The Kansas Energy Bill, HB 2014
Top Ten Consequences
of a Sustained Governor's Veto.
1. If we fail to expand our energy capabilities here in Kansas, a plant will likely be built in Holly, Colorado, just 20 miles west of our Kansas border. Colorado will have the benefits of the new jobs, the revenue they create and affordable energy for their citizens.
2. Kansas will have missed out on a 3.6 billion dollar investment and the 2,500 construction jobs that it would have produced for the estimated four years needed to complete construction, not to mention the loss of the 300 permanent jobs needed to operate the plant.
3. The infrastructure that would have made additional wind farms possible will not be built unless the Kansas energy expansion bill becomes law.
4. Additional wind power expansion (20% by 2020) is part of the Kansas comprehensive energy expansion. If the energy bill is vetoed, and that veto is sustained, wind power expansion in Kansas would have to find a different source of revenue. Most likely it would need to be subsidized by taxpayers.
5. Kansas will continue to have an unstable regulatory climate that is not conducive to attracting new business to the state. In 2007, Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment, Roderick Bremby, overruled his own professional staff and denied Sunflower Electric the air-quality permits that would allow for the expansion of their plant in southwest Kansas even though the proposed expansion would meet and exceeded the provisions of the Federal Clean Air Act.
6. Ratepayers, farmers, urban dwellers, businesses, schools, hospitals, etc will be forced to pay higher rates for the energy they consume. Estimates are that within a few years ratepayers will be faced with a 38% increase in energy cost. Energy will have to be imported to meet our growing demands. Imported energy is much more expensive!
7. A base load energy deficiency and higher prices for imported energy will make Kansas less attractive than its neighboring states for prospective businesses. This will mean the loss of additional job opportunities for our state.
8. The jobs and the technology used to create Bio-diesel from captured CO 2 emissions will probably be employed somewhere else, perhaps in China.
9. All the revenue that would have been generated by the energy expansion will be lost including revenues obtained from future energy exports. Kansas is looking at a 1.1 billion dollar deficit for fiscal year 2010. Using stimulus money to cover that deficit would only be a temporary fix. We need job creation, not taxation, to produce the revenue needed for our state.
10. Without passage of HB 2014 the financial burden for any alternative energy expansion projects, if they are to be done at all, will undoubtedly fall on the taxpayers in our state. Couple that with higher rates for energy and lost job opportunities and it spells disaster for our Kansas economy.
The Kansas Comprehensive Energy Expansion Bill, HB 2014, has state of the art provisions for developing alternative sources of energy. Without passage of this bill many of these alternative energy sources will not become reality. Alternative sources of energy production are supplemental sources only. Wind and solar, in themselves, cannot consistently provide all our energy needs. There are three base line sources of energy production, coal, nuclear, and gas. The use of gas is more expensive and would put energy producers in direct competition with homeowners possibly driving up natural gas prices. Nuclear is a good source of energy production, Wolf Creek is a fine example, but many are uncomfortable with nuclear energy and the problem and expense of nuclear waste disposal. Coal is abundant and the least expensive. Clean coal technology has come a long way since 1940.
The Kansas House passed the energy expansion bill on final action by a vote of 79-44 with two legislators absent. That was five, or possibly three, votes shy of the 84 votes needed to override the veto promised by Governor Sebelius. The prospect of someone new at the helm, Mark Parkinson, gives me hope that what's best for Kansas will take priority over political posturing.
Kansas must restrain the urge to raise taxes, curtail excessive spending, create jobs, secure affordable energy for our future and encourage an environment that is business friendly if we are to be fiscally responsible. Passage of the Kansas Comprehensive Energy Expansion Bill will bring us closer to making these goals a reality.
Greetings From the Capitol;
All is well within Leavenworth County. All the voters are totally satisfied with our incumbent elected officials and their performance in office. At least this is the perception one would get from the recent Primary Election results. We had Mayoral positions, City Commissions, School & Water Board members up for election during the primary (just concluded on March 3).
