On Saturday representatives from the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy (GPACE Action) 527 PAC were knocking on doors in parts of Johnson County looking for voters supportive of global warming. GPACE Action representatives were asking interested voters to sign a card and “GPACE will make sure it is delivered to your state representative.”
In part, the card said
Please continue to do the right thing for Kansas. I want you to support a comprehensive energy polify for Kansas; support development of clean energy alternatives; oppose the expansion of coal-fired power plants to serve other states.
Oddly, the card did not identify the state representative of the area by name.
Unfortunately, the Kansas governor and the Kansas Democratic party is engaging in a political solution to an energy policy and has not done the type of homework that was done during the energy crisis in the 1970s. Where is any research study done by economists and engineers of the economic viability of the proposals of GPACE and Kansas Democrats?
GPACE and Kansas Democrats are vilifying exporting power from Kansas, but do not explain there are no options for storing energy generated by wind turbines. We have an interconnected national power grid, and there are ways power can be shared between states. Why does GPACE pretend this is a bad thing?
With few new coal power plants being built in the U.S., and with no new nuclear power plants built for about 30 years in the U.S., we will eventually not have the the generating capacity for peak power when the wind does not blow during times of extreme heat in summer and extreme cold in winter. Do we only want to provide Kansans energy for heating or cooling when the wind blows? What are the long range consequences of not having enough peak power generating capacity? Are we setting ourselves up for FORCED brown-outs, and perhaps black-outs, in the future? Has anyone asked those in their 80s how they could only listen to radios when the wind was blowing when they were young?
GPACE and Kansas Democrats don’t want reliable power generation in Kansas because the pollution remains in Kansas and much of the power may go outside the state. With that logic, what about Kansas beef production? The feedlots and the pollution stay in Kansas, so that means we cannot export Kansas beef anymore? Or what about the pesticides and fertilizers used in Kansas agriculture? We cannot export food products outside of Kansas because the pollution from the pesticides and fertilizers stays in Kansas? GPACE “export” logic is flawed.
The GPACE Action group is still a bit of enigma, with Scott Allegrucci, a former actor, as its leader. Would Allegrucci even have this job if his mom were not the former campaign director and chief of staff for Kathleen Sebelius, and his dad a former Kansas Supreme Court Justice and former member of the Kansas Democratic State Commitee from 1974-1980? The donor list for the GPACE Action 527 PAC will be very interesting.
Tags: 527 PAC, coal, GPACE Action, Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy, Scott Allegrucci
