VOTE “NO” ON AIRPORT EXPANSION
by Ed Fallon (an opinion piece submitted to local media, October 4, 2023)
If you’re a resident of Polk County and concerned about (1) fiscal responsibility, (2) CO2 pipelines, or (3) climate change, vote “NO” on November 7 on the proposed $350 million bond to expand the Des Moines International Airport.
(1) Fiscal responsibility. Debt always carries risk, and $350 million would be by far the largest debt Polk County taxpayers have ever incurred. That level of debt is also likely to reduce the County’s bond rating.
Other jurisdictions are putting public money into the venture, including:
- $10 million from the City of Des Moines,
- $8.6 million from other metro cities,
- $28 million from an Airport Improvement Program discretionary grant, and
- Another $5 million from Polk County (from a pool that funds non-profits).
That’s the short list. Taxpayers might want to ask what else could have been done with those funds. Improve bus service? Lower property taxes? Repair potholes? Or maybe a downpayment on bringing Amtrak service to central Iowa?
(2) CO2 pipelines. In a conversation with the airport’s executive director, Kevin Foley, I learned that Concordia Group has been hired to convince voters about the purported benefits of expanding the airport. Concordia is run by long-time Republican political activist, Nick Ryan. Ryan is also Senior Advisor at Summit Agricultural Group, whose CEO is Bruce Rastetter.
Summit and Rastetter are behind the largest of three CO2 pipelines proposed to tear through a total of 2,000 miles of rural Iowa. Much of Summit’s pipeline route involves forcibly taking landowners’ property through eminent domain.
Bottom line is, airport expansion proponents are contracting with an entity associated with a web of corporate and political interests engaged in activities counter to the best interests of Iowa and most Iowans.
(3) Climate change. Airplanes account for a whopping five percent of global warming. If we’re serious about our climate goals, we need to cut back on, not expand, air travel.
Passenger rail is the obvious alternative. If we had trains as fast and efficient as China’s, one could travel from New York to Los Angeles in 15 hours!
High speed rail isn’t a pipe dream. In fact, 15 years ago, Iowa was on track to secure an Amtrak route from Chicago to Iowa City, and eventually to Des Moines and Council Bluffs. Under Governor Culver, the state received $53 million toward the effort, in anticipation of a $20.6 million state match. But Culver’s successor, Terry Branstad, failed to honor the state’s portion and instead sent the $53 million back to Washington, DC.
If the state isn’t willing to invest in rail, cities and counties across central Iowa should step forward. Polk County should lead the charge.
To be clear, the proposed airport expansion is not about addressing current need. It’s about building bigger to attract more air travel. And more air travel = more climate change.
What amazes me is that people and governments who “get” climate change are pushing this.
The City of Des Moines “aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% between 2010 and 2030, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.”
Expanding the airport will make it impossible to reach that goal.
Polk County’s Board of Supervisors commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040. Yet the Supervisors voted unanimously to pursue the airport expansion.
Sadly, many elected officials still buy the tired, failed mantra, “If you don’t grow you die.”
Here’s a metaphor to rebut that fantasy: the human body. We don’t physically grow until we die. If we did, we’d be 600 pounds and dead at age 40. Any physical expansion beyond 19 years of age is problematic.
So why is it so hard for politicians, business professionals, academicians, and the media to take action consistent with reality?
Compartmentalization, in part.
One thing Foley said really struck me: “We’ll do anything we can do to reduce our climate impact, providing it’s not a huge expense.” I get it. Foley is focused on the airport. He may like train travel. But he’s the airport guy.
Similarly, Jay Byers, head of the Des Moines Partnership, must toe the status quo: “While Des Moines and Iowa continue to keep passenger rail service on track, there are still a lot of shorter-term transportation needs that need to remain a priority. We have a really great opportunity to continue to move forward and complete our goal and objective of a new airport terminal at the Des Moines International Airport. The same thing with the big-time investments we need to continue to make in our roads and our bridges and other infrastructure.” (from The Business Record, April 21, 2021)
Essentially, Byers and others want to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Damn the torpedoes — in this case, the climate change torpedo — we’re sticking with bigger airports, wider highways, more cars, trucks, and airplane travel.
A 2015 letter in the Des Moines Register from Robert Fischer sums it up: “2014 has gone down as the world’s hottest year in recorded history due to humanity’s relentless burning of fossil fuels. Yet in the same year, the Iowa Department of Transportation announced plans to widen long stretches of the state’s interstate highway system to six lanes and the Des Moines airport wants to spend $800 million on a terminal expansion. If completed, both of these projects would significantly increase the amount of carbon sent into the atmosphere.”
There you have it. On November 7, the voters of Polk County get to decide. The power is in our hands on this one. Let’s vote down a bad idea and insist that Central Iowa cities and counties put their (our!) money where their climate pledges are.
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(Former State Rep. Ed Fallon directs Bold Iowa and hosts the Fallon Forum. A discussion of the proposed airport expansion can be heard on the October 2 edition of his talk show at fallonforum.com.)