U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) made a stop in Sanborn August 3 to discuss the various concerns of municipal electric utility representatives regarding federal legislation. The meeting was held at Vander Haag’s Yesterday’s Memories and Truck Museum and included utility managers, utility board members, city council members and Missouri River Energy Services. Communities represented were Primghar, Sanborn, Orange City, Sioux Center, Rock Rapids, Denison and Atlantic.
“It was a very worthwhile discussion,” commented Grassley. The Senator answered a few questions during the meeting and told them about his connection with municipal utilities in Cedar Falls. The discussion centered around the bigger issues in Washington about the certainty of electricity. Explained Grassley, “In other words, are we going to have brownouts or not; the tax issues that go with incentives for it and then some problems with the various government bureaucracies that control the running of hydroelectricity, things of that nature. But I think (the attendees at the meeting) have the same concern that I have: that this direction of the Biden Administration on global warming – and there is global warming but how do you attack it – I think they see it as I see it, that it’s being attacked too aggressively and not in a very realistic way that, down the road, we’re going to have brownouts. Now, they didn’t use the words brownout. Those are my words. But people, when you flip the switch, you want to make sure the light goes on.”
During his visit Senator Grassley also toured the modern Water Treatment Plant in Sanborn.