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Consumer watchdog wants feds to acknowledge investors’ influence on Evergy expenses
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A consumer watchdog wants federal regulators to acknowledge the influence of activist shareholders on Evergy’s decision-making, mirroring a local push that Kansas regulators rejected. Public Citizen, a 40-year-old nonprofit representing consumers, is pushing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to recognize two investment firms as part of Evergy, arguing last year that […]
After February blackouts, energy companies gear up for high summer demand
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Even before summer officially began, parts of Kansas and Missouri saw the year’s first heat wave stress an electrical grid nearly consumed by a cold snap just a few months ago. Earlier this month, as air conditioners worked overtime to keep up with peak temperatures in the 90s, the Southwest Power […]
After winter cold snap drove up natural gas prices, utilities grapple with who should pay
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Penalties that Spire Missouri issued to suppliers who failed to provide natural gas during a February cold snap that forced power outages across the Midwest could drive bills for hospitals, schools and businesses to astronomical levels, according to a trio of complaints pending before state regulators. During the worst of the […]
As massive livestock operations move in, fighting them gets harder for rural neighbors
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jeff Jones has lived on his family’s land east of Columbia, Missouri, his entire life. Some of the family’s farms are more than 150 years old. And Jones, who raises cattle and grows row crops, has no intentions of going anywhere. But after years of fighting, his community is home to […]
Kansas and Missouri utilities may use loophole to charge customers for fossil fuel lobbying
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas and Missouri residents’ utility bills may be helping to bankroll energy sector lobbying against policies aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Federal and state rules prohibit utility companies from passing their lobbying costs on to customers through bills. But in both Kansas and Missouri, utilities like Evergy, Ameren and Spire […]
As Kansas, Missouri keep building wind, some communities look to regulate
FRANKFORT — Austin Cline is the third generation to farm his family’s land in Marshall County. His home, added onto many times over, sits at the edge of 1,000 acres where he raises cattle and bales hay. From his driveway, he has a more than 180-degree view of neighbors’ land and native prairie grass. But […]
Lesser prairie chicken may be listed as threatened in Kansas, endangered in southwest
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lesser prairie chickens could be listed as a threatened species in Kansas and northern stretches of the bird’s habitat, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday. The lesser prairie chicken, which lives in prairie grass and shrubs in western Kansas, once numbered in the hundreds of thousands. But with about […]
‘I have to go out and beg’: residents grapple with utility costs as shut-offs resume
The pandemic has been especially hard on Louise Lynch’s family. Her daughter caught COVID-19 as the virus first took hold in Kansas City and nearly succumbed to it. Lynch lost one job at the start of the pandemic. She says she was fired from another because of health complications from getting the virus late last […]
EPA awards Topeka $300,000 cleanup grant to make way for riverfront park
TOPEKA — Topeka will receive $300,000 in federal funds to eradicate contamination near the Kansas River to make way for new development, city and federal officials announced Wednesday. The Environmental Protection Agency provided funds from its Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup Grant Program, which is designed to help local governments, American Indian tribes and nonprofits assess […]
Natural gas shortages, high prices helped drive February power outages
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A precipitous drop-off in natural-gas powered electricity, coupled with high demand and other power generation outages, drove the grid instability that forced power outages in Kansas in February, officials with the Southwest Power Pool said Tuesday. Lanny Nickell, SPP’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, appeared before the Kansas Corporation […]
Public can comment on Evergy sustainability plan after critiques over transparency
Members of the public will be allowed to comment on Evergy’s five-year sustainability plan after environmental and consumer advocates criticized regulators’ process as not transparent. The three-member Kansas Corporation Commission voted unanimously Thursday morning to allow public comments on the utility’s “sustainability transformation plan” starting immediately. The public comment period will close July 7. The […]
Evergy earnings shot up following February cold snap that forced blackouts
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Evergy more than doubled its earnings in the first quarter compared to the beginning of 2020, largely due to the profits it made on sky-high wholesale energy prices during a February cold snap that forced it to cut off power to thousands of customers across the region. The utility, which serves […]