IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa regulators are transferring money that they had withheld for months from university research centers that study alternative energy and global warming.
Monday’s reversal by the Iowa Utilities Board comes after critics said the board was violating the law by hanging on to $5.1 million that it collected from utilities.
The money is designated by law to support the Iowa Energy Center at Iowa State University and the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa. It is typically transferred by mid-September.
But the board, under new chairwoman Geri Huser, had said it wouldn’t transfer any funding until the centers answered its questions about how their previous funding has been spent.
On Friday, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office called on the board to transfer the funding.
