The Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy
P.O. Box 2752
Topeka, Kansas 66601

info@gpace.org

Scott Allegrucci, Director

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The Organization

The Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy (GPACE) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization incorporated in Kansas in December 2007. GPACE is headquartered in Topeka, Kansas and was formed in the context of legislative attempts to overturn the historic Kansas Department of Health and Environment denial of air quality permits for a coal-fired power plant expansion, and more than a decade of ignoring the state’s enormous wind and renewable energy potential.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy is to support a clean, secure, prosperous energy economy benefiting more Kansas businesses, farms, communities, and all future Kansans. The energy policy GPACE supports would continue to move Kansas toward goals for electricity production by 2020 that are currently accepted by most state utilities:

• Maximize energy efficiency statewide – per already accepted goals – for both supply and demand side systems.
• Maximize Kansas wind energy production and integration – per already accepted goals – and based upon production not just nameplate capacity.
• Develop Kansas natural gas resources to firm wind, meet peak demand, and displace new coal-fired generation.
• Maintain existing coal-fired capacity, and back down outdated facilities as they reach the end of their operational lifespan with renewable energy production, native natural gas, and energy efficiency.
• No new investment in increasingly costly coal plants until national regulatory and economic picture is clear, and so called “clean coal” technologies are proven or abandoned.
• Maintain existing nuclear capacity, but no costly new nuclear plants until national regulatory and economic picture is clear.

GPACE believes there is much to gain for Kansas if we aggressively develop our native renewable energy resources (solar, hydro, and especially wind) and energy efficiency, supported by native natural gas, in the coming decade. Once we have maximized those options, and once the national policy regarding climate and carbon is more certain, the questions about using coal and nuclear energy to produce electricity can and must be addressed.

What We Do

We currently maintain a network of over 10,000 grassroots volunteers/activists (including website, email list, events, and direct campus and community outreach), including at least 125 active grasstops community leaders and campus coordinators.

During 2009, GPACE coordinated grassroots education and outreach and legislative lobbying strategy involving a diverse alliance of partners, including True Blue Women, the League of Women Voters, the Sustainable Sanctuary Coalition of Greater Kansas City, the Kansas Rural Center, the Kansas Natural Resource Council, Sierra Club (Kansas chapter), Kansas Farmers Union, The Climate and Energy Project, Building a Sustainable Earth Community of Kansas City, the Kansas Blue Green Alliance (and supportive Union organizations), the American Lung Association-Central States, student environmental groups at several colleges and universities, and several congregations around the state.

GPACE organized the second annual Clean Energy Day at the Kansas State Capitol, bringing 300-400 Kansans from around the state to rally and meet with their elected representatives. Participants/partners included:
• United Steel Workers/Kansas Blue Green Alliance
• Kansas League of Women Voters
• American Lung Association, Central States
• Interfaith Power and Light, Kansas Chapter
• Kansas Farmers Union
• True Blue Women
• United Auto Workers Local #31
• Kansas Rural Center
• Sierra Club, Kansas Chapter
• Kansas Natural Resources Council
• Building a Sustainable Earth Community, Kansas City, Kansas
• The Climate and Energy Project of The Land Institute

Additionally, GPACE spearheaded an effective lobbying effort during the 2009 session of the Kansas Legislature, coordinating strategy and communication focused on key legislators and staff in the Office of the Governor. Ironically, prior to Gov. Parkinson’s stunning turnaround to negotiate a secret deal with Sunflower Electric, GPACE led lobbying efforts that saw a dramatic increase in the vote margin to sustain a gubernatorial veto of pro-coal/anti-regulatory legislation – from a margin of 1 vote to sustain at the start of the session, to 9 votes heading into the veto session. Every major stakeholder in the “coal bill” acknowledged that pro-Holcomb forces did not have the votes to overturn a veto, and GPACE was the key leader of those efforts.

GPACE maintains a social media network comprised of our website (www.gpace.org), Twitter account (GPACEinKS), and a Facebook group (Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy) focused on relevant renewable energy policy and providing opportunities to get informed and engaged.

We produced and distributed a 17-minute film titled In Search of the Renewable Energy Economy, focused on the economic impacts of wind energy development in Nolan County, Texas (as a model for what is possible in western Kansas):
That film is viewable on this Facebook fan page, or onYouTube in 3 segments
• (Part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwiGwurbltg
• (Part 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcsEOSVpBMc
• (Part 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhdNktnOOCg

In 2009, GPACE conducted statewide polling on energy issues with a bipartisan team of experienced pollsters:
• Public release and a link to details from the poll can be found here:http://www.gpace.org/?p=233

We provided the earliest and most comprehensive analysis of the Parkinson/Legislature settlement agreement “allowing” one 895mw coal plant to proceed (picked up by multiple media outlets in KS and the region):
• http://www.gpace.org/?p=460
• http://www.gpace.org/?p=468
• http://www.gpace.org/?p=486

And we contributed to the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) Kansas renewable energy study:
• http://www.gpace.org/?p=444