Climate and energy

You can submit public comment on a proposed Kansas Energy Council recommendation to reduce the speed limit to 65 mph (LJWorld). If you would like to do so, go straight to the KEC website for instructions on how.

Energy story, New York Times, KS gets mentioned (NYT). Basically, candidates all over the US are suddenly paying attention to energy: “The fierce tactical positioning of candidates here and elsewhere — some call it pandering and waffling — is producing a convergence of sorts around the idea that more is better, that an expansion of energy production from all sources and places will somehow fix things, lower prices and restore stability to the economy.”

However - according to the article - it seems a lot more likely that no one really knows what to do.

It’s kind of like deciding whether to replace the timing belt on a very old car, I guess. Is it worth it? Or do you go out and invest in a new one? Just how busted is our energy system? Can these belts really be replaced?

For Pickens watchers - this article in U.S. News and World Report.

Editorial from Wichita Eagle blog: “Kansas should get smart on home wind.” The whole thing is a quotable:

At a recent western Kansas meeting to promote wind energy, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., remarked that he’s considering installing a small wind generator at his Topeka home.

“I want to do it,” he said. “But I don’t want to do it stupid.”

If Brownback wants a smart way to do home wind in Kansas, then he should support a net metering law, which allows residential wind users to sell their excess energy back to the utility and makes residential wind much more economically feasible.

Kansas is one of only six states without some kind of residential net metering for wind. And we’re supposed to be a leader in wind power.

Presidental Climate Action Plan released (CSMonitor). On the first day the next president takes office, whoever it is will already have a great deal of latitude (through executive orders) to take steps on confronting climate change.

FYI: If you are trying to contact one of us and not hearing anything, that’s probably because today is CEP’s official staff advance.

We were calling it a staff “retreat.” Then we realized - how does that make any sense, when the whole point is to go forward?

(Duh.)

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org