Monthly Archives: July 2009
Pickens has changed energy debate
A year ago today, T. Boone Pickens brought his crusade for energy independence to Kansas, including to the offices of The Eagle editorial board. Continue reading
Beijing closing coal plants in environmental move
China has taken advantage of a drop in electricity demand due to the global financial crisis to speed up a campaign to close small coal-fired power plants and improve its battered environment, an official said Thursday. Continue reading
Missouri wind energy capacity soars
A national survey of wind energy says Missouri added the third-highest amount of wind farm capacity in the nation during the second quarter of the year. Continue reading
Co-ops oppose more state regulation
Rural electric cooperative managers told the Public Utilities Commission on Thursday to keep its hands off their power supplier. Clean-energy advocates, however, urged the state to take a greater role in regulating Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, saying the coal-heavy company’s power plants affect everyone, not just its customers.
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Farmers and Ranchers Benefit from Climate Legislation
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack today will testify to the Senate Agriculture Committee on the role that rural America can play in addressing climate change. Continue reading
Carbon capture for coal costly, study finds
Harvard University researchers have issued a new report that confirms what many experts already feared: Stopping greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants is going to cost a lot of money. Continue reading
Growing Away from Big Coal
Last month, a new type of farm sprouted in Brighton, Colo. United Power, the rural electric cooperative that serves the town and a large swath of communities and agricultural lands on the state’s northern Front Range, unveiled what’s been touted as the nation’s first cooperative solar farm. Continue reading
Rural Cooperatives Add Wind, Cautiously
Rural electric cooperatives across the country are adding more wind power, but it is not always easy. Continue reading
Coal can’t have it both ways
Coal lobbyists want to argue that “clean coal” is here, but then also demand that the climate legislation working its way through Congress be further watered down, to give them more time to perfect and deploy carbon capture and storage technology. Continue reading
Coal power costs a pocketbook issue
KANSAS HAS CHIPS in the energy bill being debated in Congress. If the law passed imposes costs on carbon emissions, the cost of generating power at the Jeffrey Energy Center near St. Marys, Westar North’s main plant, will rise. Kansans will pay more for power every month as a consequence. Continue reading
