KRUU's Dream Green Series

Solar-Powered Radio Station Looks at Energy Efficiency in Iowa

by Donna Schill

 Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba (center) was interviewed by James Moore and Stuart Tanner for a "Dream Green" episode about Davenport's green initiatives.

After years of bantering about world affairs on Fairfield’s community radio station, 100.1 KRUU-FM, Stuart Tanner and James Moore of “Tanner & Moore” have lent their familiar personalities to a new subject—energy efficiency in Iowa. In May they launched The Dream Green Series, a series of hour-long shows spanning 20 weeks, in which the two hosts explore Iowan’s efforts to conserve and use renewable energy.

Early on an overcast morning in July, Tanner and Moore drove on Highway 218 to Dubuque, a city highly regarded for its sustainable initiatives.

Moore began recording Dream Green, chatting into a portable microphone from the backseat of Tanner’s Rav4. He halted as a 30-foot structure sailed by on a semi, like a giant white spear. “Wow, take a look at that wind turbine blade,” said Moore, reminding listeners that 20 percent of Iowa’s energy comes from the wind, ranking Iowa second in wind energy production in the country. “It’s all happening right here in Iowa, folks,” an awestruck Moore said.

Tanner and Moore cover a wide range of topics from the efficiency of the ethanol industry to whether or not such a thing as “mayor’s hair” exists. Tanner insists that it does and is universally bouffant. Tanner, a native of England and former BBC correspondent, has a dry sense of humor and cutting intellect. Moore, a musician, writer, and the station manager at KRUU, is an unbounded source of enthusiasm, lyrical prose, and puns.

KRUU received funding for the Dream Green series from the state’s power fund,  which was matched by community businesses and individuals. KRUU is the only radio station to receive such a grant.

Iowa’s Office of Energy Independence administers the Iowa Power Fund, and in 2009, designed the community grant program to help grassroots efforts to conserve energy.

“Everyone’s concerned about energy consumption,” said Brenda Easter, Program Manager of the fund. “You’re paying more for gas, you’re paying more for food. We are getting impacted everywhere. What we are seeing is that Iowans are ready to embrace change.”

Tanner and Moore say the current economy and state of the world add gravity to their work. “We are heading into a massive resource strain, and a hugely significant environmental strain on the world,” said Tanner. “The consequences of this are something—yes—we don’t fully know, but we know it’s not going to be good.”

Energy is not a new topic at KRUU-FM. The community station was the first in the Midwest to become solar-powered in 2009. “The community donated the panels, the cement, the time to install it— everything,” said Moore.

KRUU-FM is a community radio station, an entity distinctly different from commercial or public radio. Moore said this structure has sparked a level of community involvement rarely seen elsewhere.

It is this attitude that Tanner and Moore wish to impart in Dream Green’s listeners. “There’s no point in weeping and wailing over the state of the world; that achieves nothing,” said Tanner. “There is a point in learning all of the good things being done and the solutions being found and applied.”

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