Resource Center News

The most important issue awaiting action by this Congress for rural development in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota is renewable energy legislation.   Expanding production of renewable electricity to 20 percent of the nation’s electrical generation has the potential to create a large number of new jobs in the rural Midwest and Great Plains, according to an unpublished analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The state-by-state projections were prepared in conjunction with the laboratory’s report 20% Wind by 2030, but were never formally published. Here, we will focus on Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.  To view this pdf file simply click on the title below.

Renewable-Energy-and-Economic-Potential

This article is from the Center for Rural Affairs’ October 2009 monthly newsletter. The authors are John Crabtree and Kim Preston.