Together, we can move Kansas Forward
Where do we have Common Ground?
Can we agree that:
- We value our natural environment and should take steps to preserve it for the future.
- Energy costs in Kansas should be competitive with our surrounding states.
- Clean Energy is an economic opportunity.
- Kansas would benefit from an Energy plan.
Clean Energy Fuels the Future Kansas Economy
In 2020, legislators required ratepayers to fund an electrical energy report (by London Economics) at a cost of $300,000. The first recommendation of the study was for Kansas to develop a State Energy Plan.
In 2021, former retired Rep. Mark Schreiber, R- Emporia, introduced a bill to create a task force to act on this recommendation and ensure development of infrastructure to maintain and grow our energy producing sectors. At the time he saw Kansas as a model for how natural gas, coal, wind and solar can all play a role together to meet the state’s energy needs in the future. The legislation died in the same year and was not re-introduced in 2022.
Benefits of a Plan
1. The Kansas Corporation Commission, which regulates energy, says that they do not have the authority to make policy. They defer to the utility Evergy who provides the state with guidance about what will work for them. To date, this has resulted in Kansas citizens paying higher energy rates than our neighbors; as of Nov. 4, 2021 the Kansas retail cost (in cents) per kWh was 10.38 as compared to 8.97 in Iowa, 8.97 in Nebraska, 9.64 in Missouri and 7.63 in Oklahoma.
2. An energy plan informs much more than electricity and natural gas rates, it affects decisions for transportation, the ag community, even the Department of Defense, which has its own clean energy sustainability goals.
3. Clean energy can be less expensive for consumers, and it will get less expensive every year.
Find the Facts
Facts about the state of energy in Kansas
Clean Energy is the Future
- Kansas is one of only 7 states without an energy plan. Without it Kansas could get left behind in the new Energy Economy. We need elected officials who understand and will support one.
- Plans provide a balanced approach to:
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- encourage growth in all energy sectors while emphasizing sustainable practices
- promote economic development throughout the state
- support the research and development required to keep the state on the leading edge of energy innovation
- In 2015 Kansas was in the forefront of clean energy wind development. The legislation was a compromise allowing wind to expand but removing renewable energy mandates and lifetime property tax exemptions. There may be many reasons for this, and misinformation is certainly one of them, but since then we have fallen behind in clean energy development.
- While Kansas is as sunny as Florida or Arizona, we have one of the smallest solar footprints in the nation. Adequate incentives have not existed in Kansas since at least 2015.
Kansas is Missing Out
- The clean energy we do produce will soon be exported via the Grain Belt Express connecting four states across 800 miles.
- Transmission loops, such as Colorado is building, could feed Kansas clean energy directly to Kansas population centers and communities such as Kansas City, Johnson County, Topeka, and Lawrence, as well as Wichita and Hutchinson.
- Without these transmission loops, Kansas ships our clean energy to Missouri and Illinois. Recently Missouri demanded that 50% of the energy on the Grain Belt Express must be sold in Missouri in order for them to approve the construction of the line; meaning that Missouri citizens will benefit from the lower energy costs of clean energy produced in our state!
- Lithium is about to become a high demand resource and central to our state economy, investing in battery storage is another economic opportunity for our local governments.
- Each year the fossil fuel industry spends billions of dollars to block the advancement of clean energy. Many campaigns for state legislative races are funded by this money.
Federal Bills Equal Economic Opportunity
The Federal bi-partisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act designates $50 billion for climate resilience and weatherization, as more frequent and severe droughts and heat waves occur. It also includes $7.5 billion for EV charging stations.
The Federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) commits $369 billion in climate spending.
Besides decreasing C02 and greenhouse gases and making the shift less impactful for all US citizens, this bill purports to make the US into the primary industrial center of the clean technology revolution. Proponents say China has dominated clean energy and the bill addresses our disadvantage.
Kansans’ federal tax dollars will be used to pay for these programs. We should try to get our share. That takes an energy plan and forward-looking legislators.
Kansas Energy Needs Your VOTE
Vote for Candidates who will move Kansas Forward
With 50 Democrats, 115 Republicans, and virtually no moderates in the current Kansas legislature, compromise rarely occurs. Bills often originate from national political groups rather than Kansas citizens, which is why the same legislation is often passed in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc. For Kansas to benefit from the economic growth that clean energy offers we must first elect legislators who will listen to their constituents and then vote in favor of clean energy, starting with an energy plan.
2022 Legislative Session anti-wind bills
During the 2022 session, energy bills that would limit sustainable energy growth were introduced but not passed. An energy plan would serve as a guide for policy in the future.
HB 2689 – Limiting cost recovery of replacing coal-fired electric generation facilities in rates, requiring public utilities to purchase certain electricity generated from coal-fired facilities and exempting certain coal-fired electric generation facilities from regulation.
HB 2696 – Establishing electric generation requirements for certain renewable energy resources that provide baseload generation supply to public utilities.
SB 374 –Discontinuing the property tax exemption for new developments of renewable energy resources.
SB 478 – Establishing requirements for wind energy conversion system obstruction lighting to mitigate the visual impactof such lighting systems.
SB279 – – Establishing the wind generation permit and property protection act and imposing certain requirements on the siting of wind turbines.