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Back to Floor News BILLS CO-SIGNED I co-signed onto a couple of bills this week. One will give disabled veterans a sales tax exemption. Another bill will designate 30% of casino gambling revenues from the state to go into KPERS. Other bills tighten the ability of judges to go easy on repeat offenders. I also attended a press conference on the later bills. ENERGY Who would have thought Energy would be the top issue at the Capitol this year? Well, right now, it seems to be. A bill that would allow for carbon credits, CO2 emission standards, taxes leveled as fines for not meeting the standards, and net metering of solar energy has been debated all week. It is a bill with lots of moving parts including placing requirements on energy efficiency on new school buildings erected. The bill has attracted fire and support from many different levels. The business environment of the state is affected greatly by the current unpredictability of regulations in the state. If we don’t deal with this issue, we will not see many new industries coming into Kansas. Not only that, but our KDHE director has stepped out and made a ruling in Kansas that goes beyond any step taken by a bureaucrat in any other state. I think the remarks made by Leslie Kaufman, Executive Director for the Kansas Cooperative Council summed up similar statements made by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ms. Kaufman’s statements were, “Our association was very troubled by the decision by KDHE Secretary Bremby denying the air quality permit for the expansion of the Holcomb generating plant. We were concerned about the refusal to grant the permit when the station would meet all federal and state requirements and do so with no standard in law or rule to substantiate such reasoning. This, in turn has far-reaching negative implications for regulatory certainty in Kansas. In recognition of the importance of energy production and usage to the Kansas economy, the Kansas Cooperative Council supports a balanced energy policy that provides regulatory certainty and considers cost to the consumer, reliability of service, and environmental stewardship.” One of the discouraging facts is Mr. Bremby refuses to appear before the committee to give us information about the science he used to make his determination. His staff had recommended the permit be accepted. A significant number of his staff has left their positions with KDHE since the recommendation. The testimony of professors to our committee attributes a great deal of climate change to solar changes in relation to the Earth, but say there is no certainty in predicting the future or fully understanding the past. Many say while the Arctic polar caps are decreasing, the Antarctic polar caps are at historic levels. Rumors are rampant as to the science of this revelation. While many say $19 million have been spent since 1990 by big oil companies, to deny the truth, accusations are flying that a whooping $50 billion has fed the man-caused global warming hysteria to fund research into the phenomenon. When you fund something with those types of funds, the research could go on for a long time to come. Our committee also heard testimony from environmentalists who want to have wind turbines supply the future electrical needs of our state. It was determined this would require 2500 additional turbines in Kansas and we would need to get the wind to blow more than 35% of the time at adequate levels to produce the necessary energy.
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