Environment
Keystone pipeline owner says recovery of spilled oil into Kansas creek is complete
LINCOLN, Neb. — A Canadian pipeline company says it has completed the recovery of oil spilled into a Kansas creek following a record leak on the Keystone Pipeline. TC Energy, in a news release Thursday, said it continues to restore the shoreline of Mill Creek as well as adjacent areas affected when the high-pressure, 36-inch […]
EPA again proposes power plant carbon rules
The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the U.S. Clean Air Act, was also tossed by a federal court. […]
Kansas legislation got ‘watered down’ but will help aquifer conservation efforts
Kansas state representatives this spring voted for “historic” legislation spending more than $50 million a year on preserving groundwater and restoring the state’s reservoirs. By the time the Senate finished with the bill, it was “watered down” but “a good start.” Rep. Lindsay Vaughn, D-Overland Park, said when lawmakers and farm and environmental groups come […]
The lesser prairie chicken faces a real threat in Kansas. Other species have succumbed.
Recently, an amazing but rarely seen native Kansas bird has gained national attention. After years of measurable population decline, the lesser prairie chicken was listed under the Endangered Species Act as “threatened.” “Any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range” […]
Biden rule protecting lesser prairie chicken overturned by U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed on a 50-48 vote a resolution overturning a Biden administration rule that listed a popular Southwestern game bird under a federal endangered species designation. The White House has vowed President Joe Biden would veto the resolution if it clears Congress. Similar legislation has been introduced in the […]
Interior secretary under fire at U.S. Senate hearing over oil and gas leases, public lands
Members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee used a Tuesday hearing on the Interior Department’s fiscal 2024 budget to voice their displeasure with the administration’s energy production policies to Secretary Deb Haaland. The strongest criticism came from Republicans on the panel, though Chairman Joe Manchin III, a centrist West Virginia Democrat with […]
In their paroxysms against ‘woke’ culture, Kansas legislators wound our health and environment
“Woke culture run amok.” Thus spake Ty Masterson, Senate president, dismissing the governor, or any others blocking his agenda. This attitude, every day, damages the climate of our health and the health of our climate. Our health is damaged by our lack of Medicaid expansion. Any sane examination of that effort soon becomes, well, insane. […]
Depressed? Anxious? Air pollution may be a factor
In the 1990s, residents of Mexico City noticed their dogs acting strangely — some didn’t recognize their owners, and the animals’ sleep patterns had changed. At the time, the sprawling, mountain-ringed city of more than 15 million people was known as the most polluted in the world, with a thick, constant haze of fossil fuel […]
Massive pipeline spill caused by crack created during installation, third-party review concludes
LINCOLN — A third-party review of a pipeline spill that released 500,000 gallons of crude oil onto Kansas farmland and a nearby stream was caused by a crack in the metal pipe that eventually ruptured under pressure. That was the conclusion of a third-party review that was ordered by a federal pipeline safety agency to […]
New laws increase accountability for Kansas water districts, set aside conservation funding
TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly signed two water laws, providing millions of dollars in state funding for water conservation in a bipartisan effort to tackle drought across the state. Western Kansas has used the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest underground store of freshwater in the United States, to supply agricultural irrigation for decades. With water levels […]
Kansas governor announces new state park, other laws on insurance, fishing permits and donations
TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law a bill establishing Lehigh Portland Trails as a state park, adding the Allen County nature area to the list of 27 other state parks. The park is built on the site of a former cement plant and quarry and runs along the banks of Elm Creek in […]
EPA sued over failure to set, update pollution limits
More than a dozen environmental groups are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to set water pollution limits for some industrial contaminants as well as its reluctance to update decades-old standards for others, arguing that the agency’s inaction amounts to a “free pass to pollute” for hundreds of chemical and fertilizer plants, […]