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More than 150 people turn out for Inflation Reduction Act workshop in Fairfield
FAIRFIELD – The Southeast Iowa Sierra Club hosted a unique event Friday that featured state and federal organizations educating the public about how to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 directs $300 billion toward deficit reduction, and $369 billion toward energy security and climate change programs over the next 10 years. Members of the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club based in Fairfield learned that a provision of the law was designed to help rural and underserved areas like Southeast Iowa. The provision states that 40 percent of such communities should benefit from IRA funding.
Anne Walton, chair of the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, said the club wanted to make sure that locals understood the IRA so they knew which programs to apply for.
“We can’t let these funds pass us by,” Walton said. “They’re really targeting what our community is all about.”
The Sierra Club members started asking around to see if any group planned to hold a workshop on these funding opportunities.
“We couldn’t get anyone else to take it on,” Walton said. “We decided to take it on, and break it down into digestible pieces.”
The club started planning an IRA workshop in November, expecting to hold it the following month. Walton said they talked to 80 agency representatives to find out who would be willing to give an in-person presentation. They also learned that the federal government was issuing new directives for the funding every week.
“We wanted to do the workshop in December, but we saw the government wasn’t ready so we pushed it to the end of April,” Walton said.
Walton said the club didn’t want to “reinvite the wheel,” and hoped to learn from other groups that had hosted IRA workshops. However, they couldn’t find any examples of IRA workshops in the rest of the country.
“The agencies were running webinars, but nobody was having direct interaction with the agencies like we wanted,” Walton said.
The Sierra Club announced that it would hold its in-person workshop on April 28 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Walton said 150 people registered for the event, and even more than that showed up.
“All of our public and private schools were represented, and farmers were well represented, too,” Walton said. “Some people came because they wanted to know how to add solar panels, how to weatherize their home, or how to change their appliances so they’re more energy efficient. We had a pretty wide-range of people from nonprofits, churches and sectors of the economy.”
The workshop featured speakers from the United States Department of Agriculture, Iowa Department of Transportation, Iowa Environmental Council, EPA, IRS, the Center for Rural Affairs and the Iowa Solar Trade Association, among others. In the afternoon, participants had a chance to meet with agency representatives one-on-one.
Walton said one of the reasons the Sierra Club took on this project was that a centerpiece of the IRA is greenhouse gas reduction.
“If you’re a manufacturer and you’re going to retrofit your manufacturing plant to reduce greenhouse gases, then you’re helping to mitigate the impact of climate change,” Walton said. “That is one of the defining strategic areas we’re working on in the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club.”
Walton said the committee that planned the event consisted of herself, Margaret Dwyer, Claudia Melrose and Sally Quinn. They have received nothing but positive feedback from the presenting agencies and the attendees.
“This wasn’t just about Fairfield or Jefferson County, either,” Walton said. “We had people come from across the state, from Des Moines, from Lynn County and other places.”
Walton said the presenters came from far and wide, too, traveling from as far as Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis.
“We’re already getting queries about when we’ll do Part II,” Walton said. “First we want to do some accounting on what we’ve accomplished, then we’ll talk about what’s next.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
