The New Battlefield in the Energy Wars

The somewhat geeky looking guy in this picture is Jonathan Small a registered lobbyist for the giant oil and gas conglomerate known as Koch Companies Public Sector LLC.  In other words he is a shill for the Koch brothers.  And in this picture (provided by Andy Marso of the Capital Journal) he is attending a public hearing of the House Energy and Environment Committee for the state of Kansas. 

It clearly an understatement to say that the Koch brothers and their compadres in the oil and gas industry are busy in the political arena and one of the places they have been most active has been in the state legislatures.  Why, you might ask?  Because that is where they can have the greatest influence in countering the rapidly growing strength of the Renewable Energy industry.  Despite their Red State leanings, renewable energy is just going plain gangbusters in the plain states like Kansas, and this scares the bajeeezus out of guys like the Koch brothers.

Kansas now ranks 3rd in the overall United States when it comes to wind energy, just behind California and Texas.  Kansas has lots of wind, and thanks to to an aggressive Renewable Energy target it set in 2009, it is making huge strides in reducing the state's dependency on coal and foreign oil.  The Wind industry in Kansas is now generating over $3 billion dollars in investments, has generated 13,000 jobs,  and is making lots of friends among farmers who have discovered that wind is an easy way to hugely increase their revenue without having any negative impact on their existing farming and ranching activities.  Wind energy is a total win-win for the people of Kansas but not for the oil companies so that is why the Koch brothers intend to put a stop to it. 

One of the ways the Koch brothers are going after renewable energy is to knock down the Renewable Energy Standards (RES) that have allowed Kansas to build such success. They sponsored two bills, one in the state House (HB 2241) and one in the state Senate (HB 82) before the Kansas legislature which were designed to water down the renewable energy standards.  The current Renewable Energy Standard says that the state utilities must get 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2016 and 20% by 2020.  The state has been making great progress towards those laudable goals but the new bill being sponsored by the Koch brothers would extend the 15% benchmark by two years and eliminate the 20% benchmark all together.  Heaven forbid that a state should get 20% of its energy from non-polluting, non global warming resources!

Now For the Good News!

So before I go much further let me bring you the good news. Both bills in the Kansas state legislature were defeated, though by fairly narrow margins!  So the good guys one this round.  However, now is not a time to be overconfident!  A few more votes the other way and the progress Kansas has made would have been defeated.

The battle for our environment won't always be fought in big battles or standoffs in Congress with CNN and the other media hanging on every word.  Most of the real work for the environment gets done quietly at the state and local level and what is happening in Kansas is a perfect example of this.

One of the things I find fascinating about all of this is that the oil company manipulations are happening right out in the open.  Rep. Dennis Hedke, the Chairman of the Kansas House Energy and Environment Committee readily admits that he met with the Koch brothers lobbyist, Jonathan Small to "talk about the merits of the bill." To those who know Rep. Hedke such meetings should hardly be a surprise. When not doing his legislative gig Hedke is a contract geophysicist with a client list that includes 30 regional oil and gas  companies.  He has long been at the beck and call of the oil lobby and recently proposed a law requiring Kansas science teachers to teach students “evidence which both supports and counters” the science of climate change.  Given this level of scientific reasoning one can't help but wonder if a bill to have students debate the arguments for and against gravity is next!

The ugly reality is that state legislators are a whole lot easier and cheaper to buy than federal legislators so it is hardly surprising that the battle for the environment is being fought hard on the state front.  If we are going to solve global warming and protect our survival as a species, it is up to citizens to be diligent, not only in following federal environmental politics, but state politics as well!