Climate and energy

Location: Kansas Capitol, Topeka KS, House Chambers
Time: House convenes at 11:00 a.m.
Issue: Sunflower Electric’s proposed 1400 MW of coal-fired generation, and the role of the KDHE Secretary in protecting Kansans’ health and environment

Bills/ Legislative Action:

- Saturday night, the legislature melted down. Coal was involved. For a summary of what happened, click here. FYI, the Senate did decide to reconvene (or at least “gavel in” – I don’t know how many senators are actually here) at 11:00 a.m. as well, but they don’t have much to do until the House gets cracking.

- Two things need to be resolved today – (1) the budget, and (2) HB 2412, a huge “economic development” bill that also contains the coal plants.

- House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 5042 (.pdf) may also come up for consideration – it would allow the legislature to sue the Governor over the coal plants.

- Disclaimer: No matter what you think might happen, be prepared for something entirely different to occur.

- If you have only recently come to this policy debate, check out CEP’s FAQ’s on the Kansas Coal Controversy.

- Please hit your refresh button during the day to check for updates. – 99.9% of this entry is hidden below the surface – be sure to hit the “read the rest of this entry” link to see the full, er, glory

Summary/ Action: Yesterday, we watched mud dry. Today, we watched paint. Tomorrow, concrete…?

4:48 The House adjourns for the day, and will return at 11:00 tomorrow. For the third day in a row, they do not consider the House Concurrent Resolution for the legislature to sue the Governor over the coal plants. Nor do they act on the budget or the third coal bill. The limbo continues.

5:34 Several leading Democrats just finished a press conference on the House Concurrent Resolution and other issues, including the new coal bill. Keep an eye on your papers for the results.

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Here we are again…

I need to apologize again for not getting to my email. (Please keep sending messages, though, I love it.) I took most of Sunday off to enjoy sun, garden, family, friends, jeans and a t-shirt (no fancy stuff), and a nice long nap.

The strategy worked perfectly, because when I got on the interstate this morning I did indeed drive toward Topeka and the Kansas statehouse – instead of toward absolutely anywhere else on the planet.

But the strategy did fail to get my email answered. Very sorry!

We all know why we’re here today. CEP is here to keep an eye on energy issues, as usual, and the coal stuff is still threatening to boomerang around in the legislative arena.

However, I have a feeling that most of you are now reading this to see how the Kansas legislature will work itself out of the larger crack it has gotten itself stuck in.

I have faith that they will manage it. It might be easy to lose sight of when meltdowns occur, like that on Saturday night – but there are a lot of good people here who truly do want the best for their constituents, and also for Kansas as a whole. I’m going to be naive and idealistic – and stubborn – and put my money on them.

OK. Go enjoy some coffee. Tune back in around 11:00 a.m., when the statehouse drama grinds back into gear.

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11:00 a.m. We are gaveled in, House comes to order. Prayer and pledge said.

11:10 House is recessed till 4:00 p.m. Kid you not.

Does CEP know what is happening? No, not really. Here is what we do know: The Kansas legislature is at a stalemate.

The budget bill and the new coal bill are both at the level of conference committee. However, with the Senate gone (there are apparently only five senators on the floor right now in the other chamber; they were told not to return today until called) there can be no conference committees.

No conference committees, no agreements, no votes, no resolution, no issues addressed, no end of this in (immediate) sight.

Why are we in this position? In large part because the Senate leadership ended up furious at the House leadership last Saturday night, for adjourning early when the Senate expected them to work late.

The Senate appears to have made its final offer on the budget bill, and has no more to negotiate with the House. Why is the Senate not returning to work on the new coal bill? I have no idea.

What will happen at 4:00? Speaker Neufeld mentioned that there were a couple of conference committee reports to address.

How to keep up on this – the mike in the House has been left open during recess for announcements of conference committee meetings (should the stand-off status change). The House floor is actually full of reps. You can can listen in live here if you would like.

Other than that…? Unless I hear amazingly accurate and insightful and verifiable gossip, I mean information – see you back here at 4:00 p.m.

3:51 back sitting in the House Gallery. Floor is full of reps. The rotunda was full of reps. They’re here.

What we missed – a fire alarm in the Capitol. All is well. Apparently House Speaker Neufeld and Senate President Steve Morris met during the long recess to put together a new omnibus budget proposal. EDIT: I phrased that wrong, but it is so funny I will leave it… just to clarify, Neufeld and Morris in no way contributed to the fire alarm.

The last budget proposal flamed out disastrously – the House slammed back the conference committee report, due to their dislike of what they called earmarks. If Neufeld and Morris have a meeting of the minds, then the conference committee would consider their new proposal.

What does the budget have to do with the new coal bill? If the budget goes through, supporters of the coal plants could lose a major hammer with which to bonk opponents over the head.

Oh yeah, not the “new coal bill.” According to those who have questioned coal bill supporters about the new coal bill – it’s not about that at all. They won’t answer questions unless the questioner refers to it as the “economic stimulus package.”

:)

For the sake of continuity with the live blogging, however, I think we’re cool with calling it the new coal bill – the third coal bill, actually. What do you all think? “New coal bill” ? Is that still okay?

4:03 Gavel crack, we’re back. A few energy lobbyists trickle in as well.

FYI – To be fair, folks should know that Sunflower Electric and TriState lobbyists (at least the ones I knew by face) have not been anywhere near the Capitol, to my knowledge, since the veto override vote failed late last week. Those of them who are around appear to be here in other capacities, working for other interests.

When will all this end? I spent my recess fairly productively – I read through a big chunk of the legislative rules, yeeowch.

According to the Kansas constitution, our citizen legislature has 90 days to complete their business. That includes the regular session, and the wrap-up session. Right now, the Senate is on their 87th day, and the House is on their 88th.

What happens if they go over, though?

Not really anything.

No lashes with wet noodles, nothing. Lots of fingers will be shaken at them for wasting taxpayer funds, and lots of blame will probably be flung around and some folks will end up looking not so good – but nothing really substantive happens. Sine die, the ceremonial end of the session, is scheduled for May 29.

What could keep the Senate and the House in Topeka? Not getting a budget together. Could the new coal bill do it? I would find that pretty unlikely but maybe.

If May stretched on and the budget never came together, then the Governor could call for a special session. (A special session can also be petitioned for by two-thirds of each chamber.)

Also, while sine die is traditionally just a ceremonial occasion, where just the Speaker and the President have to show up – it can also be an attempt for a veto override attempt. Should the new coal bill pass, and should the Governor veto it, then sine die could see an override attempt.

The no votes wouldn’t have to be there – but all 84 of the pro-coal plant votes would have to return.

Folks have made plans, most of them will have gone home… Doing an override attempt at sine die could be tough.

4:20 The House is talking about a water law bill that none of them really seem to like. If I remember correctly, however, the Senate really wants this bill. Hmm. The bill involves Douglas County. The House seems unimpressed with the Senate’s attitude in the conference committee.

4:27 From Eileen – this just in! She has posted pictures from Pack the Capitol to the CEP flickr account.

Remember – the first day of the veto session, Kansans congregated for clean energy at the Capitol (it was pretty impressive). Check it out.

4:33 Some irony here - several of the folks who don’t support the water bill are rejecting it on the basis that “this is really late in the session to be considering such a complex issue.” And evidently the bill could be written a lot more clearly.

So – will these same parties vote for the new coal bill, seated as it is in the middle of a giant economic development package, put together at light speed, and most of which has not yet had a chance to be debated on the floor…?

In the future, though, look for water law in Kansas to get even more contentious. Every energy issue has a water issue underlying it, in my opinion. If we think energy gets messy, just wait ten years and water will make all this look like nothing in comparison.

Editorial comment, sorry. Divided vote. 79 vote against NOT adopting the conference committee report on the bill. (This is going to be complicated.) Now they are voting on whether TO accept the conference committee report. I know that appears to make no sense, you have to trust me that it happened and it made its own weird sense in context. (Basically, the House wants to kill the bill for good and not send it back to committee.) Final action on the bill – 64 for, 57 against, wow, very close. Bill passes. Hmmm.

4:48 The House adjourns for the day, and will return at 11:00 tomorrow. For the third day in a row, they do not consider the House Concurrent Resolution for the legislature to sue the Governor over the coal plants. Nor do they act on the budget or the third coal bill.

Simply as a matter of note, it looked like two pro-coal votes were absent today. One non-coal vote was absent as well.

Think I’ll wander over to the Senate. Wait – there’s not even a quorum. Well, I’ll check.

5:11 I think that’s a big fat nothing…!

The limbo continues.

EDIT: There was just a big press conference. Watch your papers.

See you tomorrow, all. Hang in there!

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org