By Ty Gorman, Senior Campaign Representative, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign for Kansas and Oklahoma
After pledging to stop burning coal at its Lawrence power plant by the end of 2023, Evergy’s CEO recently decided to keep the plant open indefinitely without any public process or new retirement date. Evergy’s business decisions have squandered tens of millions of dollars on coal, causing an estimated 18 premature deaths annually and disproportionately harming Black and LatinX communities. Evergy will seek a rate increase in 2023, which would result in higher energy bills for ordinary Kansans. In short, Evergy is doubling down on costly, dirty coal and asking Kansans to foot the bill.
The economic choice could not be clearer for ratepayers. While the cost of renewables has trended downward over time, fossil fuel prices have skyrocketed. Last year alone, solar and wind energy were a whopping 40% cheaper on average than fossil fuels. And with hundreds of millions of federal dollars available for clean energy projects in Kansas thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, transitioning to renewables is an economic no-brainer.
Economics is only part of the equation. We know fossil fuels harm public health, the environment, and the climate. Rates of childhood asthma, heart and lung disease, and premature death are higher in communities living near coal plants like Lawrence. These plants not only poison our air, they leach heavy metals into our water supply that devastate local wildlife and undermine the purity of our drinking water sources. Ultimately, fossil fuels destabilize the climate, generating increasingly severe weather and seriously imperiling our future.
Evergy will soon ask the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to approve its five-year capital plan and a rate increase. The KCC, which regulates monopoly electric utilities like Evergy, takes public perspectives on energy issues seriously. That's why it's important for elected leaders in Lawrence and Douglas County to pass resolutions calling on Evergy to keep its word and meet local sustainability goals by closing the Lawrence power plant and investing in clean energy.
Tell your local elected officials to demand that Evergy move from coal and gas to affordable clean energy. Subsidizing costly coal plants like Lawrence forces Kansans to endure higher rates of childhood asthma, premature deaths of beloved family and friends, higher energy bills paid with working-class paychecks, and an uncertain future menaced by the threat of a changing climate. By taking action together, we can pressure Evergy to put the interests of Kansans ahead of corporate profits. Let’s shut down Lawrence and move Kansas toward a clean energy future.