The legislatures in Missouri and Kansas for years have refused to do what 26 other states have done and impose renewable energy requirements on power companies.
So an environmental group launched a petition drive last spring in Missouri that would require utilities to use certain amounts of solar, wind and other renewables. Kansas law doesn’t allow for citizen-initiative ballot issues.
“Right now,” says Jim Kottmeyer of the Missourians for Cleaner Cheaper Energy, “we’ve yet to see any visible opposition." He predicted it would pass in November.
The umbrella group for the three large investor-owned utility companies in Missouri is officially neutral. One of them, Kansas City Power& Light, favors it. The three account for three-fourths of the electricity sold in the state. Municipal-owned utilities and cooperatives would not be affected by the proposition.
Kansas City Power & Light quelled opposition to a new coal-fired power plant recently by making deal with the Sierra Club to increase energy efficiency and add 400 megawatts of wind-generated electricity by 2012.
Read the full story at kansascity.com.
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