Energy + Environment
Kansas State University researchers say carbon sequestration on farms can combat climate change
Farmers can help combat climate change and improve the health of their soil by switching to natural fertilizers and minimizing tilling, new research from Kansas State University shows. According to a paper published in June in the Soil Science Society of America Journal, analysis from a no-till cornfield in Kansas showed that manure or compost fertilizer […]
Fight over transmission towers for reliable energy rages across Missouri
WASHINGTON — From the beige-trimmed kitchen window of her home in Missouri’s Monroe County, Marilyn O’Bannon can look out across more than a half-mile field of crops. But in the future, that view may include electrical transmission towers and lines, which could be along the route of a proposed massive federal power transmission corridor that […]
Growth in artificial intelligence puts pressure on Missouri energy generation
As the use of artificial intelligence grows, so does the technology required to store its data — and the energy that infrastructure consumes. At a recent forum about “securing Missouri’s energy future,” lawmakers, regulators, lobbyists and advocates discussed the challenge of powering new data centers. A data center is a physical location that houses internet servers. […]
Emergency responders struggle with burnout, budgets as disasters mount
AUSTIN, Texas — Four days after residents of coastal Houston celebrated the Fourth of July with the traditional parades, backyard barbecues and fireworks, Beryl came calling. The Category 1 hurricane, weakened from an earlier Category 5, slammed into Texas’ largest city on July 8 — an unusual midsummer arrival. Delivering one of the worst direct […]
Climate change poses health risks. But it’s hard to fight when state policy ignores it
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is the hottest state in the contiguous United States, and its residents suffer the most heat-related illness. Older people are most susceptible to the heat, and nearly 4.7 million Floridians — 1 in 5 residents — are older than 65. The peninsula has 8,436 miles of coastline, and three-quarters of state […]
Evergy is hoping its regulators OK higher electric bills for its Missouri customers
Evergy confused and angered its Missouri customers in 2023 when it rolled out time-of-use rates that meant prices would run highest when people use the most electricity. Missourians, especially those on fixed incomes, complained of high costs and having to choose between things like groceries and their medications or powering their homes during peak hours. […]
How green technology is reshaping what buyers expect from Kansas City’s housing market
Twenty years ago, only the most environmentally minded of homebuyers worried much about solar panels, insulation ratings or the value of a heat pump. Today, all those factors matter in a market where energy bills take on growing importance in homebuyers’ calculations. Green home technologies have become more ordinary, even expected (and sometimes mandated by […]
Fertilizer from human waste faces scrutiny but remains a profitable industry
The cool morning spring breeze hit Saundra Traywick “like a punch to the face.” Walking through her wooded 38-acre donkey farm in central Oklahoma, Traywick suddenly found it hard to breathe as the air smelled “toxic” and “like death.” Less than a mile away, a truck was spreading a chunky dark fertilizer on a hay […]
Federal wildlife officials propose listing butterfly as threatened in Kansas, Missouri
Federal wildlife officials on Monday proposed listing a large butterfly once prevalent in the grasslands of Kansas and Missouri as threatened. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would seek protections for the regal fritillary, large non-migratory butterfly with orange and black markings. It exists in an eastern and western subspecies. The service is […]
U.S. Senate panel looks for ways to aid electric vehicle industry
WASHINGTON – Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee discussed on Wednesday ways to boost U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing to be more competitive globally. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the Democratic chairman of the committee, began a hearing Wednesday by calling electric vehicle production “an economic, national […]
Kansas City home builders push back on energy efficiency rules, blame them for housing crunch
The Kansas City Council gave homebuilders new rules last year designed to make housing easier on the environment. Those rules told them what kind of windows to install, how well the walls should be insulated and how efficient the heating and air conditioning systems should be. Developers now blame those rules for a construction slowdown […]
Missouri governor signs tax break for Kansas City nuclear weapons parts manufacturer
Developers planning to expand a Kansas City facility manufacturing nuclear weapons components will get a break on sales tax under legislation Gov. Mike Parson signed Monday. Parson held a signing ceremony at the site, currently a gravel lot across from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s south Kansas City campus. The expansion is expected to cost […]