Climate and energy

Kansas papers announced today that House Speaker Melvin Neufeld has decided not to call for a veto override of the third coal bill on May 29 at sine die, the ceremonial end of the 2008 legislative session.

(CEP will probably attend anyway, what the heck.)

Only skeleton reports in the papers so far. We will see if there are any quotables that appear in the coverage tomorrow morning.

I have been in meetings eternally and have only had a chance to scan my email, but the responses seems to be pretty evenly split three ways: “Whew” “I’m not sure I believe that” and “when do the court cases kick into gear?” Sometimes all in the same email.

Governor Sebelius’s response was very positive and encouraging:

“I am pleased that we can close this contentious chapter of our debate on energy policy, and begin to work collaboratively on a comprehensive plan that provides for the power needed to continue to grow our economy, while protecting our environment and maximizing our alternative energy potential.

“Yesterday, the first meeting of the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group occurred, launching the dialogue to develop a strategy for the future. I will continue to reach out to energy producers, environmental groups, scientists, business leaders, health experts and Kansas citizens as we work with the Legislature to develop energy policy for Kansas. Also, I am hopeful that the legislature will move to quickly address the economic proposals that were unfortunately bundled with the coal plant proposal when they return in January, 2009.”

Also, I have received enough email requests for the following that I decided to go ahead and post it – some of the more important dates of the coals bills traveling through the 2008 session (this should also help you all navigate the live blogging archives a little easier).

I have left out bill numbers for now. Does anyone really want them? If so, I can deliver, just let me know. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates of passage represent the day of final action taken by the Kansas House.

February 4 – hearings begin in House and Senate
February 8 – hearings on the House side implode, and the House Select Committee on Energy and Environment is created for a possible end run (see baseload bill, below)
March 5 – first coal bill is passed
March 21 – Governor vetoes first coal bill
March 24 – very quick and dirty hearings on the second coal bill happen at lightspeed
April 1 – funky carbon tax proposal comes out of nowhere, crashes and burns in about 24 hours. Around same time, amendment to another bill threatens to take casino gambling away from Wyandotte County delegation.
April 4 – second coal bill is passed
April 17 - second coal bill is vetoed
May 1 – House attempts and fails to override the second coal bill
May 3 – the trailer bill starts to float around, as well as a House Concurrent Resolution to sue to the Governor and her administration over the plants (never ultimately goes anywhere)
May 7 - third coal bill is passed
May 16 – third coal bill is vetoed
May 29, sine die – it has just been announced that there will be no override attempt.

This list leaves out quite a bit of the subplots. The baseload bill, which attempted to set up the equivalent of a renewable portfolio standard for coal and nuclear while eliminating natural gas and ignoring wind power, was probably the most significant.

It is also significant that the energy efficiency bill originally sponsored by KCPL went down as part of the collateral damage - even to the point of getting struck out of the bill that allows utilities to recover the costs of developing nuclear through their rates.

I am still trying to figure out that one. Energy efficiency is easier and far, far cheaper than nuclear, but under law utilities can’t recover energy efficiency costs…? Yet under law, ratepayers could end up possibly getting stuck for the development costs of a nuclear plant that might never be built…?

Another thing I left out – the crash and burn of the net metering legislation sponsored by Representatives Treaster and Holland. The coal bills included net metering for solar, so net metering for solar AND wind did not stand a chance.

Pretty busy few months.

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org