“Changing that,” said Downey, “is something you just don’t do with the flip of a switch. It’s going to take time.” Although he acknowledged his company’s responsibility to serve its customers in as environmentally benign a way as possible, he noted too, “The challenge is understanding that there isn’t one silver bullet. Energy efficiency is the bridge to future technologies.”
Policy
Having described the increased interest in energy issues among the business and civic communities, Bill Downey asked State Representative Jason Holsman what was on the legislative horizon.
Holsman observed that when sworn in at the beginning of 2007, he felt like he was the only person talking about a need for a statewide change in policy. Now, just one short session later, he is finding much more support.
He personally believes that the overall solution needs to be a federal solution, not unlike the Eisenhower administration’s development of the interstate highway system.
On the state level, as Holsman noted, starting small, the legislature has passed the Easy Connection Act, which allows private individuals to receive tax credits for individual initiatives in renewable energy, such as the installation of solar panels.
“Kansas City Power & Light was outstanding in this process,” said Holsman. “Without their support, I don’t think it would have happened.” As much as David Warm appreciates individual initiative, he believes that “to make a difference on the scale that we’re talking about, the whole system has to change.”
The cities are grappling with how to get their arms around the issue, Warm noted. They are beginning to think about it. They are looking in-house first. But, he added, “They quickly bump up against these system-level issues.”
Downey observed that mayors are getting involved at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, which now has more than 80 companies or organizations signed up for a climate partnership. In this partnership, participants will start taking a look at their energy usage and their carbon footprint as individuals and as organizations.
As Gary Schlotzhauer commented, the low cost of energy in Kansas City reduces the urgency to make changes. He saw the need for education. “I think it goes back to not so much what is the cost of energy, but how much are we using?”
Downey added, by way of ironic example, the comments from a local business executive, who observed that KCP&L’s prices were sufficiently low enough to take away the market logic of installing energy efficient technology.
“They don’t have any concept of the hundreds and hundreds of coal trains coming out of Wyoming,” said Schlotzhauer. “If people understood that, then I think they would be a lot more aware of what they’re doing and how turning their lights off would help.”
Schlotzhauer was reminded that there are a lot of educated people in America who do not see a problem with coal being mined in Wyoming and then being shipped to Kansas City and burned here to produce electricity at cheap rates that allow the public to live a remarkably progressive life for very little money.
Indeed, among the policy challenges that legislators like Holsman face is convincing such global warming skeptics that there is a crisis afoot.
David Warm argued that there were compelling reasons to reduce the rate at which coal is consumed, beyond global warming, “not the least of which is that it’s a finite resource.”
This is an international debate that KCP&L is compelled to negotiate at the local level. “Carbon is not a mandated pollutant,” Downey observed.
Downey added, “It’s a whole lot easier from a regulatory point of view to go after 72 investor-owned utilities in the United States than the millions of people driving cars.”
Steve McDowell argued, “The currency has changed.” Efficiency and cost are no longer the key determinants of power consumers, but rather creating a higher quality of life, enjoying better air, and creating a more productive workplace.
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