Kansas City, MO -- Kansas City Power and Light today entered into a binding contract with the Sierra Club that the utility will entirely offset carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-fired power plant that it currently has under construction, will make unprecedented investments in renewables and efficiency (four times as much wind as previously planned), and will jointly work with the Sierra Club to change utility regulations in Kansas and Missouri to ensure that by 2020 KCP&L reduces its emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent.
The agreement represents a new standard for utilities that may already have made major financial commitments to new coal plants, and it sends a strong signal that while this is not the end of the coal rush, nor even the beginning of the end, it might, in Churchill's phrase, be the end of the beginning. The comprehensive nature of the settlement -- a drastic limit on new coal construction, full offset of carbon dioxide from the residual clean-up of KCP&L's existing power plants in Kansas City (including 90 percent of the mercury), dramatic investments in renewables and efficiency, and a partnership with the Sierra Club to lay the framework for an even cleaner and more economic energy future in the two states -- make this a watershed.
"Once we started talking . . . we realized that we really did have common goals," said Michael J. Chesser, chief executive of the holding company which owns Kansas City Power & Light.
This agreement is a win for our climate, for the environment, and for the residents of the Kansas City area. It is just the latest sign that smart energy solutions such as wind power and energy efficiency are gathering momentum and popularity -- and make economic sense. A recent Department of Energy report indicates that while, as the result of efficiency, total electricity consumed declined for the first time (except for 2001) last year, electricity generated from wind actually increased by 44 percent compared to 2005.
Meanwhile a group of investors controlling over $4 trillion in assets sent a strong signal to the federal government today, urging national action to ensure "a low carbon future." Led by Mindy Lubber of CERES (originally Council for Environmentally Responsible Economies), and Tim Wirth, the head of the U.N. Foundation, with help from Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier, the coalition put the case in blunt economic terms: "By aligning the rules, regulations, and incentives, we can help make the clean energy transition a win-win for the environment, the global economy, the American economy, businesses, and investors."
Time to deal with global warming is, indeed, short. But America is moving. It may be a much earlier thaw than we expected -- and a good thing, too.