Beware: New Jobs for Kansas

Oh, they are getting really coy, those promoters of dirty energy. And they've got my number (and probably yours too). I got a call a couple of hours ago, asking me if I would call Sheryl Spalding to urge her to support more jobs for KS and passage of HB2014, which would bring new energy plants to Kansas. Ah ...they thought they'd reached a dumb, uninformed Kansan. I innocently asked: "Are those coal-fired plants?" The young man answered, "Yes". And I said back, "Never in your lifetime will I support those plants." He hung up. But seriously, you know they are polling, encouraging people to support "more jobs for Kansas", and using those duped consumers to justify passage of a bill few consumers want. But how many of you would have figured out exactly what they wanted you to support? If you'd said, "Yes, I support a way to bring new jobs to Kansas", even without making that call to your representative, you would have been put in the column of people who want those coal plants. And they are gonna use those numbers.

To refresh your memories on the issue: there are some new coal-fired plants up for approaval in Kansas -- again. The efforts to block them, lead in large part by the Kansas Sierra Club chapter, were described in the most recent issue of Sierra, the Club's magazine. For two legislative sessions, the bills authorizing those plants have passed the legislature. Governor Sibelius vetoed them both times. And each time, the legislature failed to over-ride her veto by thin margins. We are poised to have that same battle again: Sibelius has vowed to veto the current bill; a meer forty-plus brave souls in the legislature -- the number needed to sustain her veto -- stand between the people of Kansas and the corporate interests that will steal our health and despoil the planet forever.

Let me be clear, as is well out-lined in this news article, most Kansans oppose the construction of these plants. The plants will do nothing to lower utility rates; their power will be sent out-of-state. We get the construction jobs to build them, a few jobs to run them, and all the pollution with none of the benefits to the local electric grid. Oh, and the legislature is also using these bills to attempt to restrict the ability of the Kansas Dept of Health and Environment to regulate power plant emissions, one of the few protections citizens have if the compromise bill passes.

And one last minor detail -- there is money in the federal stimulus bill to fund clean energy in states that meet certain criteria. If Kansas approves these plants, we will not qualify for that clean energy investment money.

Bottom line: Kansans need to contact their legislators and push them to uphold any veto by the governor. You can find out who your legislators are here. Make your voice heard -- For the Health of It.