Don't let Kansas sell out on renewable energy
As an Overland Park native, it breaks my heart to hear some Kansas legislators call the state’s renewable-energy law a “failure.” I’m proud to tell everyone I meet that I’m from Kansas, a state that has wisely drawn on its vast reserves of wind to lead the nation on clean energy.
Kansas’ renewable energy standard was adopted in 2009 as a bipartisan compromise between the Republican-led Legislature and then-Democratic Governor Mark Parkinson. The law has made Kansas a hotbed for wind-energy innovation, attracting $3 billion in investments. My home state ranks third in the nation in wind production, trailing only Texas and California.
This place of honor has blessed Kansas not only with those billions in investment but with 12,000 of new cleantech jobs. On top of that is the priceless benefit of reduced pollution – and cleaner air.
More than 117,000 adults and 43,500 children living in Kansas have asthma. Until I recently left the state, I was one of them. I remember as a child in gym class barely being able to catch my breath, and wondering why it was so hard to complete the mile run. And then discovering there’s a name for that – asthma – and earning the privilege of carrying an inhaler in my purse.
Kansas’ far-sighted recent policies mean its future children need not share my experience. By increasing our reliance on renewable energy, we decrease our use of polluting fuels. Curbing pollution is a giant step toward not only reducing asthma attacks, but also toward mitigating other serious conditions that can be triggered by pollution, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart attacks.
When state Rep. Dennis Hedke, one of the leaders of the efforts to ditch the state’s renewable standard, says he wants “market forces,” not government, to determine Kansas’ energy future, he neglects to say he’s part of that market. Hedke is a geophysicist consultant for the oil and gas industry.
The truth is that the renewable energy standard creates a level playing field for clean energy, like wind, to compete with vested oil interests. If we were really going to allow market forces to dictate infrastructure, we would abandon subsidies for oil companies.
After graduating from Kansas State University, I eventually made my way to San Francisco, where I live now. California’s innovative clean- energy industry, strongly supported by landmark laws, has been drawing billions in investment to the state, and cleaning up our polluted air. I’m breathing easier – with fewer asthma attacks – knowing I’m living in a state dedicated to these issues.
I left my heart in Kansas, but fortunately for my health took my lungs to San Francisco. Kansas is on the cutting edge of clean energy innovation, but repealing the renewable energy standard would be a move in the wrong direction. With other countries like China and Germany seizing the edge and future jobs, Kansas needs to maintain its leadership.
For the sake of healthy lungs, prosperity, and for many future new jobs, I urge Governor Brownback to stand strong in his support of the renewable energy standard. Now is the time for my home-state leader to make good on his pledge to make Kansas “known as not only as the Wheat state, but as the Renewable State” and lead my home state toward the clean-energy economy that will benefit us all.
Danielle English is an Overland Park native living in San Francisco. She works for a Bay Area public relations firm focused on supporting clean-energy progress.
George Hunsucker
Northland
2 months, 4 weeks agowind power CANNOT compete in the marketplace and all these subsidies merely provide jobs for the likes of the writer.
CA as a poster child for economic growth is a joke, and its “clean energy” initiatives are merely one reason for its demise….
Companies should be free to produce wind-power in KS ON THEIR DIME, not the taxpayers’ backs as they are today….
JR Beillenhouser
2 months, 4 weeks agoNow I’ll write a column about San Francisco and you can ignore it like I just did with your article. Just because you lived here and one point in your life doesn’t make you an expert on the state. I’d suggest you look a little at your own local economy How about an article about all the California regulations and taxes that are forcing people to leave the state in droves?
Yanwen Xia
Overland Park
2 months, 4 weeks agoDanielle, you are right that Kansas has “led the country with wind projects under construction in 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s Annual Report.” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/therightswaronrenewableenergycoulddoomredstatespartner/
Mark Hastert
2 months, 4 weeks ago“Companies should be free to produce wind-power in KS ON THEIR DIME, not the taxpayers’ backs as they are today…”
For that matter why are we subsidizing oil & gas with special breaks? Oh,because the Kochs…..
Mark Hastert
2 months, 3 weeks ago“Now I’ll write a column about San Francisco and you can ignore it like I just did with your article.”
…..but apparently you didn’t….
Kent Mueller
2 months, 3 weeks agoBoth Danielle and Mark speak of the subsidies for the oil and gas industry, but they don’t provide any detail or context.
Yes, there are a few. But can you detail them? Can you put them into perspective of the overall industry? What about subsidies net of taxes paid?
I see the oil and gas industries smeared a lot with blanket statements about subsidies. But those statements never hold up under scrutiny.
Steven Fetter
66223
2 months, 3 weeks agoOil, gas, and coal produce the cheapest, most dependable energy for consumers. It is delivered efficiently and cost effectively within our existing infrastructure. The taxes paid at the well, the refinery, and the point of consumption provide local, state, and the federal government with dependable streams of revenue.
Wind, solar, ethanol and the like only exist because they are subsidized by the tax payers. Their product are expensive non dependable. When one looks at the totality of the footprint they require in land, new service roads, new power lines, and the estimated life of each power unit, the cost can not be justified.
Those that scorn Koch Industries should save some of their wrath for GE, Siemens, ADM, and other companies that have colluded with politicians for a carve-out of taxpayer’s hard earned dollars.
Kevin Smith
2 months, 3 weeks agoUnfortunately the immediate price in dollars is not the only cost of oil, gas, and coal. The cost in environmental damage and poorer future health of people in general cannot exert market forces today. Instead we and future generations will be paying that price for years to come. Subsidies allow clean, renewable technologies to compete now so that the much higher, less apparent future cost can be minimized.
JR Beillenhouser
2 months, 3 weeks agoActually Kevin, you forget to factor in the money wasted in renewable energy projects like Solyndra that future generations will be paying for for years to come.
Air quality has never been better. The ability to drill and not affect the environment has the lowest footprint ever.
Subsidies for new energies are fine, but they are not advanced enough to replace existing