“A balanced energy policy” - how many times did all of us read or see that phrase during the recent 2008 legislative session?
The energy policy discussion continues throughout the state. The legislature may be (almost) adjourned, but that seems more and more like a time out than a game over.
This summer and fall, many groups with an interest in energy policy will meet. Several of them will consider making policy recommendations to the legislature for the 2009 session.
Executive Branch
- Governor’s Wind Working Group (WWG)
- Midwest Governors Association (MGA) process - and the MGA working groups
- Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy (KEEP) advisory group and working groups
- Kansas Energy Council (KEC) and its various committees
- Kansas Corporation Commmission (administrative agency) – decoupling docket
Legislative Branch
- Joint Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy (will meet during interim session, members are not finalized until after the November elections)
Judicial Branch (which I am throwing in here because the courts do contribute, albeit often glacially, to policy)
- Sunflower appeal of its denied air permit is in district court as well as in appeals to KDHE
- Wind contract cases are gently simmering in KS district courts as well
(Full disclosure: CEP Executive Director Nancy Jackson is a participant on WWG, the MGA process, and KEEP.)
Feel free to explore those websites linked above. Most of them at least post the presentations that are made to their members. Others also post notes from meetings.
The discussions and questions that come from group participants, though, are often the most interesting and least tracked portion of the processes. KEEP allows the public to call in and listen during the meetings, though.
Note what this list of policy development doesn’t cover – all the other energy-related legislative committees that might choose to meet during the interim. Although since this is an election year, there may not be a whole lot of those. Also, as long as there is not a quorum of a voting body present, legislators interested in developing policy can meet among themselves.
From the executive branch, administrative agencies – like KDHE, the KCC, Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation, etc. – can offer their perspectives to the legislature as well.
Private interests matter, too. While many of these groups (KEEP, WWG, etc.) have broad representation from different sectors of business and industry, those interests will probably bring their own policy initiatives to the legislature. Or they may join in coalitions to do so.
Last but definitely not least – citizens matter as well. And as the CEP email attests, many, many of you are paying very close attention!
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandnergy.org
98% humidity this weekend. I think that pretty much sums it up. We did not turn on our AC. I wish I could say it was because my family is so environmentally conscious and deeply concerned about our carbon footprint. We are – but we are also cheap. And frankly that was the real reason.
Anyway, when the AC does go on this summer, remember these tips:
- Don’t set the AC too low. For every degree you raise the thermostat this summer, you can cut energy consumption 3-5%.
- If using fans, remember that fans cool your body, not the air or the room. If your body is not going to be in that room, turn off the fan.
- Once you turn the AC on, that does not mean you then must leave it on all summer long. That is a myth.
- If you use a dehumidifier (and those come with EnergyStar certification) in certain rooms, make sure those windows are closed. Otherwise you are trying to dehumidify the great outdoors and in Kansas that will never, never happen.
Almost twenty tornados touched down in Kansas this weekend. For more details, see Salina Journal.
The Kansas coal controversy has died down? Really? On some level, I think it’s headed into a whole new realm. Maybe we can’t really call it the “Kansas coal controversy” anymore, though. It’s becoming more and more about energy. I’d like to acknowledge the non-partisan bit of the discussion first.
Folks in both parties are now talking about developing a comprehensive energy policy for Kansas. Because the legislature’s Republican leadership supports the coal plants, some folks seem to think that all Republicans do – in fact, some of them do not. Just like some Democrats supported the plants. The issue does not follow a simple party breakdown.
A recent editorial in the LJWorld makes exactly this point. “This year’s fight over the coal-fired plants in western Kansas was primarily a political battle. Now it’s time for everyone to put the politics aside and take a practical, scientific approach to the state’s energy future.”
That’s the policy approach. Then there’s the politics. In that realm, the coal controversy is very alive and well. This past weekend, Kansas Democrats and Republicans said very different things.
According to Harris News/ Hutch News, Christian Morgan, executive director of the state Republican Party, said that Republicans may make the plants an economic development issue in the upcoming elections. Quotable: “‘It isn’t a defeat or retreat, it is a change in strategy,’ Morgan said in an e-mail of Neufeld’s decision.” In the Leavenworth Times, party chair Kris Kobach is quoted as saying that “the Republican party will be ‘aggressively targeting’ a veto-proof majority in order to get the Holcomb coal plant legislation approved.”
Mike Gaughan, executive director of the state Democratic Party, had a different take on the issue. According to the Harris News report, he “said Democrats simply wanted a responsible, balanced energy policy this session but faced GOP roadblocks.” Quotable:
He said Kansans are most concerned about such things as high gas prices, affordable health insurance and the high cost of prescription drugs.
“While the Kansas GOP spends the next six months fighting about Holcomb, our Democratic candidates will continue to talk about solutions to the challenges Kansans face every single day,” Gaughan said.
It’s not easy being an environmental regulator these days. EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, who is widely accused of dragging his feet in putting together rules and regs for carbon dioxide regulation, gets hauled over the coals by the congressional committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (story from LATimes).
You remember Waxman. During the KS coal controversy, he asked why the RUS was still funding coal plant development with taxpayer dollars when Wall St considered them too risky for private investment. RUS has suspended the program indefinitely.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
