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On Legislature considering delays in renewable energy standards

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Phillbert 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Let's say climate change isn't real. That's a statement completely contradicted by all respected (i.e. non-oil and coal industry funded) science, but for insane argument's sake, let's say that.

You're still not going to have any water to run your coal-fired power plants given what's happening to the aquifer:

Aquifer sees 2nd largest decline on record in 2012 http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/feb...

We have lots of wind and sun in Kansas. We don't have lots of coal or water. Which does it make long-term economic sense to use?

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chootspa 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Next up, the tobacco industry will parade a series of experts to tell us how cigarettes are like push-ups for your lungs and are great for children.

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DougCounty 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Let's call a spade a spade: ALEC, that special interest consortium set up by vested corporate interests like the Koch Brothers and other fossil fuel multinationals have targeted Renewable Portfolio Standards for downgrading/eliminating by 1) spreading misinformation about the impact it has on energy prices and 2) by providing industry-written legislation to shove through state legislatures. This attempted railroading in no way looks out for the interest of the average citizen and makes me wonder who these legislators have pledged their allegiance to--it's certainly not to the people they are supposed to be serving.

The denialist testimony is beyond serious consideration if you look at the details; if you would like to learn more about Mr. Christy and his history of misinformation, I suggest you check this out: http://skepticalscience.com/christy-once-again-misinforms-congress.html

And as far as the "statistics" that show that RES have driven up consumer energy prices, I suggest you read a real analysis about the impacts of having a Renewable Energy Standard here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/88729200/Renewable-Energy-Standards-Deliver-Affordable-Clean-Power

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Water 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Am I reading this correctly?

"Our renewable standards are a failure,” said Rep. Charlotte O’Hara, R-Overland Park. “They resulted in higher energy costs, ... and are not the answer to our energy independence. It’s time to recognize this failure, repeal the RPS and be free from these crippling energy mandates.”"

Am I too believe the people of Overland Park are having difficulties paying their electric bill? What "...crippling energy mandates?" What?! Raising a family of octupuses in Sub saharan Africa is difficult. Lowering your electricity consumption in a world with readily accessible internet research and commerce.....EASY!!!

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ljwhirled 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Wow, just, wow. As we enter another year of drought and another "hotest year on record".

I guess the good news is that in 10 or 20 years rural counties won't have the population left to elect these moronic yahoos. With no water and no farm income, they'll be an empty wasteland of abandoned farms.

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jayhawklawrence 3 months, 2 weeks ago

That was my response also. Wow. Just wow.

A double wow.

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snitty 3 months, 2 weeks ago

An idiot wind is blowing hot out of Topeka. Every quack in the climate denial industry is being asked to opine at the behest of the oil industry and its bought politicians. They failed to drive us off the fiscal cliff so they will drive us off the environmental cliff by denying reality. The Kansas statehouse is a loony bin.

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merrill 3 months, 2 weeks ago

This thinking is straight out of the KOCH oil and petro chemical handbook known as ALEC.

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merrill 3 months, 2 weeks ago

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that.

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights.

These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.

In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU

--- United States of ALEC – Bill Moyers http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill

--- ALEC – The Voice of Corporate Special Interests in State Legislatures http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/alec-the-voice-of-corporate-special-interests-state-legislatures

--- ALEX EXPOSED – The Koch Connection http://www.thenation.com/article/161973/alec-exposed-koch-connection

--- ALEC – Ghostwriting The Law for Corporate America http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/15044.htm

--- ALEC EXPOSED http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

--- ALEC Private Schools - Corporate Education Reformers Plot Next Steps at Secretive Meeting http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/02-9

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DougCounty 3 months, 2 weeks ago

By the way, the survey link in this article is a secondary report of the degree of consensus in the scientific community. The actual survey report, published in the Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences can be found here: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/27/12107.abstract?ijkey=6e18ab6ae8011fe7f3d6378c068bfc8a59b52c80&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

While the CNN article reports that there is an 80-90% consensus in the scientific community, the PNAS survey points to a much stronger consensus among actively publishing professional climatologists of 97-98%. While this survey was done in 2009, since then any number of professionally relevant institutions have come out in full agreement about the validity of climate change and humanity's role in it including the American Meteorological Association, the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union among them.

To have some professional denialists come in and testify to the contrary in front of the legislature is pure politics and in no way represents the scientific consensus that persists and gets stronger every day with the many lines of data being collected that are strengthening our understanding of climate change and our role in it.

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weiser 3 months, 2 weeks ago

If we don't burn coal we can't plug in our electric cars. Obama will miss the new taxes imposed on electric car ownership. It all sounds great as long as he gets our money to give away. I guess they forgot the loss of our money. I'm sure China will be green soon!

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caughtinthemiddle 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Actually, as usual, you have not a clue. There are no additional taxes on electric cars, and, in fact, there is a $7500 tax CREDIT for those who really care about the environmment.

Again, what is your real issue? Koch relative?

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Agnostick 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Coal is one of many ways to generate electricity. Don't let the facts confuse your propoganda, though...

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Bob_Keeshan 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Next week, the committee will hear a bill to lift the onerous ban on CFCs.

Testimony will be provided on how destroying the ozone layer is good, not bad. The bill will then be amended to lift restrictions on DDT and other banned chemicals and pollutants.

Kansas -- where the 20th century never happened.

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Joe Hyde 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Virtually all electrical output from the Sunflower generating station is to be exported to neighboring states? Why is that?

It's because the legislatures and regulatory agencies in those states earlier refused to approve construction of that plant inside the territorial borders of their states, due to deep concerns about the station's damaging environmental impacts.

Neighboring states are perfectly willing to import Sunflower's electrical power while Kansas despoils its own territorial environment to provide the supply. And our conservative Republican legislators and governor stand ready to help with that self-destructive task.

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LesBlevins 3 months, 2 weeks ago

That's our Kansas State Legislature! Hard at work taking from the poor to benefit their rich oil firm buddies, winding down statewide education funding, rolling back the most needed of the legislation of the recent past in order to keep super tornadoes rolling by and severe drought blocking any chance of a recovery for farmers and ranchers, draining the Ogallala and silting in the reservoirs. Busy little minded beavers slaving away in Topeka to bring ruination upon us.

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LesBlevins 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Oh I almost forgot, ignoring proposals that would create up to 30,000 new jobs in Kansas for the working poor and long term unemployed.

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merrill 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Charlotte O'Hara likely could be sold a car that gets unlimited mpg. Charlotte O Hara would not know that the vehicle had no engine for some time....... but she would love talking about those unlimited mpg's.

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merrill 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Charlotte O Hara needs to do some homework. Why does this new breed of republican not want less expensive energy sources? Those Koch boys and ALEC are truly making you appear to be stupid.

Charlotte O Hara think about these sources from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

A combination of new energy sources would produce cleaner and more efficient energy. Additionally this combination would not only provide way more jobs throughout the states but also safer employment.

Rebuilding economies is a good idea. With less expensive sources an even better idea.

The Plan: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/renewing-americas-economy.html

Wind http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/how-wind-energy-works.html

Solar http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/how-solar-energy-works.html

Bio Mass http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/offmen-how-biomass-energy-works.html

Geo Thermal http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/offmen-how-geothermal-energy-works.html

Hydro Power http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/how-hydroelectric-energy-works.html

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deec 3 months, 2 weeks ago

While Kansas paid-for pols spout anti-climate change rhetoric, the world's true rulers like the IMF and the World Bank are joining in sounding the alarm. I guess they must also be wild-eyed treehuggers in disguise.

World Bank president Jim Young Kim said “If there is no action soon, the future will become bleak.”

IMF director Christine Lagarde: “the real wild card in the pack” of economic pivot points is “Increasing vulnerability from resource scarcity and climate change, with the potential for major social and economic disruption.” She called climate change “the greatest economic challenge of the 21st century.”

Ms. Lagarde concluded with a call for a new kind of economic growth. “So we need growth, but we also need green growth that respects environmental sustainability. Good ecology is good economics. This is one reason why getting carbon pricing right and removing fossil fuel subsidies are so important.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/

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Cant_have_it_both_ways 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Horray for those who demand green and renewable energy. WOOT a place for our children blessed with 50K debt the moment they hit the ground to live. I would think that if you really cared about the future, then that would include not blessing our children with all that debt. What good is a clean place to live when you have nothing.

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deec 3 months, 2 weeks ago

What good is money when there is no water, food or breathable air?

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Cant_have_it_both_ways 3 months, 2 weeks ago

What good is a place to breath, eat and drink with lots of money? Try again.

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deec 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Without food, air or water, you die, regardless of how much wealth you have. You can't eat gold.

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chootspa 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Even if you're a climate change denier, we'll crash the economy and soar our debt a lot faster when the rest of the world uses renewable energy and our source of fuel runs out. You think our cars will run when there's no oil? We're closer to that point than you think. What we need is some good old American innovation. We won't get there if we're too busy coddling the lazy fossil fuel industry, who, btw, get tax cuts and government handouts that increase our debt.

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KevinORourkeAWEA 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Adding wind power due to Kansas' renewable energy standard has resulted in many tangible benefits for the state. Most notably, job growth, economic development, and tax base.

In 2011, up to 3,000 Kansas jobs were supported by the wind industry, and local landowners benefited from $3.8 million in land lease payments. Also, $3.4 million in tax base was added to rural communities. That tax base is critical in supporting local infrastructure projects such as road, schools, and emergency services.

Studies from across the country have shown that added wind power can be beneficial to the consumer by lowering costs. In fact, a May 2012 report from Synapse Energy Economics which found that adding more wind power in the Midwest could save the average homeowner $63 to $200 a year.

Renewable energy standards have helped drive the installation of wind power, and it makes little sense to roll them back at a time when they are contributing to growing local economies.

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WWWW 3 months, 2 weeks ago

It is amazing how these elected conservative idiots keep bringing up issues and making statements that only highlight their ignorance and/or the fact that their souls are owned by corporate interests. Just so it is also made clear, there is no such thing as energy independence based of fossil fuels. BP, Exxon, etc are global companies. They are not subject to laws restricting where they choose to sell the products they get from the ground. Whatever they drill in Kansas, Texas or North Dakota, they can sell to China or the highest bidder.

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merrill 3 months, 2 weeks ago

No matter what oil and petro chemicals pollute....

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JayhawkFan1985 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Maybe the legislature could pass a bill requiring people to drive horse drawn wagons instead of cars...

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