LETTERS: Energy is important issue in election years ago
To the Editor:
Last week in a published interview State Representative Don Dahl announced his retirement and expressed a disappointment with a few key issues as being the reason to not seek another term.
One of those issues was the Holcomb coal-fired power plants that KDHE Secretary Robert Bremby chose to deny a permit based on CO2 emissions. The legislature passed at least two bills that would have stripped the regulatory powers of KDHE and paved the way to permit the power plants. Governor Sebelius vetoed both bills but offered a compromise to permit the building of a scaled-down plant of a size that would have taken care of the future electrical needs of western Kansas.
The legislative leadership refused to compromise and instead used strong-arm tactics and holding other legislation hostage to try to win the votes needed to override the veto. They were not successful and the citizens got to watch the theatre of hardball, special interest politics at work in Topeka. This October we will be able to see the story of the Kansas coal plant controversy told on the award winning PBS documentary series "Frontline," when this will be part of the bigger story of the politics of reacting to climate change by denial or solutions.
Internationally respected energy policy expert Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute recently stated, "I think the important policies need to happen at a state rather than a federal level. With modest exceptions, our federal energy policy is really a large trough arranged by the hogs for their convenience."
The 70th district has three candidates vying for the chance to go to Topeka and represent us. The voters deserve to know how each of the candidates will approach the issue and how well informed they are on the science and technology associated with the issue.
At the state level one of the most effective strategies could be energy conservation through: mandates to replace the state-owned vehicle fleet with the most fuel efficient vehicles, reinstate the cost share energy-saving grant program to retrofit public buildings with energy saving windows, lighting and HVAC, and fund education efforts in schools and elsewhere to raise citizen awareness of energy saving techniques. The gallons of fuel and kilowatt hours saved by conservation are the least expensive ways to increase the net amount of energy available and "keep the lights on."
Harry E. Bennett
Marion
