Panel seeks public's aid with energy proposals

TOPEKA - A state energy panel wants public input on more than just a proposal to drop the state's speed limit from 70 to 65 mph on major highways.

That idea, touted as a way of helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Kansas, has already generated headlines and some public backlash.

But it's also just one of the 15 recommendations being explored this fall by the Kansas Energy Council, a 35-member study group hoping to help lawmakers set a course for the state's energy policy.

The council, which is accepting written public comment through Oct. 10, will conduct a public hearing from 9 a.m. noon Friday at Fort Hays State University's Robbins Center in Hays. Another session is scheduled for Sept. 30 in Wichita.

The group's recommendations will be finalized later this year after the public weighs in and then submitted to the Legislature for consideration.

Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, council co-chairman, said that while the speed-limit proposal might initially catch the public's attention, the more significant task for the group was to map out a strategy for generating more electricity in Kansas.

"The biggest question that Kansas faces down the road is: How much additional baseload power are we going to need, and where and how are we going to get it?" Parkinson said.

Kansas will likely need as much as 600 to 700 megawatts of additional power from what are likely to be traditional sources - coal, nuclear or natural gas - over the next 10, 15 or 20 years, Parkinson said.

But at the same time, state utilities will face the prospect of producing that power while also reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Ken Frahm of Colby, the council's other co-chairman, said that while western Kansas has the most pressing need for additional power, a statewide 1 to 2 percent annual increase in demand is a bigger factor.

"There's a little bit of an immediate need," Frahm said. "In general, it's more of a gradual deal. There's single-digit growth per year over the next 20 years over the whole state of Kansas."

But council leaders said they didn't specifically examine the issue of Sunflower Electric's proposal to build two new coal plants next to its existing generator at Holcomb, an issue that gripped the Legislature this session.

Frahm said advocates on both sides of the debate have likely formed their opinions on the issue and that the council didn't see any need to address it further.

In addition, Parkinson said he believed Holcomb was a "separate question" because most of the power from that project would have gone to addressing power needs in Colorado and Texas.

"It could not have solved a long-term baseload problem in Kansas," said Parkinson, who joined Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in opposing the project.

Among the council's initial prescriptions are more federal funding of technology to help utilities produce baseload power while also reducing their carbon dioxide emissions, as well as more collaboration to develop innovations.

Other proposals include promoting energy efficiency and conversation for both consumers and utilities and working for overall declines in greenhouse gas emissions, not shifts between or within regions.

The council is also recommending that any new regulations on carbon emissions, such as a cap-and-trade system or a tax, be made at the federal level, and that agricultural sequestration be counted as a potential off-set for emissions.

Other ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions include dropping the speed limit, increasing fines for speeding by 50 percent, and reducing how much people can speed before receiving a moving violation.

A full list of the council's 15 recommendations can be found on the Web at kec.kansas.gov.

Taking on the issues

The group's effort comes at the same time that the large council, created by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2004, is trying to overcome criticism that it hasn't been a relevant enough force in shaping the state's energy policy.

But both Frahm and Parkinson said they felt like the council has taken a step forward in addressing the state's major energy issues, singling out the need to both produce more electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We made a decision to take the major issues head on, and so we had two broad areas of study," Parkinson said.

But Stephanie Cole, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Sierra Club, an environmental group, said the council appeared to be overlooking wind energy production, which is seeing a significant expansion in the state this year.

The state began the year with 364 megawatts being produced by warm farms and is slated to produce more than 1,000 megawatts by the end of the year, according to the governor's office.

"We're really disappointed that there's no policy to advance the state's wind resources," Cole said of the council's recommendations.

But Parkinson said the group made a conscious decision to focus on traditional power sources because another entity, the Kansas Wind Working Group, was focused on wind energy.

Another panel member, Stuart Lowry, executive vice president for the Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., said there was a need to look at those sources that provide the bulk of the state's power.

The present goal of Sebelius and other state leaders is to produce 20 percent of the state's electricity using wind by 2020, likely leaving the remaining 80 percent to more traditional sources.

"If you look at it that way, what we're really discussing is where the other 80 percent is going to come from and what policies do we want to consider that have a bearing on that 80 percent on the energy supply," said Lowery, who led a committee studying proposals related to electric generation.