Cedar Rapids Gazette: Iowa’s largest utilities have dramatically scaled back efforts to help customers conserve energy since a 2018 law gutted the state’s efficiency requirements. MidAmerican Energy reported kilowatt-hour savings for 2020 that were 64% lower than what the utility achieved the year before the law took effect. Alliant Energy’s savings were down 40% during the same period. “That’s just staggering,” state Sen. Rob Hogg, a Cedar Rapids Democrat who voted against the legislation, said. “At the very moment when our country needs to be increasing energy efficiency quickly, this is terrible.”