Talking Points.
New Billion-dollar Gas-fired Power Plants are bad for our electric bills and the environment, but good for Evergy's profits.
Evergy's proposal is for TWO baseload, billion-dollar fracked-gas power plants in Reno & Sumner counties. This is exactly the 'big ticket' spending that Evergy likes to do to maximize their "ratebase" (things they own that you're paying for) and generate corporate profits. Meanwhile, Evergy customers get stuck with tab and see their bills continue to rise, not just from the power stations but from the gas fuel price spikes and hikes. Evergy is already asking to increase monthly bills by 10% & raise the average Kansas electric bill $13/month with a $200 Million rate case; think of how $2 BILLION in spending for these fracked-gas power plants will wreck your bill!
Remember that Winter Storm Uri deep freeze event in 2021? That single winter storm caused gas prices to spike 20,000% in a matter of days, resulting in Kansas communities & customers facing enormous energy bills. Gas wells froze, gas power plants failed, and even today, we STILL continue to pay for that 1 storm on our bills. So much for gas being cheap and reliable right? As extreme weather gets worse with climate change, we need to move away from more fossil fuel dependence, not double-down.
Evergy warned us only 5 years ago that “Natural gas was, and still is, more expensive and much more volatile in terms of fuel price than coal [and all other electricity sources]... It is still more volatile and it is still more expensive to generate electricity with this fuel source." The same Evergy official also told us that rates would be stable post-merger for 15 years, yet Evergy has requested 2 rate hikes since 2023 to raise our bills by 20%! All the while, Evergy has raked in over a billion dollars in profits. Can we really trust Evergy when they tell us these Gas-fired Power Plants are our best option?
We have a choice: Kansas could gamble on gas & go all-in on more expensive, out-of-state fossil fuel dependence, OR we can invest in smarter, Kansas-based clean energy options (like storage, solar, wind, energy conservation, transmission upgrades, and more) to meet our future energy needs, while also helping to lower bills, create jobs conserve water, reduce air pollution and climate impact, and more! Making our best use of electricity through efficiency, pairing more clean energy supply with energy storage, and improving our transmission lines capabilities to deliver more power effectively are much better options for reliability, affordability, and sustainability. Tell the KCC which choice you prefer!