The Energy 202: Climate change among top concerns for Iowa Democratic caucus-goers
clock with Meryl Kornfield Want more emails like this? Sign up for The Energy 202 newsletter. THE LIGHTBULB The night of the Iowa Democratic caucus ended in chaos and without an announced winner. One thing that is clear: Climate change was a top priority among caucus-goers. More than one in five Iowa caucus-goers said climate change mattered the most to them when deciding whom to support. That made the issue of rising global temperatures the second-most important issue among Iowa voters, after the perennially important issue of health care, according to a preliminary entrance poll conducted by Edison Media Research for The Washington Post and other media organizations. Climate change ranked above both foreign policy and income inequality. This solidifies a major shift, since climate change for years has been considered an afterthought among voters and candidates alike. The Iowa Democratic Party said it will release the result of the caucus itself on Tuesday. The state's first-in-the-nation caucus system broke down Monday night as party officials struggled to synthesize incoming voting totals from the nearly 1,700 precincts. Those seeking the Democratic nomination spent much of the past year contrasting themselves with President Trump on climate change, which the president has dismissed as a "hoax" and to which his administration has paid little regard as it rolls back regulations. In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) used his first 2020 Iowa campaign rally to emphasize the moral responsibility of ensuring the planet we leave to our children and grandchildren is healthy and habitable. We say to Donald Trump and the fossil fuel industry that climate change is not a hoax but is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet," Sanders said . That emphasis continued until the caucus, with Sanders introducing with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) just last week a bill to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Both Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., each garnered 26 percent of votes from caucus-goers who said climate change was their top issue, according to the entrance poll. Though Buttigieg is seen as more moderate than Sanders on environmental issues he does not support an outright fracking ban, for example the former small city mayor talked about climate change on the campaign trail by repeatedly hammering home how farmers like those in Iowa can be part of the solution. "The quest for the carbon-negative farm could be as big a symbol of dealing with climate change as the electric car," Buttigieg said during a debate in November, noting that that message will recruit "everybody to be part of the solution, including conservative communities where a lot of people have been made to feel that admitting climate science would mean acknowledging they're part of the problem." Some of those conservative communities, in fact, are already feeling the effects of climate change. Iowa farmers and city-dwellers alike endured historic flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers this year. Climate scientists think last spring's bomb cyclone, which dumped rain over Iowa and neighboring states, were made wetter and worse by warming temperatures. Edward Maibach, a communication scientist at George Mason University, suggested residents of a state with an economy as cornfed as Iowa's would be more likely to link bad weather with an overall warming climate. In a state like Iowa, Maibach said, the impacts of weather have a direct impact on agriculture. And one form of renewable electricity generation wind energy has also become an increasingly important part of Iowa's economy. The state has seen a surge of new wind turbines, which rely on federal tax subsidies, since the last presidential election as their cost decline relative to coal and nuclear power. In 2018, more than a third of Iowa's electricity came from the wind, making the state second to only Kansas in the share of its electricity generated from wind energy. Tom Kiernan, head of the industry lobbying group American Wind Energy Association, said he has seen more enthusiasm in Iowa for renewables than during the 2016 election. "And I would anticipate more enthusiasm throughout the country because people are seeing that clean energy is affordable and reliable." In a survey conducted in July by George Mason and Yale University, seven in 10 Iowa voters from across the political spectrum said they favor more government action to address climate change. Even more Iowans nearly three-fourth of voters told the pollsters climate change is having an effect on agriculture, the economic engine of the state. Seventy-seven percent of voters in that poll also said they more likely to support candidates who favor more funding for renewable energy. The surprising thing is that although Iowa is seen as a conservative state," Maibach said, "we see Iowans are more or less equivalent to Americans in general with regard to concern about climate change. Red wants to go green: The GOP is increasingly prioritizing the environment, pushing for legislation that could offer solutions to climate change, The Posts Steven Mufson reports . But critics say Republicans approach to climate change isnt that different from what theyve suggested before. Senior Republicans are said to be considering a plan full of trees, tax breaks for research, curbs on plastic waste and big federally funded infrastructure projects in the name of adaptation or resilience, Mufson writes. "Why should I study for a future I wont have?" The grim news of climate change is stressing out the youth, Jason Plautz reports for the Post. A Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll of American teenagers released in September found that 57 percent feel scared about climate change and 52 percent feel angry, both higher rates than among adults. Since December 2017, about 100 school boards and student councils have passed resolutions that shine a light on the consequences of climate change on children. How not to gas up Trump: In a call with Trump last spring, Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. asked him to compromise with California lawmakers enacting stringent tailpipe standards. But that request put Ford at odds with the White House and other car manufacturers, the Wall Street Journal reports . Ultimately, Ford brokered its own deal with California, which drew an antitrust inquiry from Trump's Justice Department and irritated the administration. This is where the rest of the world is taking us anyway, Ford said. If you start to add it all up, a giant rollback wouldnt have helped us at all. How the coronavirus is impacting energy markets: Falling oil prices have been attributed to a projected decline in Chinese demand, as fear of the coronavirus has canceled flights, left 50 million people under quarantine, and deadened traffic across the country, The Posts Rachel Siegel and Will Englund report . Experts said this could affect oil markets in other countries. Lights out for fireflies: Habitat loss, water pollution, pesticides and artificial light are the biggest threats to the worlds fireflies, The Posts Ben Guarino reports . In the most comprehensive study of firefly experts, researchers found fireflies and glowworms, which use bioluminescence to mate, are getting confused by light pollution. Coming up: