Climate and energy

Just a break here to provide context – because with only one blogger and yet two bills still alive and kicking on the Holcomb/ energy policy issue, I fear our devoted readers could easily lose sight of the bigger picture. As I myself have done at least three times today.

Remember: CEP’s goal in doing the live blogging is to enhance the written record of a historical moment in Kansas energy policy. We want to make it possible for the public to have more access to the discussion and learn about this critical issue. Soon we hope to post a great deal of the written testimony as well.

However, we face some limitations. Sizeable ones, actually. First, your blogger is by no means a legislative guru who understands the Capitol and can guide our readers through the arcane insanities – excuse me, I meant complexities! – of the legislative process. Let’s be honest: there’s been mornings when I have shown up, had no idea where to go, and only by throwing myself upon the mercy of the kind Capitol secretaries have I figured it out. (They are wonderful women.) As the bills wend their way through the increasingly mysterious legislative process, I bet I get even more lost, even more often.

Also, there’s only one of poor little under-qualified me. (Poor poor pitiful me – anyone know that song? Linda Ronstadt version.) And as mentioned, there are two bills. That math ain’t good. House bill 2711 is getting worked tomorrow in committee. The Senate did a gut-and-go on SB 515, which they then dumped into House Bill 2066. That bill was approved by the House already a while back, so it could move very quickly thru the rest of the process in the Senate.

Yeah. How is all this going to work?

Here is about where I can’t tell you anything – which is okay, because I am simply recording for posterity anyway. But the inquiring mind doth wonder: these two bills are clearly racing for a finish line. Is the Senate/ House bill 2066 (and that revised language might soon be up on the kslegisture.org website) now set up to get there first…? Exactly what reconciliation procedure would that entail? Could it get to the Governor first? And if the Governor vetoed it, could HB 2711 come roaring up the stretch? You basically have two parallel bills out there, no longer identical, both being worked, and who knows what will happen.

(EDIT: KC Primebuzz figured out the legislative wrinkle that would allow the Senate to super-fast-track the bill.)

So, we’ll just see. Some days I might end up in the House, some days I might end up in the Senate. If I end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you have been warned. Read the paper. There are plenty of smart reporters in Kansas and they will stay on top of the actual news part of it. Remember: all I’m doing is recording, while trying to figure out where the heck I need to be tomorrow.

For those of you who enjoyed the blog the way it was before these shenanigans all began – never fear! We will not let that part of CEP slide for long. I have so many cool posts in my bloglines, so many cool research reports piling up on my desk (ie, I’m getting really interested in uranium – did you know that that US imports 50% of its uranium from Russia?), so many wonderful people to interview, really interesting stories to research and write… and we will get back to it all, folks.

No worries.

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org