Rebecca Kling, rebecca.kling@sierraclub.org (also email for video recording of the People's Hearing)
Kansas City, MO -- Evergy customers in Missouri and Kansas came together tonight to provide public testimony on the utility’s long-range energy plans for each state. More than eighty people attended the People's Hearing, with almost thirty people sharing public testimony over the course of two hours. Evergy customers and organizations that operate in its service territory were clear in their call for a quick and just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy in order to mitigate the worst impacts of our changing climate. Other common themes included calling on Evergy to do more to address the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on the utility's most vulnerable customers, increasing access to home solar, and expanding energy efficiency programs to relieve energy burdens.
“Evergy needs to retire its Lawrence coal plant because it has long emitted pollutants into the air we breathe and produced toxic coal ash that threatens the water we drink,” said Brian Schath, board member of Clean Air Now. “A justice-centered transition means decommissioning the Lawrence coal plant in a way that is environmentally responsible while investing in low-income communities that have been most affected by pollution from the facility.”
The public comment period for Evergy’s Sustainability Transformation Plan in Kansas ends April 2nd. Evergy’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is due to Missouri regulators on May 1st and Kansas regulators due July 1st.
“Evergy is lucky to be geographically positioned near the best wind energy resources in North America, yet the utility is doubling down on burning coal when it could save customers money by expanding its investments in renewable energy,” said Billy Davies, organizer with the Missouri Sierra Club. “Retiring coal plants and moving to renewable energy is critical in Evergy’s forthcoming energy plans that it will submit to Missouri and Kansas regulators.”
An IRP is the process by which electric utilities decide how they are going to serve customers’ electric needs over the long-term, including decisions about which types of generation resources to build and which existing power plants to retire. Public comments for the IRP are only allowed after the plan is submitted to regulators, which is why testimony provided at the People’s Hearing will be shared with Evergy and regulators in each state before the IRP filing deadlines.
"I would love to see Evergy publicly share what it is planning before decisions are made because it has no consideration for communities impacted by its expensive and ugly projects," said Kansas State Representative Gail Finney. "Evergy says it puts its clients first, but if they're putting people first, then the public would have a more meaningful role in the planning and decision making process."
IRP processes are not designed to be accessible to the public or stakeholders, requiring organizations like Sierra Club to seek approval to intervene. If granted approval to intervene, the regulatory process often requires nondisclosure agreements because proprietary information is used to inform a utility’s long-range planning process. That’s why a coalition of groups that form Build Power Mo-Kan hosted a People’s Hearing in order to elevate customer concerns and demands in Evergy’s resource planning before it’s too late.
“Elliot Management, which owns $760 million of Evergy stock and more than a quarter of the outstanding stock Peabody Energy, is pushing the so-called Sustainability Transformation Plan, which may leave contracts in place for the coal to be sourced by Peabody Energy and puts shareholder interests above ratepayers through short-sighted cost cuts and misguided investments," said Hudson Muñoz, Senior Strategic Research Associate at the Communications Workers of America. “The Sustainability Transformation Plan needs to be significantly reworked to include provisions for the just transition of workers for the plan to be consistent with its name.”
Organizations that participated in the People’s Hearing include Mothers Out Front KC, Clean Air Now, Reale Justice Network, Poor People’s Campaign, Citizens Climate Lobby, Environment Missouri, Communication Workers of America, Sunrise Movement Kansas City, Empower Missouri, Rent Zero, and Sierra Club.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.