KCII News spoke with U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley about being named a 2024 Clean Energy Champion by the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions group. We asked the Senator what legislation he has been a part of that deals with clean energy over his career, “In early years, I don’t want to claim that I was a leader in ethanol, but after Bob Dole left the United States Senate in 1996, I became the chief spokesman for ethanol, and biofuels in general. I am the father of the wind energy tax credit, which passed in 1993, and I didn’t know Iowa would be getting sixty percent of their electricity from wind but we are. So those are two things that I have been involved in.” Iowa’s renewable energy industry directly employs over 13,000 Iowans and has garnered roughly $25 billion in private investment. Senator Grassley’s work to connect Iowa’s rural and agricultural communities with clean energy opportunities spans decades.