congress for good-paying clean energy jobs and to defend and strengthen environmental laws. She intends to stand up to the corporate special interests and wants to work towards solutions for Iowans affected by climate change, particularly flood victims, and to renovate infrastructure. She’s endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund.
Greenfield isn’t a BAD pick, she’s just a vague pick at this point.
Joni Ernst
Joni Ernst has been an incumbent since 2015, and her campaign site can be reached here.
Ernst is not what we would call a climate warrior. She has an LCV scorecard overall rating of 1 percent, but, in her defense, that score went up about 7 percent in the last year alone, so we think she may have what it takes to work across party lines. However, her voting record is one fat “screw you” to the environment. She pretty much votes party lines, which has been detrimental to Iowa in the last year, as a lot of the legislation she voted against would have been a stalwart defense for farmers during the recent bout of flooding in the spring of 2019.
As you certainly know, Iowa is an agricultural state. Y’all bring us the meat and cheese and bread we love. Ernst serves on several committees in the Senate that regulate and bring agriculture-related legislation to the rest of Congress, and her opinion MATTERS when people are voting on this legislation. Since her tenure as a Senator, she has consistently voted against protections for clean air and water. She voted with McConnell on his Coast Guard Reauthorization Act (which regulated clean water and invasive species prevention to the Coast Guard), has consistently ignored legislation to protect our prairies and farmland from fracking, and has been supporting legislation that favors coal barons.
Overall, Ernst isn’t very earnest when it comes to protecting the natural world and has consistently shown that she can’t see the damage her own political decisions have done to her state. We suggest looking elsewhere for a green and energy-forward Senator to keep Iowa from drowning in years to come.
Cal Woods
Cal Woods is a real estate agent. He does not have any information available on his stances.
Paul Rieck
Paul Rieck is a scrap metal worker. Rieck does not have an official website for his campaign, and there is no information available regarding his views on the environment or green energy.
Suzanne Herzog
Suzanne Herzog is an economist. You can find her campaign site here.
Herzog does not provide information on her stance on climate change or sustainability.
District 1 Representatives
Abby Finkenauer
Abby Finkenauer has been an incumbent since 2018. You can find her campaign site here.
Finkenauer has done some good stuff for the climate during her freshman year as a Representative. She spearheaded the call for investigations into refinery exemption waivers under the Renewable Fuel Standard (a standard that requires a certain amount of renewable fuel to be placed in petroleum-based fuels). She’s been championing the production of biodiesel and clean energy jobs, which positively impacts Iowans and farmers economically. She’s voted on maintaining and expanding recreational areas and to keep coastal and marine economies protected. She’s been working to get farmers the protections they need to safely begin production of biofuels. She has also advocated for Iowa’s growing wind industry and has supported lowering emission standards. Overall, we would peg Finkenauer as a staunch agricultural supporter, someone who is invested in making Iowans safer and more economically stable, while propelling them into the future of sustainability and climate protection.
Thomas Hansen
Thomas Hansen is a refrigeration contractor and farmer. You can find his campaign site here.
Hansen has an idea of what needs to happen to rural agricultural communities to facilitate sustainability and positive environmental stewardship, but no idea how to introduce those ideas to Congress or the consequences these actions will have. His writings make it seem like he’s stuck in pre-World War I America. He consistently uses the world “centuries” to describe Iowan farming techniques, yet Iowa didn’t see European farming techniques until the mid-to-late 1800’s.
Hansen has stated he does not believe in developing sustainable energy practices. He states that whenever the government steps in to improve things, it screws it up, and since he is aspiring to become a member of that government, we recommend steering clear of Hansen, in the hopes he doesn’t screw things up.
Ashley Hinson
Ashley Hinson is a State Representative and ex-TV new anchor. You can find her campaign site here.
Hinson has some solid stances on sustainability. In her time in the Iowa House of Representatives, she really pushed to build better infrastructure for Iowa, including to schools and educational facilities. She also acknowledged that the flooding in Iowa will be an ongoing problem and introduced legislation to ensure that Iowans have governmental fallbacks to rely on in the case of flooding emergencies. She voted for tax cuts, and wishes to make middle-income tax cuts permanent, which affects many farmers and those in the agriculture sector.
Additionally, Hinson supports USMCA (the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement), which prioritizes North American agricultural trade, and this agreement makes environmental and labor standards more enforceable. It provides further aid to farmers, which will increase economic activity in Iowa.
Overall, Hinson seems like a good selection, but we would like to see more specifics from her, and we don’t know her stances on the fossil fuel industry.
Rod Blum
Rod Blum is an ex-Congressman and a businessman. You can find his campaign site here.
Blum’s voting record is abysmal and the way he talks and writes about issues suggest he is less interested in concrete results and plans and more interested in lip service in exchange for a seat in Congress. His claims that he has been working against granting waivers to “small” refineries does not undo the fact that he has continuously voted to keep fossil fuels as America’s main source of energy. He consistently votes for pipeline constructions, deforestation, and fracking, and has staunchly supported oil and fracking subsidies on Public Lands. Blum has voted for natural gas exports (raising our rates domestically), mining deregulation, and to erase any important fracking regulations.
As far as the Farm Bill goes, Blum likes them because he can consistently sneak legislation pertaining to other issues in there, like defunding nutrition assistance programs. If Blum cared about the reasons the Farm Bill needs to exist, like natural disaster relief and farm loan assistance, he would introduce legislation that was tailored to the climate issues that necessitate these federal insurance measures, instead of supporting an omnibus bill that, more often than not, hinders the farming populations of America, instead of helping them.
Darren White
Darren White is a service custodian.
White does not have any information currently available about his stances on any issues.