Lois Thompson says her new house's porch is "out of this world." She moved into the "net zero" home in late August. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

WHITESBURG — In her old house — built more than 100 years ago by a coal company — Lois Thompson says she couldn’t afford to run the heat pump on her fixed income.?

When winter cold seeped through the walls, Thompson, 76, sectioned off a room by hanging up her son’s $10 childhood quilt; she would sit by a propane heater until the heat drove her into the cold kitchen.

“They’ll freeze you to death in the winter,” she said of her house and others like it that were built to be heated by a coal stove. “For the people like me that don’t have the money, you’re living in a drafty house. … You can’t insulate it. You don’t have the money for that.”

The propane heater, the house and the cold are now memories.?

Thanks to a local housing nonprofit, Thompson moved into a new house in August on the site where her old home, damaged by flooding in 2022, had stood. Also gone are her fears of high electricity bills. She paid just $21.61 in October, slightly above the minimum charge for utility customers in her community.

“It still don’t seem real, and I’m living in it,” she said. “I say, ‘Lord, I thank you.’ That’s all I can do.”?

The reason behind her rock-bottom power bill: a years-long effort by Whitesburg-based HOMES Inc. to build “net zero” homes. That is, houses with zero monthly electrical costs because of their energy-efficient construction and rooftop solar panels that generate power.?

For years, the? nonprofit — its full name is Housing Oriented Ministries Established for Service Inc. — had been grappling with the challenge of responding to some of Kentucky’s highest electricity costs in a region where incomes are low.

The devastating floods that overwhelmed Eastern Kentucky in 2022 wiped out thousands of homes and also brought new resources for housing, allowing HOMES Inc. to look toward the power of the sun. The nonprofit has built five “net zero” homes including Thompson’s and is now working on a new housing development for flood survivors that will have eight “net zero” homes.

In a region built on coal, the pressure of soaring utility bills and the need for housing are driving a new vision of what the energy future could be.

“In our climate today, everything gets political. This doesn’t have to be about left or right. This doesn’t have to be about coal or solar. It can be about common sense, too,” said Seth Long, the executive director of HOMES Inc. “As coal built this country with energy in the past, we need to pivot. And I think solar can play a part in that pivoting to something else.”?

Solar skeptic to solar advocate

Long wasn’t always a believer. He recognized that solar panels on rooftops saved electricity but didn’t think they made sense economically without subsidies because of their upfront costs.

The numbers on a spreadsheet presented by Josh Bills, an energy specialist from the economic development organization Mountain Association, convinced him otherwise. HOMES Inc. could install rooftop solar on its office in Whitesburg and be financially ahead, even if it borrowed the entire cost of the solar system. The price of rooftop solar panels has halved over the past decade.

Long had been looking for a way from under his nonprofit’s high electricity bills. Despite adding energy efficiency measures to the office such as air sealing and? efficient light bulbs, the bills from Kentucky Power were still too high — up to $1,600 a month, something that wasn’t sustainable.?

“The spreadsheet said that that would work, and I kept doubting and kept wondering.”? Long finally said, “Why don’t we borrow $70,000 and put the system on and see if this will work?”

So, they borrowed the money and installed the solar system. It’s paid off every month since, performing better than the projections.?

“We came out ahead financially, way ahead. Some of our electric bills since then have been as low as $53 a month,” Long said. “It was eye opening to me.”

Long’s horizons of what’s possible began to expand. He added solar to his maple syrup farm to save money there. He knew small businesses in Eastern Kentucky also struggled with older, energy inefficient buildings and high electricity bills, and most of the funding opportunities, such as the Rural Energy for America Program, were aimed at commercial spaces.

Fewer resources were available for working solar onto affordable housing. As tragic and terrible as the 2022 floods were, he said, there are now “resources and support in ways that we haven’t seen” for that sort of work.?

Ratepayers in the 20 Eastern Kentucky counties served by investor-owned Kentucky Power have struggled for years with high electricity costs. The utility’s residential customers paid the highest average monthly bill in the state at $187.56 according to a 2023 state report, and that was before a controversial 5% rate increase was approved last year.?

Power bills can soar above that average during the winter. Kentucky Power data show its? poorest Kentucky ratepayers have the highest bills. That’s in part, Kentucky Power executives say, because of high electric heating costs during the winter. Poor insulation and energy inefficient electric heating cause bills to reach north of $400 a month when it’s cold.?

Thompson said she sees Facebook posts during the winter by people “just about in tears” because “the electric bills are so high,” forcing them to decide whether to buy food or pay Kentucky Power.?

That’s where the potential of “net zero” homes comes in.

“A lot of people in our area are living in houses that were designed for coal heat, and, you know, not so much heat pumps. But everybody switched from coal to electric heat, and it’s just — it’s so expensive for them,” Long said. “The flood has given us opportunities to tear down older homes and replace them with new energy efficient homes and even ‘net zero’ houses.”?

HOMES Inc. has? built five “net zero” homes so far, constructing an energy-efficient “envelope” around the structure and then letting? the power of rooftop solar take the home all the way to “net zero.”?

Their efforts have been recognized by a national nonprofit that scores energy efficiency. The HERS index compares a home’s energy efficiency to a home built by average standards, which would score 100 on the index. A home with a HERS score of 70, for example, would be 30% more energy efficient than the average home. A score of 50 would be 50% more energy efficient.?

Long said Lois Thompson’s “net zero” home scored a negative 17 on the index, meaning it generates more electricity than it uses. And the nonprofit doesn’t plan to stop there.

A new future out of the floodplain

Up a gravel road on a hill just outside of Whitesburg, hopes for the future and current frustrations meet.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had originally planned to put small cottages there in? a development known as Thompson Branch. When those plans didn’t work out, state officials asked HOMES Inc. for its ideas. The answer as seen on a cool afternoon earlier this month: eight soon-to-be “net zero” homes.

Over the rumble of a truck dumping cement for a new sidewalk, Joe Oliver, an assistant construction manager, explained how they’ve made it work: using smaller, affordable solar systems, only what’s needed to get to a “net zero” rating; building and designing homes ready for rooftop solar; and having an in-house solar installer to reduce costs. An average solar system runs the nonprofit around $15,000.

“The more that we can make things affordable, I think the better off everyone is everywhere,” Oliver said. “If you could generate enough money, say, to pay for the [solar] system, why wouldn’t you?”

Their in-house solar installer, Clayton “Fuzz” Johnson, a bearded 29-year-old, went to school to become a master electrician and learn how to install solar panels. Johnson said electricians are few and far between in Eastern Kentucky, let alone those who know how to install solar.

Johnson says solar is becoming more appealing in light of the rising costs Eastern Kentuckians are facing for groceries, taxes and electricity.?

With the decline of coal mining and other heavy industry and the coinciding loss of population in Kentucky Power’s territory, more and more of the burden of paying for electricity has fallen on fewer and fewer people, leaving Johnson, Oliver and others voicing frustration with the situation.?

““They’re going to get their return on investment,” Johnson said of Kentucky Power.

Johnson believes that with people already leaving instead of rebuilding after the floods, high power bills will only increase the outmigration.

Johnson, standing inside the frame of a “net zero” home, wondered if batteries could be hooked up to store electricity from solar from the rooftop panels. HOMES Inc. has yet to try adding home battery systems with the rooftop solar because the nonprofit considers the added cost to still be too much. The cost of batteries has plummeted in recent years due to a boost in electric vehicle production.??

Some renewable energy advocates envision a virtual power plant; excess power from solar panels on homes and businesses and from electric vehicles would be pulled onto the grid to power communities as an alternative to centralized power plants.

The need and potential for home energy efficiency upgrades in the region are immense, according to HOMES Inc. and other nonprofits.

Long and others, including the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, are pushing Kentucky Power to do more than it’s? currently proposing to support energy efficiency, noting the challenges of upgrading mobile homes and older homes that disproportionately make up the region’s housing stock. The utility should support energy efficiency programs for new home construction as well, the nonprofits have proposed.?

Also, the utility “has a clear duty to its customers to help them limit their energy usage,” Long has written, “not only for cost savings at the household level but also in order to reduce the overall energy production needs of the region.”

Kentucky Power has argued the costs of what they’re proposing would be too high.

Johnson wants to show what’s possible with the “net zero” homes and that people don’t have to spend most of their paycheck on electricity. Letcher County is still a coal community, he said, and his father works at a coal mine, but high utility bills are melting skepticism toward solar.?

“Everybody is on the same team just trying to get lower utility costs. Like, whatever it takes. We’re all in it together,” Johnson said. “Coal has its purpose, and so does solar. But I think it’s just to a point of trying to live and be sustainable.”?

This story was updated to note Thompson’s home was damaged by flooding in 2022.

Alice Ford, an outdoor content creator and show host, has spent a decade centering conservationist education on her YouTube channel. She said the glut of nature photos and short videos on social media is resulting in “just people wanting to see a place more than they have respect for the place.” (Photo courtesy of Alice Ford)

Don’t pet the fluffy cows.

That’s the Instagram bio tagline for the National Park Service’s popular account, which showcases stunning photos of the diverse terrains of the United States’ 431 national parks.

The cheeky statement, followed by a buffalo emoji, is meant to make its 6 million followers laugh, NPS’ social media specialist Matthew Turner says, but it’s also a very real warning.

“We want you to be really prepared to stay this distance, and be aware of your surroundings at all times,” Turner said. “And to know that if you don’t, there are consequences where you can get hurt.”

Technology and the rise of social media has driven new people to visit public parks and lands, as the platforms make it easier to showcase the great outdoors. But outdoor enthusiasts and environmental conservationists say social media has also contributed to “selfie tourism” or the influx of visitation to specific landmarks that go viral on social media.

It also can describe the behavior of those that crowd a landmark or ignore safety protocol to get the perfect shot.

Every year, there are incidents of people having such dangerous interactions with wildlife, or getting lost in the parks, or even losing their lives. It’s hard to quantify how exactly social media influences the decision making or behavior of park visitors, but several nearly-fatal and fatal incidents have been connected to attempting to capture content.

In 2018, a 29- and 30-year-old couple fell to their deaths in Yosemite National Park in California while attempting to take a photo at Taft Point. Several people have been attacked by bison in Yellowstone National Park over the last three years — at least one was a tourist trying to touch a bison while recording with her phone.

“A selfie in and of itself can inspire others. Maybe you see a friend post from a great trip, and it inspires you to go,” Phillip Kilbridge, CEO of NatureBridge said. “But you better do it thoughtfully. You better realize that when there’s a fence, it’s because there’s loose rock on the other side, or there’s a steep fall, or so many other unintended consequences.”

‘Loving our parks to death’

Kilbridge runs NatureBridge, an organization that teaches young people how to explore the outdoors without technology. The organization was initially founded with the intention of exploring parks in their off-peak seasons, and teaching kids to learn more about themselves and the environment with low barriers to entry on cost and prior education.

The parks have seen a surge in visitors in the last few years, crossing more than 300 million visitors nearly each year since their centennial celebration in 2016.

NatureBridge has brought more than 1 million kids through the program over its tenure and operates in Golden Gate National Recreation Area?in California, Olympic National Park in Washington, Prince William Forest National Park in Virginia and Yosemite. It makes a conscious effort to explore areas and trails that are outside the most popular ones, but high visitorship is putting strain on the hotels and areas surrounding the parks, and as a result, it’s more expensive to operate the program.

The social media effect on certain areas of the parks might be evident in some data from Yosemite National Park. Many drive in, take pictures at the iconic Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations, and then they head out, Kilbridge said. The focus is on “documenting the visit and putting it on their checklist or bucket list, to prove that they’ve done it.”

“You’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘we’re loving our parks to death,’” Kilbridge said. “But the truth is, we’re loving certain parts of certain parks to death.”

Cynthia Hernandez, the National Parks System’s public affairs specialist, said the agency uses social media to show examples of good environmental stewardship. Staff love and encourage new visitors to the parks, but they want them to be educated on preserving the trails, picking up trash, and learning the history and culture of where they’re visiting.

“We ask visitors to be adaptable and to listen to the park rangers,” Hernandez said. “You know, if the parking lot is full, don’t drive wherever. We like to say, ‘what is your plan B?’”

New Hampshire’s public and private lands are feeling the impact from some not-so respectful visitors this year, as its peak fall foliage season — a few-week stretch in late September and October — is bringing an estimated 3.7 million visitors this fall, the Washington Post reported. New Hamshirians, and their neighbors in Vermont, are dealing with clogged roads, crowded hiking trails, trespassing on private property and trash left behind by their visitors, many of whom are doing so in the pursuit of the perfect fall photo.

Some towns have closed roads to non-local traffic, while others have had to pay for extra patrols during on routes leading to lookouts or popular spots. One group of neighbors in Pomfret, Vermont, has raised $22,500 in a GoFundMe to “save” their road from the surge of influencers, with the funds planned to go toward temporary closures and increased signage, the Post reported.

Wesley Littlefield is a Salt Lake City-based marketing manager and outdoor content creator, and the effects Kilbridge described and New Englanders are experiencing are some of the many reasons he’s become mindful of not overexposing certain locations. Littlefield has been posting on social media and making YouTube videos about fishing, kayaking and other outdoor adventures for a few years, and focuses on educating people on ‘leave no trace’ principles.

He loves exploring the Southwest, but some of his favorite trails and natural wonders have become overpopulated after gaining attention on social media. Horseshoe Bend in Arizona is a prime example, he said, as is Antelope Canyon, which sits on Navajo land.

“What was once a peaceful overlook is now packed with people looking to snap that perfect shot, often at the expense of the environment around them,” he said of Horseshoe Bend. “You’ll notice things like litter, soil erosion and even permanent damage to local ecosystems. In extreme cases, wildlife habitats can be disrupted or destroyed, which takes away from the natural beauty and balance of these areas.”

Responsible exploration?

Littlefield said he loves that technology has allowed people to discover new places and share experiences. But carelessness in certain areas has made him more conservative with geotagging certain areas or “fragile” locations. It’s his way of protecting them while still sharing his love for the outdoors, he said.

“We want these places to remain as beautiful and untouched as possible for future visitors,” Littlefield said.

Alice Ford is another content creator who is sharing her outdoor adventures online as a way to educate others about conservation. She hosts a show on PBS called “Alice’s Adventures on Earth,” has a master’s degree in environmental management and has been making Youtube videos showcasing outdoor traveling, hiking and sustainable living for about a decade.

Her bread and butter is in longer-form content where she gets to place the focus on education.

“I think there’s an issue with these three-to-10 second videos showcasing a place,” Ford said. “Where you’re just seeing the most beautiful part, and you’re not learning anything about it, and you’re then not doing any research. And you’re just showing up because you want to get the exact same shot.”

When Ford travels, she’s looking for those less-busy places, not just to discover somewhere new to her, but also to not contribute to the demand of places that don’t have infrastructure to support an onslaught of visitors. Pulling off the side of a road inundated with visitors may not just cause traffic chaos, but also could damage wildlife and road infrastructure, she said.

“I think also another thing that I’ve seen globally is just people wanting to see a place more than they have respect for the place,” Ford said.

There are very real physical dangers to jumping head-first into a hike or a trip without proper preparation, Ford said. She’s seen a rise in visitors to national parks and other places around the world attempting grueling hikes or exploring dangerous areas in extreme heat without the right footwear, food or water.

Two people died during this summer’s brutal heat waves in Death Valley National Park in California, including a 57-year-old man who attempted a short hike on a day when temperatures reached nearly 120 degrees, which can quickly cause serious dehydration and heat stroke.

In Michigan, The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — a state park featuring miles of sand and bluffs — has a dune climb that’s been well-documented on social media. The hike includes 3.5 miles of sandy, steep terrain and can take three or four hours.

The Lakeshore gets an average of 1.5 to 1.7 million visitors a year, and reached its peak visitorship in 2020 and 2021, Emily Sunblade the park’s lead education ranger said. The climb has long been a rite of passage, but the park rangers said visitors have been recognizing the location because of social media posts of the famous sign outlining the $3,000 fee incurred for being rescued if you get stuck.

The park instituted a preventative search and rescue program where volunteers stand at the top of the dune and check in with visitors before they attempt the hike in order to quell the strain on local rescue resources, which are performed by township emergency services. The volunteers ask visitors if they have enough water, and if they’re prepared for it to take two or more hours. It dramatically lowered the number of rescues needed, Sunblade said.

“The social media posts we are seeing are having a positive impact as people share their experience of what the hike was like, and what they wish they knew before starting,” Sunblade said.

As much as social media has the ability to overexpose and overwhelm one area with visitors, it remains an essential tool for the Parks Service and for content creators who aim to educate others on responsible visitorship.

It’s an important component of the “digital toolbox” for the Parks Service, Turner told States Newsroom. Their online profiles allow them to engage in real time with visitors and connect with people around the world. They use it as a forum to ask and answer questions, respond to outreach and share resources. And they do lean on memes and humor to get people’s attention and have people “learn without maybe realizing they’re learning,” Turner said.

There are ways to add a photo-worthy spot to your travels, if you do so responsibly, Ford said. She suggests trying to research what’s nearby those locations, and if the local community has been negatively impacted by visitors. If there’s not enough restaurants, stores and accommodations, tourism may hurt the community or put a strain on its resources.

Her hope is that folks are making informed decisions about their travel plans and considering the impact that social media may have on driving them to visit.

“I wish people would have more respect, not only for each other, but for the places that we visit,” Ford said. “And to just think a little bit more before we act in general, like whether that’s the time you’re taking to take a selfie at a popular destination, or the place in which we’re walking.”

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which distributes electricity to 16 cooperatives, plans to add solar installations generating 757 megawatts of power and expand transmission infrastructure. (Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — A federal investment of up to $1.4 billion to expand renewable energy will help transform how a Kentucky utility serves future generations, its CEO said Monday.?

Officials from East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture joined Gov. Andy Beshear at the state Capitol Monday morning to tout funding that will build solar installations producing 757 megawatts of electricity and improve transmission infrastructure.

EKPC President and CEO Tony Campbell said the funding, which could consist of grants or subsidized loans, was a “defining moment” for the nonprofit utility that generates electricity for 16 power distribution cooperatives across the state. The USDA announced the funding last month.

“We will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operate with less carbon intensity, while maintaining reliability service and competitive rates,” Campbell said. “East Kentucky Power Cooperative is doing our part to help address global greenhouse gas emissions and slow the impact of climate change. We are boldly planning for Kentucky’s energy future.”

The funding comes from the Empowering Rural America program (New ERA), monies made available through the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act opposed by all of the Republicans in Kentucky’s congressional delegation.

Administrator of the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service Andy Burke also said EKPC will receive additional funding in the form of tax credits on top of the $1.4 billion from the New ERA program.?

The USDA received 157 proposals for clean energy projects, and so far the federal department has awarded funding for nearly two dozen of those proposals including to EKPC.?

Beshear called the announcement one of the biggest investments in the state’s electric infrastructure since the New Deal, saying the funding would help with economic development for companies that want renewable energy.?

“Just about every company asks what energy portfolio we can bring to them. It’s either commitments to sustainability they’ve made,or they’ve been demanded by their downstream customers,” Beshear said. “The answer has always been, ‘We’ll get there, and we’re working on it.’ We’ve got a very big answer today with about $1.4 billion.”

Campbell told reporters EKPC intends to build solar installations itself instead of purchasing solar power from private solar developers, known as power purchase agreements. He said the solar installations have to be “on the ground” by Sept. 30, 2031 to comply with a federal deadline.

Roughly 40 transmission projects are also being planned, he said, for “both reliability and to allow more renewables to flow” to homes and businesses. Earlier this year, EKPC proposed to build two solar installations in Fayette and Marion counties generating a combined 136 megawatts of electricity.

Like other electric utilities in Kentucky, EKPC generates the majority of its power from burning coal, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses contributing to climate change among electricity sources. Environmental advocates have previously lauded New ERA funding but argue more needs to be done to move utilities from fossil fuels to clean energy sources.?

EKPC is supporting a lawsuit to federal regulations that would require utilities to curb nearly all greenhouse gas emissions by 2032 from new natural gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired power plants. Campbell said the New ERA funding would help the utility “go down the path to start decarbonizing our generation portfolio” while not harming the reliability of the power supply.?

The leader of the United Nations last year called for developed nations to have carbon-free electricity generation by 2035 and a phase out of coal-fired power by 2030 in order to avoid the worst harms from climate change. A United Nations report last week found the world was on track for catastrophic warming by the end of the century because of the unabated burning of fossil fuels.?

When asked about the call for action from the United Nations’ leader, Campbell said renewable energy paired with battery storage systems hadn’t “evolved enough” to “totally run the country on that.”?

“We have to have reliable power plus decarbonize,” Campbell said.

Other utilities across the country are investing significantly in solar installations and battery storage systems, and the International Energy Agency considers solar and wind power to be the cheapest form of electricity in most of the world.?

Burke, the USDA official, said the decreasing cost of renewables and battery storage systems is “going to build that clean energy future we need.”?

“But we need to do it in a reliable way that makes sense to the person who still has to pay that utility bill at the end of every month,” Burke said.

A prescribed burn will be conducted next week at Taylorsville Lake Wildlife Management Area. (Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources)

Portions of Taylorsville Lake Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Spencer County will be closed to the public for two days between Oct. 28 and 31 to facilitate a prescribed fire project as part of ongoing hardwood forest improvements on the property, according to a release from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

The department says prescribed burns will be conducted when weather conditions are optimal from both environmental and safety standpoints.

Burns are planned on a 1,600-acre section of the Briar Ridge unit of the WMA south of KY 3228 on the first of the two-day closure, followed by a second day for evaluation to ensure all fires are out. The WMA will not be accessible via KY 3228 if traveling west from KY 248 during this time. The shooting range will be closed on the day of the burn project as smoky conditions are possible, but will reopen the following day. Other public access to Taylorsville Lake and the remainder of the 9,417-acre WMA should not be affected.

Project managers will take into consideration wind, air temperature, relative humidity, soil moisture and other factors before determining when to conduct the burns. If favorable conditions do not occur, this project may be pushed to a later date.

Signs will be posted and gates closed at all access points to the project location and adjacent landowners are being notified of the planned burns. The prescribed fire areas will be monitored until all fire, embers and smoke are extinguished before reopening to the public.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will announce the work date through an update on its website (fw.ky.gov) and X (@kyfishwildlife).

E.W. Brown solar array at Kentucky Utilities Mercer County plant. (Photo courtesy of LG&E/KU)

Power-intensive data centers will drive growth in electricity demand in the near future, says the utility serving the most Kentuckians. It plans to meet that demand by continuing to replace coal-fired power with natural gas while potentially adding up to 1,000 megawatts of solar power by 2035.

Investor-owned Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) outlined those steps and others in an integrated resource plan filed Oct. 18 before the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s utility regulator. Kentucky utilities are required every three years to file plans for how they will meet demand at the “lowest possible cost,” although they are not bound to follow them.

The new plan anticipates adding no new coal-fired generation while building as many as four new natural gas-fired plants plus battery storage systems for solar energy — in addition to a natural gas plant already slated for construction.?

‘Panicked rush to gas’ could hike energy costs, report warns regulators

The PSC will consider the new plan as environmentalists in Kentucky push for a faster pivot to renewables and amid urgent calls from climate scientists to halt the burning of fossil fuels to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.?

There’s also uncertainty over whether new Biden administration regulations that seek to curb nearly all heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from power plants will withstand court challenges from utilities, coal advocates and Republican attorneys general including Kentucky’s Russell Coleman.?

Data center growth reflects nationwide boom

The utility’s plan says Kentucky is “well-positioned” to participate in the nationwide boom in data centers thanks to a lower risk of severe weather, available telecommunications infrastructure and water to cool equipment, as well as “favorable tax incentives.”?

Data centers are essentially computer hubs that power the internet, ranging from storing data on the “cloud” to processing credit card transactions and the surge of artificial intelligence services. They need a tremendous amount of electricity, sometimes on par with what an entire coal-fired power plant produces. The Lantern previously reported the parent company of LG&E and KU was in talks with data centers interested in locating to Kentucky, and Kentucky lawmakers passed tax breaks this year to incentivize data centers to locate in Jefferson County.?

Driving surge in demand for power, data centers eye Kentucky

“The Companies’ Economic Development team is working with a growing number of data center projects that vary in stages of development, but which mostly have very large power requirements,” the utility states in its planning documents.?

The utility currently needs about? 30,000 megawatts of electricity a year. Models forecast that could increase by 30% to 60% by the early 2030s.?

Data centers could increase the utility’s load by 1,050-1,750 megawatts, according to the utility’s modeling. For reference, its forecast peak load in the summer of 2024 was 6,115 megawatts.?

Seeking more natural gas and no new coal?

Burning coal generated 68% of Kentucky’s electricity in 2023, down from more than 90% a decade earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Only two other states, West Virginia and Wyoming, were as reliant as Kentucky on coal for power generation, making Kentucky an outlier in a nation that has generally transitioned to lower-cost natural gas and renewable energy.?

LG&E and KU coal-fired power plants make up over 60% of the utility’s capacity during the summer. The utility anticipates moving away from coal-fired power in favor of new natural gas-fired combined cycle plants.?

Depending on future demand, the utility foresees building two or three new natural gas-fired combined cycle plants to be paired with several utility-scale battery storage systems between 2028 to 2035. The natural gas plants would generate about 1,935 megawatts of summertime load — energy needed to meet demand at a given time — by the early 2030s. ?That includes power from another natural gas-fired combined cycle plant the utility already is slated to construct by 2027 after receiving permission from the PSC.?

That new natural gas-fired plant was opposed last year by environmentalists as a costly investment that would lock in ratepayers to decades of fossil fuel instead of pivoting to renewables that don’t create greenhouse gas emissions. Similar opposition has met other utilities’ plans to build natural gas-fired plants including the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The Kentucky utility’s plans for investing in natural gas-fired plants conflict with a call last year by the leader of the United Nations for carbon-free electricity generation in developed nations by 2035 and a phase out of coal-fired power by 2030 in order to prevent the worst harms from climate change. The call was based on research from climate scientists including U.S. institutions such as NASA. LG&E and KU has previously pointed to goals set by its parent company to have net-zero emissions by 2050.?

Burning natural gas, which consists primarily of the potent greenhouse gas methane, for electricity is considered to release less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared to the burning of coal, but environmental advocates have raised concerns that methane leaks during production and transportation of natural gas are wiping out progress made by the United States on curbing greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out coal-fired power.?

LG&E and KU already has approval to retire one of four coal-fired units at its Mill Creek Generating Station in Jefferson County by the end of this year and another coal-fired unit at Mill Creek in 2027. The utility estimates that retiring the first Mill Creek unit will shave some pennies from ratepayers’ bills starting in March.

LG&E and KU projections call for retiring the other two units at Mill Creek and a single remaining coal-fired unit at E.W. Brown Generating Station in 2035.?

Utilities that opposed Kentucky’s new energy planning commission are now part of it

That would leave Ghent and Trimble County generating stations as its only operating coal-fired plants by 2035. According to the utility, both of those plants would need upgrades to meet existing or anticipated federal regulations on ozone-producing nitrogen oxide emissions and water pollution. LG&E and KU stated it isn’t considering building any new coal-fired power plants because of “the high cost and environmental risk.”

More solar expected, but not until 2028

LG&E and KU’s plans also include more investments in utility-scale solar, potentially adding 500-1,000 megawatts, though the soonest it expects it could add more solar is 2028. The utility is currently planning to build two 120-megawatt solar installations in Mercer and Marion counties; it already has a solar installation in Mercer County at its E.W. Brown Generating Station.

The utility said its agreements to purchase solar power from private companies don’t appear to be moving forward due to issues with getting solar connected to the power grid and cost increases, though adding hundreds of megawatts of new battery storage “could help pave the way for additional new renewable resources in the future.”?

Other utilities across the country are investing heavily in solar installations and battery storage systems, with the Energy Information Administration estimating 58% of all power-generating capacity planned to be installed in 2024 to be solar power. The International Energy Agency considers solar and wind power to be the cheapest form of electricity in most markets in the world.?

Solar power is considered “intermittent,” meaning it produces electricity only during a portion of the day — such as when the sun is shining. But renewable energy advocates have touted battery storage systems paired with solar installations as a way to make the renewable power “dispatchable” and available around the clock.? Solar installations can charge batteries during the day to be used at night.

But LG&E and KU argued that pairing solar with battery systems would be a costly replacement for a“dispatchable” around-the-clock energy source such as coal-fired power. Thousands of megawatts of solar and battery storage would be needed to replace Mill Creek’s 391 megawatts of coal-fired power, the utility’s analysis said.

Advocates and the former PSC chair have expressed concern utilities aren’t able to be held accountable to follow the plans they outline. The last time LG&E and KU presented an integrated resource plan to the PSC, it was chastised by the regulator for not presenting plans that were “actionable” for the future.

LG&E and KU in its latest IRP filing writes the documents are a “snapshot of an ongoing resource planning process” that is “constantly evolving.””

Skepticism about carbon capture, future of greenhouse gas regulations

Looming over LG&E and KU and other coal-reliant utilities are new regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that require coal-fired power plants and new natural gas-fired power plants to curb 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 if utilities plan to operate them past 2039.?

Challengers are arguing in court that the technology proposed to comply with the regulation isn’t yet commercially viable at a utility scale. Carbon capture and sequestration is a controversial technology that tries to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to prevent release into the atmosphere. LG&E and KU is planning to install and test a carbon capture system on an existing natural gas-fired plant.?

LG&E and KU in its planning documents wrote that implementing carbon dioxide transport and storage “is not achievable” in the timeline set by the EPA. The utility also wrote that converting coal-fired power plants into burning natural gas is also “questionable” because of the time it would take to establish gas pipelines. Retiring coal-fired power plants by 2032 is an option for compliance, LG&E and KU stated, but “retirements require reliable replacement capacity.”?

“Replacing generation at the scale necessary for compliance is not reasonable” under the EPA’s timeline for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the utility wrote.

LG&E and KU’s integrated resource plan will likely come under scrutiny from a range of stakeholders during PSC review — the attorney general, renewable energy advocates, advocates for industrial and residential ratepayers and local governments in the utility’s territory covering Lexington, Louisville and parts of Eastern and Western Kentucky.

The logo of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — The board overseeing Kentucky’s fish and wildlife agency voted Tuesday to establish a three-county surveillance zone after chronic wasting disease (CWD) was found earlier this month on a deer farm in Breckinridge County.

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission also for the second time approved a four-year contract for Commissioner Rich Storm following a complaint that the first approval had violated the state Open Meetings Act.?

Meade, Breckinridge and Hardin Counties are in the surveillance zone where the baiting and feeding of deer are now banned to prevent the animals from congregating and potentially spreading CWD. The commission also banned taking deer carcasses and high-risk parts such as heads out of the three counties and taking care of or rehabilitating injured deer in the zone.?

CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects elk, deer and other species in the cervid family and has been found in dozens of states and a couple of Canadian provinces. The department established a surveillance zone in West Kentucky after CWD was detected in a wild deer in Ballard County last year, the first ever case in the state.?

Ben Robinson, the director of wildlife at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), told the commission at the special-called meeting the department was hoping to collect as many samples as possible from wild deer in the three-county zone given evidence that wild deer had interacted in the past with deer in the Breckinridge County deer farm where the disease was detected.?

Robinson said the department also wanted to better understand where deer on the Breckinridge County farm had been transported to other “captive cervid” facilities around the state.?

“Our main goal is to collect as many CWD samples from wild deer as possible, because our goal is to determine if this has spread outside of the fence of this facility,” Robinson said. “Deer are regularly moved around facilities within the state.”?

Unlike the surveillance zone in West Kentucky, the department will not require hunters in the new three-county zone to bring harvested deer to stations to test for CWD. Because deer hunters harvest a high number of deer in the three counties, Robinson told the commission, the department hopes to get deer samples to test for CWD through other voluntary methods.?

Board again approves contract for department chief following complaint

Before voting on the surveillance zone, the commission also unanimously voted with no discussion to approve a new four-year contract for the department’s chief executive Storm for a second time in as many meetings. The action followed a complaint from a sportsman alleging the first time the commission approved the contract in August violated the state Open Meetings Act.?

The vote to approve Storm’s personal service contract took place after the commission met for a little over 15 minutes in executive session closed to the public to discuss the contract.?

The commission during a regular meeting in August had unanimously approved a motion without mentioning Storm’s name to give him another four-year contract, sparking a complaint that the vagueness of the motion violated the state Open Meetings Act. Brian Mackey, a Hardin County farmer, sportsman and former member of the nine-member commission, alleged in his complaint to the commission that the board also erroneously used an exception in the Open Meetings Act to discuss Storm’s contract in closed session.?

An opinion from the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office said the department didn’t violate the Open Meetings Act by using the exception and that the AG had been informed the commission planned to clarify the “somewhat ambiguous” August motion in its next meeting.

KDFWR spokesperson Lisa Jackson in an email said along with making a change to the contract regarding Storm’s health insurance, the commission’s approval Tuesday “clarified their intent to approve the contract and reappoint Commissioner Storm.”?

“Some constituents were confused by the wording of the prior motion on the contract,” Jackson said.

Mackey in a Lantern interview said he was disappointed in the opinion from the attorney general’s office, arguing the department needed to be transparent “because that’s one of the issues this agency’s had for some time.”?

“And to keep all this stuff in the dark is not how you clean up transparency,” Mackey said.

Who serves on the nine-member commission, which has the power to hire or fire a KDFWR commissioner, had been a point of contention between some sportsmen and the GOP-controlled Kentucky Senate. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Storm have previously clashed on a number of issues, including the length of Storm’s contract and executive branch oversight of procurement and conservation easements at the department.

Beshear told reporters in March that state senators — who can confirm or deny appointments made by the governor to the commission —? had to “stop protecting leadership of what I think is the most corrupt part of state government.”

Storm on Tuesday told the Lantern he wished Beshear “had a greater love for what we do here” but that he did not have “any ill feelings toward him.”?

“It’s a tough job that I have, and to coexist sometimes there’s difficulty, but I think we can move on. And we have,” Storm said. “I’d like to hope that in the future that you know his comments are about other entities that aren’t doing good work, because I really do believe in what we’re doing here.”?

“The department’s far bigger than any commissioner, and so a lot of times when you have a successful run, it’s because people are doing good work,” Storm said.?

The reimagined Brent Spence companion bridge. (Photo provided by brentspencebridgecorridor.com)

A coalition of transportation and environmental nonprofits have sued the Brent Spence Corridor project in federal court over its potential environmental impacts, especially as they relate to non-white communities around the bridge.?

Filed on Tuesday, the suit’s plaintiffs include the Devou Good Foundation, Civic Cincinnati, Ride the Cov and Queen City Bike. The group’s complaint alleges that the project has inadequately explored the potential environmental impact of the construction and demands that work on the project cease until their concerns are redressed.?

Construction for the estimated $3.6 billion corridor project, which includes a new companion bridge slated for construction next to the existing bridge, is scheduled to begin next year and continue through 2029. This conceivably would bring the number of traffic lanes up from the existing bridge’s eight lanes to 16. The project also entails the widening of I-75.

Specifically, the suit calls for the project to engage in and produce an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS. Large federal projects are required to assess their potential impacts on the local environment. The project first completed an environmental assessment in 2012, which found no significant impact.?

The project floundered for years due to lack of funding, but following an injection of federal money in late 2022, the project went about updating its initial assessment. The federal government approved a second finding of no significant impact in May, following months of public input. Projects whose assessments find no significant impact are not required to produce an environmental impact statement, much to the protestations of the plaintiffs.

“By refusing to acknowledge that the Project will have significant impacts on the human environment, Defendants have arbitrarily and capriciously refused to prepare an EIS, which would require them to meaningfully consider reasonable alternatives, including ones that would include substantial investment in public transportation as part of the Project, or to consider charging tolls on the Ohio River bridges, which would reduce the demand for the Project’s dramatic increase in the number of travel lanes,” the suit alleges.?

“Defendants also have failed to adequately consider or mitigate adverse effects on the predominantly non-white residents located near the highway in the project area, including effects on air quality, noise, health and mobility caused by the anticipated 6 years-long construction of the project,” the suit continues. “They have also failed to adequately consider or mitigate long term effects of expanding these highways, including greatly increased vehicle traffic; water quality and quantity impacts from increased emissions and from the additional acres of highway right of way and impermeable pavement; increased urban sprawl and associated segregation; and the unequal distribution of the benefits and burdens of these transportation system investments.”

The suit demands the court nullify the federal government’s finding of significant impact, issue a court order voiding any agreement using federal funds on the project, prevent any additional work on the project until the environmental assessment issues can be redressed and pay for the plaintiffs’ legal fees.?

This story is republished from LINK nky.

The Elkhorn Lake dam in Letcher County in late September after rains brought on by Hurricane Helene. It was ranked as the state's top priority for repairs in a recent report to the Kentucky legislature. (Photo courtesy of Jenkins Mayor Todd DePriest)

FRANKFORT — Whenever a heavy rain falls, Jenkins Mayor Todd DePriest can’t help but think back to a deadly disaster as he drives around his small, mountain town checking on its aging dam and bridges.?

The dam that created Elkhorn Lake, known locally as Jenkins Lake, was built 112 years ago to provide hydropower to nearby coal mines. It still provides Jenkins with water and is a popular fishing spot. The dam’s concrete slope is rocky and worn down exposing rusty steel rebar in places.?

When state inspectors looked it over in May 2023, they found water seeping through in spots and rated the dam in “unsatisfactory” condition, the worst rating, meaning it is considered unsafe and has issues that need an immediate fix.?

The mayor and other community members have been acutely aware of the dam’s deteriorating condition for years. DePriest’s concerns about the dam trace back to the Buffalo Creek mine disaster of 1972 when three coal slurry dams failed in West Virginia; the rush of more than 130 million gallons of black water destroyed hundreds of homes, killing 125 people and leaving thousands homeless.

“That’s always on my mind. Anytime we have a big rain or some big event,” DePriest said. “How do we make sure we’re not in that situation one day?”

Located in Southeastern Kentucky in Letcher County, the Elkhorn Lake dam is also considered a high hazard dam by state dam inspectors, meaning its failure could kill people or seriously damage homes, businesses and infrastructure downstream. In Jenkins, that would include the city’s water treatment plant, homes, a church and the post office.?

The Elkhorn Lake dam isn’t the only dam state officials say needs attention. Kentucky has dozens of high hazard dams in poor or worse condition needing repairs and rehabilitation, according to a list sent by the state Department for Environmental Protection to the Legislative Research Commission in late August. The Lantern obtained the letter through the Open Records Act. The Elkhorn Lake dam ranked as the highest priority.

While a few of the 71 high hazard dams listed in the report are owned by state agencies, most are owned by smaller cities, county fiscal courts, soil and water conservation districts and private organizations and individuals. One high hazard dam considered to be unsafe by dam inspectors is in a Boone County suburb, homes directly abutting it. Others serve as drinking water supplies or for recreational purposes. All the dams on the list are in at least poor condition.

Local officials who spoke with the Lantern say their governments don’t have near the funds to make needed repairs, often $1 million or more. And that’s after paying for engineers.

Another challenge is even finding a dam owner to hold responsible, something that’s sometimes turned into a legal ordeal for state officials.?

DePriest hopes grants from the state or federal governments will repair the dam in Jenkins, given the financial burden his city of fewer than 2,000 would face trying to handle it alone. A dam safety organization warns those grants can be hard to come by given the need to repair dams across the country. “How do you put pieces together from these different agencies in a way that gives you a goal of making it safe and still usable for what we need it for?” DePriest said.

‘Non-cooperative owners, incapable owners, and non-existent owners’

Dam inspectors in the Department for Environmental Protection have watched a number of high hazard dams deteriorate for years, conducting annual inspections, issuing notices of violations when owners haven’t fixed previously cited issues. When little to no action is taken, the Energy and Environment Cabinet has resorted to issuing fines and filing lawsuits.??

Cabinet spokesperson Robin Hartman in a statement said the cabinet pursues litigation only after “all administrative enforcement options are exhausted.”?

“This authority includes administrative enforcement action, litigation, and emergency authority to take control of structures and take whatever action necessary to render a dam safe from loss of life and property,” Hartman said. “Challenges to enforcing the dam safety requirements include non-cooperative owners, incapable owners, and non-existent owners.”?

One city hadn’t communicated with the cabinet for years about its high hazard dam in unsafe condition, despite state inspectors’ concerns.?The cabinet sent a letter to the mayor of Stanford, the Lincoln County seat, on Aug. 13 fining the city $5,500 and directing the city to drain Rice Lake. The reservoir created by Stanford’s high hazard dam is one of three lakes supplying the city’s water, according to the city.

Yearslong issues cited by inspectors, including a part of the earthen dam sliding down its slope, had gone unrepaired. The city hadn’t responded since February 2022 to cabinet enforcement officials with updates on how an agreed plan to fix the dam was progressing.?

Stanford Mayor Dalton Miller told the Lantern he wasn’t aware of the status of the dam, directing inquiries to Stanford’s drinking water utility director who didn’t respond to requests for comment Friday. A cabinet spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about the Rice Lake dam.?

In another case, the cabinet sued a private dam owner in Boyle County over failing to finalize an action plan to fix a dam with seepage issues that had been “deteriorating for many years.” Overgrowth of weeds and other plants at the Tank Pond dam had prevented inspectors from determining its stability with dozens of residences potentially threatened downstream, according to a lawsuit complaint.?

A Boyle Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of the cabinet in March because the dam owner failed to respond to the lawsuit, ordering the private dam owner to remove the Tank Pond dam and return the waterway to its original flow by the end of the year.

In Hopkins County, a court battle over who owns and has responsibility for another high hazard dam in unsafe condition has dragged on for over a year. A housing development? had been built in the 1980s around Otter Lake, but the dam holding back the lake hasn’t been properly maintained. The Energy and Environment Cabinet sued the county fiscal court and property owners near the dam in December 2022 seeking to determine ownership of the dam and get it repaired.?

The cabinet’s complaint states multiple property owners and interests have disputed their ownership of the dam for decades while its condition has worsened, spurring one home owner to sue an Owensboro couple for not disclosing the dam’s condition or disclosing responsibilities to maintain the dam.?

A judge ruled last year the Hopkins County Fiscal Court has at least partial ownership of the dam because of a nearby road, and the telecommunications company AT&T has also been looped in as a defendant because of alleged buried telecommunications lines nearby.?

Significant costs to prevent potential dam failures

The report on high hazard dams sent to the legislature acknowledges the high cost of repair and rehabilitation. Sarah Gaddis, director of the Kentucky Division of Water, writes that “engineering expertise, materials, and other items required for dam repair are extremely expensive.”?

The report notes that $25 million in state funds has been used to reconstruct two state-owned dams, the Bullock Pen Lake Dam in Boone County and the Scenic Lake Dam in Henderson County with two other state-funded dam repair projects in the works having price tags of $15 million to $30 million each.?

The report also noted only four of the 71 high hazard dams listed are eligible for an existing state-funded dam repair program. For dams owned by local governments and organizations or private individuals, the report stated,? other funding mechanisms include federal grant programs or local monies and state earmarks.?

Robin Hartman, the cabinet spokesperson, in a statement said civil works projects like dams are “inherently expensive” and require specific expertise in design and construction methods. She said dam owners are required to bring on the needed engineers themselves.?

“Construction and design of dams also carry significant risk and liability due the inherent risk of impounding water,” Hartman said.” This elevated liability and risk command higher design standards and tightly controlled construction processes, which in turn increase construction costs.”

Katelyn Riley, the communications director for the Lexington-based Association of Dam Safety Officials, in a statement said the millions of dollars of costs fall on dam owners that either can’t afford them or may not qualify for grants or loans. While $2.15 billion has been made available for dam repair through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, she said, it is “a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.”

“Lack of funding for dam rehabilitation is a serious problem nationally and in Kentucky.” Riley said. “The likelihood of failure can be mitigated by keeping a dam well maintained and, for older dams, upgrading them to meet current engineering design standards.”?

The Association of Dam Safety Officials in a 2023 report estimated the cost to repair and rehabilitate Kentucky’s more than 1,000 dams at $2.91 billion, with the cost to rehabilitate just the state’s high hazard dams estimated at $1.19 billion.?

As dams have deteriorated, so has Kentucky’s inspection force. The state employs fewer staff with less allocated resources to oversee dam inspections than in 1999, according to another report by the dam safety association.?

But Kentucky isn’t the only state with a growing dam problem. Nine other states had estimates over $1 billion to repair high hazard dams. That includes North Carolina, where dams were feared to be close to failure after rainfall from Hurricane Helene inundated Appalachian communities.?

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has funded hundreds of millions of dollars more in grants to repair dams through U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs, though only a small number of dams in Kentucky so far have benefited. State lawmakers in the 2022 executive branch budget allocated $5 million for matching funds for the USDA’s Watershed Rehabilitation Program.

Riley said some states offer financial assistance to dam owners for repair, rehabilitation or removal, something that could “directly improve the safety of dams in the state” along with investing more in the state’s dam safety regulators.?

Two key Republican legislative committee chairs didn’t commit to the idea of state earmarks for local dam repairs when asked recently about the idea. But the chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, told the Lantern he’d be willing to work with the cabinet on solutions.?

“I think we agree that we need to be proactive,” Gooch said. “We don’t do enough planning in advance sometimes to keep, prevent problems like this from happening.”?

Keeping a community’s identity

For the mayor of a small Western Kentucky city, trying to save the Loch Mary Reservoir is about protecting a community space he grew up with.?

Facing pressure from state officials to deal with the high hazard dam that inspectors considered unsafe, Earlington’s city council voted in June 2023 to allow Mayor Albert Jackson to pursue grants and other opportunities to repair the concrete and earthen dam.

The reservoir, adjacent to rows of homes, had cracks and seepage in its concrete and was deemed not hydraulically sound, meaning there’s a problem with its ability to hold or release water.?

But Jackson, 36, didn’t want to consider draining the lake. Working with its area development district, the city received a $490,000 grant from FEMA to begin design work on a reconstructed dam.?

Jackson said the effort would be “absolutely impossible” for his city of 1,200 to do on its own.

“It fell in our favor to get the grant money, but I feel for a lot of communities that aren’t able to secure grant money or grant funding,” Jackson said. “If you’re a small town there’s no way that you can, you know — $1.5 million, $2 million, $3 million for some places, there’s no way that you can come up with that money in 12 months.”?

Jackson argued that because the state government is flush with cash, lawmakers should invest more in repairing infrastructure, like local dams, while the money is there.?

“It’s important for us to maintain those things, maintain our natural resources, especially in a state like Kentucky, because if we don’t we lose a part of our identity,” Jackson said.

Mountains near Cumberland in Harlan County bear the scars of mining after the coal was stripped, August 24, 2019. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Kentucky’s Republican attorney general citing concerns from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration is trying to block a revamped federal complaint system that citizens have used for decades to report suspected dangers and hazards from the strip mining of coal.?

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, delegated authority to two dozen states including Kentucky to regulate the environmental impacts of mining and mine reclamation.?

The law gave citizens the right to report suspected violations not addressed by state authorities directly to the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE) to investigate.?

Federal regulators can then issue a notice with a 10-day deadline to state regulators to either fix the issue or explain why it hasn’t been fixed. After the 10-day deadline, federal regulators can order an inspection of the mine site if they’re not satisfied with the state’s response.?

But a Trump administration rule change in 2020 required federal regulators to gather additional evidence from state agencies before issuing a 10-day notice, something environmental advocates say has bogged down the process and significantly reduced the effectiveness of the oversight mechanism.?

The Biden administration is now seeking to largely restore the original system that allows OSMRE to issue notices without having to gather state input beforehand, a requirement that OSMRE said creates “undue delays.” Under the Biden rule, state feedback would be incorporated into the federal investigation after the 10-day notice has been issued.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and other Republican attorneys general have sued to block the revamped system, ?and a federal judge recently allowed advocacy groups that have utilized the complaint system to intervene in the case.

The Republican attorneys general cited in part concerns from Kentucky Department for Natural Resources Commissioner Gordon Slone, who wrote in a June 2023 public comment that records from federal regulators in determining whether to issue a 10-day notice were “insufficient” compared to records from state authorities.?

“[The department] believes that the OSMRE’s goal should be to ensure that [10-day notices] are only issued when available information — including information that the State regulator can easily provide upon request —? supports the existence of a violation,” Slone wrote.?

Slone also said his department received an average of nearly nine 10-day notices each year between 2010 and 2019. Under the Trump administration system, the number of annually issued notices “plummeted” to 0.6 notices a year.?

Slone argued increased collaboration and communication between federal and state regulators led to fewer notices issued, compared to the increased “administrative burden” he said states would face by having to deal with more 10-day notices under the Biden administration’s action.?

Willie Dodson, the coal impacts program coordinator for Appalachian Voices, one of the advocacy groups intervening in the case, isn’t convinced by those arguments.?

Dodson said he’s used the complaint system in recent years to get Kentucky regulators to address pollution by an Eastern Kentucky surface mine of a waterway that’s home to endangered or threatened aquatic life.?

He said federal regulators can choose not to issue a notice in response to a complaint. He asserted arguments opposing the Biden administration’s revamped system are “just a thinly veiled way of saying that the feds should let us do whatever we want.”

“It doesn’t in any way take away the fact that Kentucky is the primary organization issuing permits, issuing enforcement actions,” Dodson said. “If Kentucky fails to issue enforcement actions that they should be issuing and the community member catches that, the community member can bring the information to OSMRE who then has an oversight role.”?

Tom FitzGerald, counsel for the environmental legal group Kentucky Resources Council that’s representing the intervening advocacy groups in the court case, pointed to another example decades ago for why a robust complaint system is needed.?

In the 1980s, FitzGerald represented a retired Perry County educator who, the way he described it, worried about a hazardous sediment pond built above her home.?

Before Muriel Smith finalized a divorce in 1981 and took sole ownership of her property, her husband waived the law’s 300-foot buffer requirement and gave written permission to a coal company to conduct “surface mining operations” nearby. But she personally didn’t consent to it, and state coal mine regulators gave the coal company a permit for the pond. The company built it the following year less than a football field from her home.?

When she appealed to Kentucky regulators saying state law had been violated because the pond was built too near to her home and without her permission as the now-sole homeowner, they dismissed it as a “property rights” dispute. So, she turned to the federal complaint system established through SMCRA and appealed to OSMRE.

FitzGerald wrote in a Sept. 13 filing that without the federal? action in response to the complaint system, Smith would have endured years of “living directly below a high-hazard embankment sediment structure illegally located immediately uphill from her home, with the attendant risk of wash out or catastrophic failure of the structure, and the impairment of value and use of her land.”?

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled in 1986 that the state’s “hands off” approach toward Smith’s request for help was “seriously flawed” and ruled in her favor.?

A fire in April 2023 at Natural Bridge State Park closed trails. (Photo by Middlefork Fire/Rescue, Facebook)

State environmental officials have declared a drought across all counties in Kentucky as the state has seen significantly less rainfall than usual in recent weeks.?

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, coordinating with a drought monitoring team representing various agencies, declared Monday a Level 1 drought impacting vegetation health and soil moisture with the biggest impacts in Central and Western Kentucky. More than two dozen counties in the state have burn bans in place according to state officials.?

A cabinet release Monday states the drought in some areas has increased agricultural water needs and increased wildfire risk. A Level 1 drought can be declared if certain conditions — such as low rainfall, streamflows in waterways and drier soil —? are met. Three levels of drought can be declared by state officials. The U.S. Drought Monitor, a group of governmental weather experts tracking drought, has much of Kentucky in either moderate or severe drought conditions.?

Matthew Dixon, a senior meteorologist with the University of Kentucky Agricultural Weather Center, in a statement said the state has had over 1.5 inches of rain less than what’s normal over the past 30 days.?

“Despite severe dryness that began in mid-June, most rivers are flowing at the lower end of a normal range for this time of year. In some rivers and their tributaries, however, moderate hydrologic drought is developing, including the lower Green, lower Kentucky and Licking River basins,” Dixon said. “Most drinking water supplies across Kentucky have held up well, however in areas with moderate to severe drought, there is an increasing likelihood of water shortages developing in rivers and small water supply lakes.”

Jerry Brotzge, the state climatologist and director of the Kentucky Mesonet and Kentucky Climate Center, in a statement said drought conditions are likely to continue into the near future. Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman is encouraging Kentuckians to conserve water through small practices at home.

Gov. Andy Beshear, center, speaks to Ascend Elements CEO Michael O’Kronley after a ground-breaking ceremony at Commerce Park II in Hopkinsville in October 2022. (Hoptown Chronicle photo by Jennifer P. Brown)

The company behind a planned battery recycling plant in Western Kentucky is receiving another $125 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a part of a broader federal effort to boost battery production and recycling for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electric grid.?

Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements is receiving the federal award for a new battery recycling process at planned facilities in Hopkinsville in partnership with the Mexican company Orbia.?The companies plan to extract graphite from the recycled batteries, have it further processed and enhanced at a separate Louisiana facility owned by Orbia and then sell the new battery-grade graphite. The DOE is describing the effort as a “first-of-its-kind recycled graphite production” process.

White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi in a statement Friday about the funding — which awarded more than $3 billion to 25 battery-related projects across the country — said the funding is “helping support the technologies that we need in the market today, the components that we will need in the near future, and the innovative technologies we need to advance our vision for a circular domestic battery supply chain that positions the United States to continue leading the global effort on clean energy.”???

This latest funding for graphite recycling in Hopkinsville follows earlier large federal investments in other Ascend Elements manufacturing plants in the Western Kentucky city. Ascend Elements in partnership with South Korea-based SK ecoplant announced last year?a planned $65 million lithium-ion battery recycling plant, which would shred and recycle. 24,000 metric tons of EV batteries annually. Ascend Elements had previously stated the construction of that plant should be completed by January 2025.?

The Hoptown Chronicle has previously reported the recycled batteries will help supply another planned Ascend Elements plant, dubbed Apex 1, creating cathode active materials that constitute battery cells. The DOE has invested more than $480 million into the Apex 1 projects.?

Correction: This story previously misstated the $125 million in federal funding was for a planned battery recycling plant sponsored by SK ecoplant and Ascend Elements. The funding is instead for a new, separate effort in Hopkinsville to recycle graphite from batteries sponsored by Orbia and Ascend Elements.

Growth in clean vehicle jobs made up approximately 45% of Kentucky’s overall clean energy job growth of 2,389 jobs added last year, the report says.?(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Kentucky for the second straight year had the nation’s second fastest growth in clean energy jobs, though the state still lags in the actual number of such jobs, according to an annual report that focuses on economic development and energy.

The report from E2, which describes itself as a nonpartisan business group that advocates “for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment,” found Kentucky’s 6.5% increase in clean energy jobs tied with Texas and was behind only Alabama. Nationwide clean energy employment grew 4.5% and added nearly 150,000 jobs, with the South outpacing the rest of the country.

The group’s definition of clean energy employment is broad, including jobs created through renewable energy industries, modernizing the electric grid and improving home and business energy efficiency. The definition of clean energy jobs also includes jobs generated through clean vehicles, ranging from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, hybrid plug-in vehicles to fully electric vehicles (EVs). Growth in clean vehicle jobs made up approximately 45% of Kentucky’s overall clean energy job growth of 2,389 jobs added last year.?

Despite the growth in clean energy jobs, Kentucky had significantly fewer of them overall at the beginning of this year than all of its neighbors except West Virginia. The per capita rate of clean energy jobs is also lower in Kentucky than surrounding states except West Virginia.?

• Kentucky: 39,639 clean energy jobs and 19.8 clean jobs per capita.
• Illinois: 129,282 clean energy jobs and 21.4 clean energy jobs per capita.
• Indiana: 90,155 clean energy jobs and 28.3 clean energy jobs per capita.
• Ohio: 119,575 clean energy jobs and 21.7 clean energy jobs per capita.
• Missouri: 58,836 clean energy jobs and 20.2 clean energy jobs per capita.
• Tennessee: 86,656 clean energy jobs and 26.4 clean energy jobs per capita.
• Virginia: 99,774 clean energy jobs and 24.4 clean energy jobs per capita.
• West Virginia: 10,394 clean energy jobs and 15 clean energy jobs per capita.

The report found that 1 in 16 new jobs nationwide, or 6.4%, were in clean energy. In Kentucky, 6.7% of new jobs were in clean energy.?Nearly half of the country’s approximately 3.4 million clean energy jobs came from construction, according to the E2 report.

Mike Proctor, the publicity chair for the EV advocacy group Evolve KY, pointed to EV manufacturing announcements in Kentucky — such as the massive BlueOval SK EV battery factories under construction in Glendale and a potential EV-focused plant in Shelby County. Gov. Andy Beshear has said the Ford project requires almost 2,600 construction workers. Proctor said the large projects will also have an economic multiplier effect, creating jobs in other industries beyond the plants, from companies that support the EV supply chain to restaurants that feed the workers.

“Every one of those things are going to have, you know, a support structure to provide parts and what not. I’m sure a number of those vendors will be Kentucky based as well,” Proctor said. “Even a hot dog stand outside the Glendale plant, I’m sure they’re doing a bang-up business for lunch.”?

Most of Kentucky’s clean energy jobs come from work in vehicles and energy efficiency, including efficient HVAC systems,? lighting and appliances.

E2, which has been tracking clean energy jobs since 2015, also ranked Kentucky as the second fastest growing state for clean energy employment in its 2023 report.?

E2 Executive Director Bob Keefe in a statement credited Congress’? passage of the “game-changing” Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its clean energy incentives for an increase last year of almost 150,000 clean energy jobs nationwide — up 4.5% from the year before.

“But we’re just getting started,” Keefe said in his statement. “The biggest threats to this unprecedented progress are misguided efforts to repeal or rollback parts of the IRA, despite the law’s clear benefits both to American workers and the communities where they live.”

No Republican on Capitol Hill voted for the passage of the IRA in 2022, decrying the hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles and renewable energy as something that could drive up prices and warp markets. Republicans may soon decide whether to repeal some parts of the law. E2 in a separate report published in August found nearly 60% of announced clean vehicle and clean energy projects since the passage of the IRA have been in Republican-represented congressional districts, representing 85% of total investment tracked by the group.?

Andy McDonald, a Frankfort-based clean energy advocate and energy policy analyst, told the Lantern that at least two renewable energy projects in Franklin County can be attributed to incentives provided through the IRA: The county extension office added solar panels and a battery system.? Frankfort’s municipal utility is considering expanding its community solar installation.?

“The municipal utility provides electricity to local people, and so reducing their cost of electricity with clean energy should produce less pressure on rates for all of their customers,” McDonald said.

Saturday's Kentucky Wild event will include a presentation on Kentucky's freshwater mussels, like this one in the Licking River, its whitened end worn by erosion. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

Bats, butterflies and a native plant sale will be featured at a celebration of Kentucky Wild’s sixth birthday Saturday, Sept. 21, in Georgetown.

A news release from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources says the public is invited to the event which is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern) at Country Boy Brewing’s taproom at 101 Innovation Way in Georgetown.

The program will? feature:

• Demonstrations on how to support wildlife in your own yard, 10 a.m.
• “Bat Chat” program, 12 p.m.
• Monarch butterflies presentation, 1 p.m.
• Freshwater mussel filtration program, 2 p.m.
• Native plant sale, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. (while supplies last)

Attendees ages 21 and older can try a special Kentucky Wild Honey Ale and receive a commemorative pint glass. Kentucky Wild staff will also sell new merchandise, including t-shirts, hats, beanies and stickers, and various Kentucky Wild partners and conservation organizations will have tables at the event.

Kentucky Wild is a membership-based program dedicated to conserving Kentucky’s native wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped. Membership fees support conservation efforts for vulnerable and declining species such as songbirds, raptors, freshwater mussels, pollinators, bats and amphibians. To learn more about Kentucky Wild, visit fw.ky.gov.

Record rainfall — at times more than 4 inches in an hour — in late July 2022 produced widespread flash floods in southeastern Kentucky, killing 45 people. Command Sergeant Major Tim Lewis of the Kentucky National Guard secures Candace Spencer, 24, while she holds her son Wyatt Spencer, 1, after being airlifted on July 30, 2022 from South Fork in Breathitt County. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Lauren Cagle wants to make something clear. Despite popular assumptions about Kentuckians’ priorities and politics, they do care about climate change.

Cagle, a University of Kentucky professor of writing, rhetoric and digital studies, told the Lantern despite narratives that “red states have a certain point of view on climate change,” the reality of what’s happening in communities across the state is much different.?

“There’s so much work happening around climate, and when we put all those people in a room together, that becomes visible in a way that’s undeniable,” Cagle said.?

An event at the University of Kentucky later this month will do that by bringing together Kentuckians from a wide range of fields including researchers, grassroots organizers and government employees and leaders to share insights and spark collaboration on dealing with the increasing threat of climate change.?

Speakers at the Kentucky Climate Symposium on Sept. 26 will include nonprofit housing developers in Eastern Kentucky, a representative from the Kentucky Division for Air Quality, and former Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House, who will be one of those giving opening remarks at the event.?

Cagle also leads the Kentucky Climate Consortium, a network of higher education researchers that organized the day-long event. She hopes sessions and speakers on disaster preparedness and public health can build a broader network of Kentuckians focused on climate change.?

“There are so many ways that we can partner with people that we don’t see eye to eye with on every issue and still make progress heading in a direction that we all like,” Cagle said. “That is an approach to climate solutions that we have seen be successful in other places, and it can be successful here in Kentucky.”?

Speakers come from a variety of backgrounds including:

• ?Michael Borchers, the hydrology and hydraulics section chief at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District.
• Scott McReynolds, the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance in Eastern Kentucky.
• Jerry Brotzge, the Kentucky state climatologist at Western Kentucky University.
• Misty Skaggs, a co-founder of EKY Mutual Aid, a network of volunteers providing financial assistance and other support to Eastern Kentuckians.?
• Steve Velasco III, the Kentucky state veterinarian
• Eboni Cochran, co-director of Rubbertown Emergency ACTion (REACT), a grassroots organization trying to protect Louisville residents from air pollution coming from Rubbertown, the name for a collection of industrial and chemical plants along the Ohio River.?

Cochran, the co-director of REACT, told the Lantern she wants to make sure the discussion goes beyond conversations about reducing greenhouse gas emissions to also look at climate change? through an environmental justice lens and how it directly impacts Kentucky.

In Louisville’s Rubbertown, she said, more storms, flooding and higher risks of tornadoes from climate change could expose residents to chemical leaks from nearby chemical and other industrial plants.

“How do chemical facilities fortify their facilities to make sure that when their power goes out, or if there’s flooding, that we don’t have adverse impacts in our neighborhoods where we either have to evacuate, or we just have to shelter in place or we just have to breathe it in — all of that,” Cochran said.?

Cochran said she’s looking forward to dialogue at the symposium between government leaders and grassroots organizers and hearing about each other’s work. How to fortify people living in impacted neighborhoods is a critical part of that conversation for her.?

Cagle believes finding common ground on solutions for climate change in Kentucky is possible, despite sometimes conflicting stances among the expected attendees. For example, she said nonprofit electric utility East Kentucky Power Cooperative is sending representatives to the symposium. The utility has welcomed major federal funding to add renewable energy while also fighting federal regulations seeking to curb greenhouse gas emissions from its fossil fuel-fired power plants. An East Kentucky Power spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment asking about their attendance.?

The only baseline attendees should have in the room, Cagle said, is that “everyone agrees climate change is happening.”?

According to December 2023 estimates from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 62% of Kentuckians think global warming is happening, below the national average of 72%. Among Kentuckians, 48% think global warming is caused mostly by human activity, below the national average of 58%.?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body of the world’s leading climate scientists, in its latest synthesis report found human activities primarily from greenhouse gas emissions have “unequivocally” caused global warming with impacts to ecosystems on land and water, increases in extreme heat events and sea level rises likely attributed to climate change.?

“Obviously, we’re going to have disagreements. That’s healthy,” Cagle said. “We need to create spaces where we can have those conversations and where we can get out of the trap of just constantly talking about, ‘is it happening or not.’”?

New Hampshire collected PFAS-laden firefighting foam during a take-back program for fire departments in August. Disposal is through a technology called the PFAS Annihilator that breaks down the powerful chemical bonds. (New Hampshire Bulletin/Courtesy of Revive Environmental)

Over a lifetime, Kentuckians are repeatedly exposed to environmental pollutants known as “forever chemicals” — and a new study links such exposure to colorectal (colon) cancer.?

Specifically, researchers at the University of Kentucky looked at long-term exposure to PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) in mice and confirmed their findings in human cells. Results showed that exposure — commonly in food and water — can chip away at an enzyme in the intestines (HMGCS2) that can help protect against cancer.

Research has established that PFOS can increase risk of other types of cancer, including breast and liver, but this is the first to study the effects of the chemicals on this enzyme.?

One of the researchers, Yekaterina Zaytseva, said it’s “not so easy” to mitigate these pollutants in the environment.?

So, she turned her attention to its effects on the human body, and how to intercept them.??

“We try to understand how these pollutants affect human health and … how we can mitigate the effect of these pollutants,” she said.?

Scientists wanted to learn, she said, “if people live in (an) area with high exposure to these chemicals, how we can help … to prevent the harmful effects of these chemicals, or if they (are) already exposed, how we can mitigate … how they can get rid of these pollutants in their body.”?

PFOS falls under the umbrella of? per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are manmade and don’t break down in the environment easily because they have a molecular bond — carbon and fluorine — that’s among the strongest. Thus they have earned the nickname “forever chemicals.”?

Their commonplace applications make exposure more complicated. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences explains that PFAS “are used to keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware, make clothes and carpets resistant to stains and create firefighting foam that is more effective.”?

PFOS are among the five “forever chemicals” included in a drinking-water regulation issued by the Biden administration in April. Utilities will be required to reduce PFAS in drinking water to the lowest level that can be reliably measured.

‘Forever chemicals:’ Now that feds have acted, some say Kentucky should do more

In Kentucky, state testing revealed 83 of 194 water treatment plants had at least one PFAS, as did 36 of 40 monitoring station testing surfaces, the Lantern has reported. In 2022, nearly 900 Kentuckians died with colorectal cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.?

Damage over time?

People who have colorectal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease tend to not have the HMGCS2 enzyme, Zaytseva said, “suggesting that it’s actually … kind of protective against cancer.”?

During exposure to PFOS, she said, “this enzyme is also lost.”??

But this breakdown happens over time, and a person wouldn’t necessarily notice it happening based on side effects in the body.?

“If you have, for example, chronic exposure to PFAS, you don’t see … this enzyme shut down right away,” said Zaytseva. “You wouldn’t notice this. We try right now … to look at this as a potential biomarker of PFOS exposure.”?

The study, led by Josiane Tessmann, a post-doctoral scholar working in Zaytseva’s lab, was published in the journal Chemosphere.

In 2023, the General Assembly passed a law that now requires health plans in Kentucky to cover biomarker testing. The law, sponsored by Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, is aimed at lowering cancer mortality in the state.?

Biomarker testing “is a way to look for genes, proteins, and other substances (called biomarkers or tumor markers) that can provide information about cancer,” according to the National Cancer Institute.?

How to protect yourself

Future research will look at specific diets that can help.?

For now, she said, high fiber diets appear to “partially mitigate the harmful effect of these pollutants on liver and also microbiota.” It cannot, however, fully stop the loss of the enzyme.?

There are also several water filters that can help reduce PFAS in drinking water, as well as non-PFAS cooking pans.?

“You just need to be kind of aware of this. But it’s no need to panic,” Zaytseva said. “Just … carefully look (at) what you buy and what you consume.”??

Children play football in the Delafield area of Bowling Green on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. The neighborhood is in line for 350 new trees. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

It began with the smell. Joyce Tann, 75, had lived in her Bowling Green neighborhood of Delafield for close to a decade when she started conversations on her front porch with women from a local nonprofit trying to solve neighborhood problems:

The loud truck traffic rumbling past. Landlords who have let properties become “rundown.” And the “horrible” smells wafting over from the city’s wastewater treatment plant.?

Delafield, a historically blue collar and diverse neighborhood across the railroad tracks from downtown Bowling Green and Western Kentucky University, had been “neglected” in the past, Tann said, compared to other parts of the college town.?

“We’re working on things, you know, to make it a lot better.”

Tann now leads the Delafield Neighborhood Group which aims to build bonds among neighbors and tackle challenges facing the community; already, changes made at the treatment plant in response to the neighbors’ complaints and advocacy have provided a lot of relief from the odor. She’s worked alongside the nonprofit that had first approached her, Hotel Inc., which also launched a neighborhood grocery co-op in 2022 to fill the gap from a local grocery closing about a decade ago.?

Tann is excited about the next improvement coming to Delafield: hundreds of new trees.

Grants will promote greener communities

Through a nearly $150,000 grant, local nonprofits will be planting about 350 trees in Delafield and nearby areas including 30 trees at Parker-Bennett-Curry Elementary, a neighborhood school, starting as early as October.

It’s? part of federal funding coming to 16 communities across Kentucky to plant trees, launch education programs and promote greener communities. It’s part of a federal push to increase communities’ resilience to climate change impacts. Increased tree canopy, for example, provides cooling? and respite from extreme heat.?

“They are a protection, really, from the wind. They’re so colorful, and they’re nice — the shade that they give you,” Tann said. “We want people to be able to come over in this area and enjoy being over here.”?

Tann said along with sizable Black and Latino populations, Delafield is also home to immigrants. The International Center of Kentucky in Bowling Green has resettled families from all across the world. At Parker-Bennett-Curry Elementary, 68% of students are multilingual with 21 different home languages spoken, according to a local school district spokesperson.?

Melanie Lawrence, the executive director of Operation PRIDE, the nonprofit seeking to beautify Bowling Green that received the federal grant, said the trees will be planted in tandem with efforts to build sidewalks in the neighborhood and extend a greenway into the area.?

The trees could cleanse the air of odors from the treatment plant and nearby industry, provide shade and cooler temperatures along the streets and improve the wellbeing of local residents. University of Louisville research recently found the planting of thousands of trees and greenery across a Louisville neighborhood equated to “medicine,” improving inflammation biomarkers for local residents.?

“We thought this would be complementary because walking down a sidewalk with no trees gets pretty warm,” Lawrence said. “I have everybody on board. We’re ready to hit the ground running.”

Volunteers from another nonprofit Re-Tree BG, seeking to expand tree canopy in Bowling Green, will also be launching a tree education program at Parker-Bennett-Curry Elementary for students.?

The Bowling Green project is one of more than a dozen funded by grants through a partnership between the Kentucky Division of Forestry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Urban and Community Forestry Program. The funding, made possible through the? federal Inflation Reduction Act, is going towards tree planting efforts ranging from schools in Lexington to replacing trees lost to tornadoes in Western Kentucky.?

Succeeding lost giants in Ludlow

The Ohio River-bound city of Ludlow in Northern Kentucky is using almost $79,000 to conduct a survey of existing tree canopy, establish a tree ordinance regulating and protecting tree canopy, along with planting an additional 80 trees.?

Shane Hamant, the public works director for Ludlow, pointed to the riverfront city park where the tree canopy is “sparse.” “Just the beautification of the city itself, it reduces heat,” Hamant said, mentioning the city has lost “huge” oak and maple trees at the park in recent years.?

According to a release from state officials, the projects will plant 3,338 trees, create 34 tree wells or soil cells which protect trees especially in cityscapes, remove 50 declining or hazardous trees, create nine urban forestry or greenspace plans covering over 2,302 acres, launch hundreds of educational and community events and create or support 55 jobs.?

For Lawrence, the Operation PRIDE director in Bowling Green, the tree planting effort in the Delafield area is a part of a larger goal to give neighborhoods that have been ignored in the past proper attention and care.?

“The railroad tracks divided this town as it has many other towns,” Lawrence said. “We have a strong belief that everybody deserves beauty and respect.”?

Kentucky’s 2024 Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Grants

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which distributes electricity to 16 cooperatives, plans to add solar installations generating 757 megawatts of power and expand transmission infrastructure. (Getty Images)

A Kentucky electric utility serving more than 570,000 homes, farms and businesses across 89 counties is getting a federal funding boost to invest in renewable energy.?

East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), based in Winchester, is one of 16 rural electric utilities across the country selected to receive a portion of $7.3 billion through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program (New ERA), made possible through the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.?

EKPC spokesperson Nick Comer in a statement said the nonprofit utility is finalizing a funding agreement with the USDA. Neither USDA or EKPC said how much financing the utility is in line to receive. Comer said most of the energy projects in the agreement will require approval by the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s utility regulator.

“Federal New ERA funding will provide a major boost for EKPC to add renewable resources and reduce carbon dioxide emissions while keeping costs competitive for rural Kentucky residents,” Comer said.?

President Joe Biden announced the funding during a visit to Wisconsin Thursday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The program specifically targets rural member-owned electric cooperatives, and EKPC provides electricity to 16 electric cooperatives in the state. A USDA press release states EKPC will use the funding, the amount yet to be finalized, to “construct or procure” 757 megawatts of renewable electricity along with improving “the regional transmission grid to support renewable projects and increase energy efficiency.”?

The USDA release states the investment will reduce pollution, including carbon dioxide emissions, by 2.3 million tons every year, equating to the pollution from 554,000 gasoline-powered cars annually.

EKPC proposed earlier this year to build two solar installations in Fayette and Marion counties generating a combined 136 megawatts of electricity, and it’s not immediately clear if New ERA program funding would be used for the installations. New ERA program applicants can seek grants, loans or a combination of the two with the award not to exceed $970 million for each applicant.?

According to documents filed in April with the PSC, the two solar installations are set to be funded by both private and public bonds. Tom Stachnik, EKPC vice president of finance, in written testimony said the utility at that time was applying for New ERA program funding that “could result in additional favorable financing options.”?

While EKPC has taken advantage of funding that federal officials say will result in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change, the utility is also supporting a legal challenge to federal regulations that seek to curb nearly all greenhouse gas emissions by 2032 from existing coal-fired power plants and new natural gas-fired power plants. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is among a number of plaintiffs including Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman that are challenging the regulations.?

According to the utility’s annual report in 2023, EKPC sourced 59% of its electricity from burning coal. Coal is considered to be the worst emitter of greenhouse gasses compared to other electricity sources.

Appalachian Voices, an advocacy group pushing for clean energy and environmental protection across Appalachia, lauded the investments made through the New ERA program. But a representative of the group argued more needs to be done to move rural electric cooperatives away from fossil fuels.?

“Rural electric cooperatives still rely heavily on inefficient, expensive fossil fuels that create pollution and harmful waste,” said Bri Knisley, director of public power campaigns at Appalachian Voices. “Even with this enormous investment, rural electric cooperatives still have tens of billions of dollars in need to help retire fossil fuel-based facilities and replace them with clean, sustainable energy.”

Rich Storm oversees a $100 million budget as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He was just reappointed to another four-year contract. (KDFWR photo)

The board overseeing Kentucky’s wildlife management agency has reappointed its chief executive Rich Storm, including board members appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear who in the past has clashed with Storm and the department.

With no discussion, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously on Aug. 30 to give Storm a new four-year contract as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR).?

The new contract begins July 1, 2025. Storm’s current base salary of $155,820.48 will remain the same. No other details from the contract were available. A KDFWR spokesperson said the contract is still being finalized and will have to be approved by the legislature’s Government Contract Review Committee

Storm’s salary is slightly higher than statewide Republican constitutional officers ($152,551.92) but less than Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander ($160,364.16) and Beshear ($179,442.96), according to the state’s salary database.?

The commission by law is made up of nine volunteer hunters and anglers and directed to keep a “watchful eye” over an agency whose wide ranging duties include enforcing hunting and wildlife regulations. KDFWR manages a $100 million annual operating budget with revenue coming fromhunting and fishing license fees, boat registration fees and federal grants.

The commission met behind closed doors for almost two hours in executive session to discuss Storm’s contract and some land purchases. Back in open session, commission members didn’t mention Storm by name or discuss his reappointment. Commission members contacted by the Lantern said they decided to renew Storm’s contract because he has been a good leader for the department. They declined to talk or offered few details about the discussions in the executive session.?

Lisa Jackson, a KDFWR spokesperson, in a statement said Storm was “honored to be reappointed and entrusted with continued leadership.” Contract negotiations began in March, Jackson said. “The negotiations were productive and he looks forward to continuing his public service on behalf of the sportsmen and sportswomen of the Commonwealth and to help the Department achieve its mission,” Jackson said.?

Robin Floyd, the 1st District commission member representing Western Kentucky and a Beshear appointee, told the Lantern that Storm had a “rough start,” referencing how Storm became the department’s chief executive.

Politics swirl around who will oversee Kentucky Fish and Wildlife

In 2019, the commission controversially hired Storm when he was serving as chair of the commission which had already interviewed eight candidates for the top post, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Storm asked to be considered for the job after the commission named three finalists and recused himself as chair. The newspaper reported Storm wasn’t on the search committee seeking a commissioner, according to the department’s human resources director.

But Floyd said Storm has done an “exemplary job” since then with duties that go beyond “just fish and wildlife.”?

“You need somebody that actually is pretty good at business, someone that’s really good at interacting with the legislature, and Commissioner Storm just checked all the boxes,” Floyd said. “That’s why you saw a unanimous vote to reappoint him.”?

Under Storm, the KDFWR and the Beshear administration have clashed numerous times, including over the length of Storm’s contract and executive branch oversight of procurement and conservation easements. Storm has powerful allies in the Republican-controlled legislature. And this year, the Democratic governor pushed back against the state Senate’s failure in recent years to hold confirmation votes on his appointments to the commission. Beshear also criticized an unsuccessful bill that would have given the governor’s power to appoint Fish and Wildlife Commission members to the agriculture commissioner and administratively attach the KDFWR to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.?

Kentucky hunters, anglers decry proposal to put Fish and Wildlife under agriculture department

Beshear told reporters in March that senators had to “stop protecting leadership of what I think is the most corrupt part of state government.” When a Lantern reporter asked Beshear to explain his comments later that month, the governor pointed to the controversial way that Storm was hired and also cited a 2018 special examination from then-Auditor Mike Harmon, a Republican, who called for a “change in culture” at the agency when Storm was a member of the commission.?

Beshear’s criticism of the Senate for rejecting commission appointments echoed concerns from some hunters and anglers including the Kentucky League of Sportsmen, an organization representing thousands of hunters around the state.?

Adam Mullins, president of the League of Sportsmen, told the Lantern the organization didn’t have an immediate statement on Storm’s reappointment.?

The Senate ultimately confirmed nearly all of Beshear’s appointments to the commission this year. Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told the Lantern the appointments were confirmed after “lots of discussion, lots of review, lots of research.” Protecting Storm, who was doing a “really good job” he said, from a “type of retaliatory appointment” that would remove the commissioner was a priority.?

Those appointment confirmations left one vacancy on the commission. The rest of the commission seats are filled by Beshear appointments including Floyd, who joined the board in 2021.??

“If you’re in a position like Mr. Storm is, you have to work with everyone. And I think he does a good job of that,” Floyd said.?

The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment asking about the reappointment of Storm.?

The Kentucky Public Service Commission regulates the rates and services of more than 1,100 utilities, ranging from large investor-owned electric providers like Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities to small water districts that provide drinking water to rural communities.?(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Gov. Andy Beshear has filled two seats on a new energy planning commission with utility executives who, like Beshear, opposed the commission’s creation.

Kentucky lawmakers earlier this year created the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) to slow the retirement of power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

Investor-owned utilities and environmentalists opposed the legislation which Beshear vetoed, calling it unconstitutional for “numerous reasons.” The new law also was opposed by the United Way of Kentucky, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chambers of commerce around the state. The Republican-controlled legislature easily overrode Beshear’s veto.?

Among Beshear’s first eight appointees to the 18-member board are Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities CEO and President John Crockett and Duke Energy senior vice president Brian Weisker. The law requires that one of the governor’s appointees represent?a Kentucky investor-owned utility.

Weisker in a statement to the Lantern said he agreed to serve despite opposing Senate Bill 349 which created EPIC because it’s “vital that Duke Energy continues to have a voice in securing Kentucky’s energy future.”?

In March, Crockett told state lawmakers EPIC would be an “inherently political body” and that he feared it would be “just another layer of bureaucracy.” Crockett also has pushed back against Senate President Robert Stivers’ assertion that the state is “facing an electric reliability crisis.” LG&E and KU spokesperson Liz Pratt said Crockett agreed to serve on EPIC to “allow us to be part of the evaluation process and help responsibly shape the future of energy” while providing insights to “the long-term energy solutions proposed for the communities we serve and for Kentucky.”?

“As regulated utilities, we must make decisions in the best interests of all of our customers and continue providing safe, reliable and affordable energy,” Pratt said.?

Beshear also appointed Jeffrey Brock, an executive for Kentucky’s largest coal producer Alliance Resource Partners. Alliance’s CEO is Joe Craft, a prominent donor in Republican politics along with his wife and former candidate for Kentucky governor Kelly Craft. Brock serves on the Kentucky Coal Association’s board of directors.?

Under the new law, most of EPIC’s decision-making power will be vested in a five-person executive committee. Beshear appointed Eston Glover to represent utilities on the executive committee. Glover is the former president and CEO of Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative and chair of the Pennyrile Regional Energy Agency that’s trying to build a natural gas pipeline in Western Kentucky.?

Glover told the Lantern he had received a call asking about his interest in serving on EPIC but hadn’t spoken with the governor personally. He said he wanted to learn more about EPIC and its duties before commenting. “I’m interested in energy. I’m interested in making our community better and our region better and this state better,” Glover said.?

The new law puts the director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, Rodney Andrews, on the executive committee. Andrews testified before lawmakers last week he is doing the “very early” work of understanding EPIC’s scope. Andrews would serve as EPIC’s executive director unless the executive committee chooses someone else.?

Beshear still has to appoint a third executive committee member who has experience serving as a CEO or board member “of a company engaged in the production of coal.” The full board will choose the final two members of the executive committee.?

The new law set a July 1 deadline for Beshear to appoint EPIC members. He still has multiple appointments to make from nominations by industry groups such as the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and Kentucky Industrial Utility Customers. The law reserves one seat for an appointee representing residential electricity consumers.

The law also requires EPIC to submit a study of the state’s electricity supply and the impact of federal policies on it by Dec. 1.?

Another of Beshear’s appointees, Mark Gooch, an executive of Community Trust Bank, has connections to One East Kentucky, an economic development nonprofit that opposed EPIC’s creation.??

Colby Kirk, CEO and president of One East Kentucky, told the Lantern that Gooch served on One East Kentucky’s board until 2023 and was board chair when Kirk was hired. Kirk emphasized Gooch wasn’t involved with the decision to oppose SB 349 this year. Gooch didn’t return emails or a message at his office requesting an interview.

Kirk said One East Kentucky’s decision to oppose the creation of EPIC was spurred by their local investor-owned utility Kentucky Power. Kentucky Power’s COO and president Cynthia Wiseman serves as the current board chair of One East Kentucky, and Community Trust Bank has membership on the board.?

“I felt that it’s just another, I would think, unnecessary barrier or layer of red tape,” Kirk said of EPIC. “We already have a Public Service Commission, and we already have an Office of Energy Policy. You know, what’s the real function of this?”

Christina Lee Brown, a philanthropist and supporter of the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, was described as a driver in getting the tree project off the ground. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

LOUISVILLE — A research project years in the making through the University of Louisville, The Nature Conservancy and other partners has found planting thousands of trees and shrubs in a south Louisville neighborhood has improved the health of hundreds of residents.?

The University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute launched the Green Heart Louisville Project in 2018. It has planted more than 8,000 large trees and shrubs across a four-mile area and studied the health of 745 nearby residents before and after the trees were planted.?

The researchers took blood, urine, hair and nail samples to collect health data from residents while also measuring tree coverage and air pollution levels in the area. The researchers then compared the collected data to city residents outside the research area.?

The results, announced before a crowd of supporters Tuesday in Wyandotte Park in south Louisville, showed residents living in the greener area had 13% to 20% lower levels of biomarkers for general inflammation.

Trees along a walking path in Wyandotte Park are among the thousands planted in neighborhoods and along the nearby highway corridor. “You all see those beautiful trees that are behind me? Well, they are more than beautiful. They are medicine,” said University of Louisville President Kim Schatzel to the crowd of supporters. “They are part of the revolutionary project to document and understand how trees affect the health of people living around them.”?

The biomarkers measured are called high-sensitivity C-reactive proteins, and higher levels of those proteins are strongly connected to cardiovascular disease and, according to a University of Louisville release, are “an even stronger indicator of heart attack than cholesterol levels.” Higher levels of the proteins are also connected to increased risk for diabetes and some cancers.?

Aruni Bhatnagar, the director of the Christiana Lee Brown Envirome Institute, framed the research as having the potential to significantly reduce heart attacks among Louisivillians.?

“We have over 1,800 to 2,000 heart attacks in Louisville every year, and if you can even decrease 10%? — that’s 200 lesser heart attacks,” Bhatnagar said. “If we can work on the scale that we’ve done here for the entire city, there will be a huge benefit. We can only think what it would be for the entire country.”?

Bhatnagar said while past research has shown that people living in “green communities” have a lower rate of mortality, he wasn’t aware of research like the University of Louisville project that compared the health effects of greenery added to a community.?

Toni Smith, 71, is one of the study’s participants and has lived across the highway from Wyandotte Park for the past 17 years. She said the added trees have helped beautify her neighborhood along with block some of the air and noise pollution coming from the highway.?

Smith, sitting under the shade of a tree in the park, said there’s a “certain calming aspect” to tree coverage, especially for those who love the outdoors. She said she’s a big advocate of anything that can help improve the environment and health of her neighborhood, mentioning the study has also served as a helpful health screening for participants.?

She would have had researchers plant a tree in her own yard, but there wasn’t room.?

“Because of my love of nature, I didn’t have a square inch to plant a tree, or I definitely would have had them come,” Smith said.

(Getty Images)

Entrepreneurs in Appalachia have ideas for renewable energy projects, but finding funding in rural and low-income areas can be challenging. A new initiative, the Green Bank for Rural America, could help channel funds to small, rural, nonprofit lenders to support projects like community solar arrays, apprenticeships in renewable energy fields and electrified public transit, just to name a few.

The green banking movement began as a way to finance small green energy projects. Banks loan money to businesses all the time, but loan processes can be difficult for business owners in low-income or rural communities. Community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, play a crucial role in supporting projects that otherwise might not get financed.

“CDFIs kind of serve as the on ramp for communities and banks on the highway,” Donna Gambrell, president of Appalachian Community Capital (ACC), said. The firm works to leverage resources toward low-income Appalachian communities through CDFIs. These small, community-based lenders are often better positioned to help businesses and people in under-invested areas.

New federal funding will help ACC provide more assistance to their small lender network. The steering committee for the Green Bank includes multiple CDFIs from across the Appalachian Region, including CommunityWorks Carolina, Grow America, Coalfield Development, Inc. and others.

The Environmental Protection Agency awarded ACC $500 million in seed funding to start a Green Bank for Rural America. The bank will prioritize the Appalachian region’s 582 counties, while also serving other communities across rural America, particularly low-income communities, communities of color, and communities in transition from fossil fuels. Gambrell said the bank will leverage private capital to create thousands of jobs in renewable energy.?

“We wanted to make sure that these were high impact projects, green projects, renewable energy projects that were in low wealth rural communities,” Gambrell said. “The projects themselves would help create jobs that stay in hard hit communities.”

The funds are part of the EPA’S $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created explicitly to support nonprofit lenders with a history of deep community relationships and investment in local projects. They are also intended to leverage further private investment, which ACC predicts could amount to $1.6 billion for the Appalachian region in total.?

The Green Bank is intended to raise the capacity for community lenders and allow for increased investment in all phases of energy transition and climate resilience, including workforce training, renewable energy storage, electric transit, home energy efficiency and disaster relief.

The money will support work that’s been going on in communities for a long time, Robin Gabbard, the president of Eastern Kentucky’s CDFI, the Mountain Association, said.??

In Eastern Kentucky, the Mountain Association supports rural community centers, groceries, small businesses, charities and homeowners by financing solar panels and energy retrofits that have saved them thousands.?

Gwen Christon runs an IGA grocery store in Isom, a town in Eastern Kentucky that already struggles with exorbitantly high power bills and a lack of grocery options. Climate change is worsening both problems. When her store was devastated by a flood, Christon had to start over, turning her town into a food desert as she searched for ways to reopen, Gabbard said. The Mountain Association helped Christon get funds for improved coolers, heating and air.?

“They’re reaping the benefits of reduced energy costs, so that they can reinvest back into their businesses and continue to grow their workforce, provide lower cost groceries,” Gabbard said.

Western North Carolina is served by five members of Appalachian Community Capital: Carolina Small Business Fund, Carolina Community Impact, Mountain BizWorks, Institute Capital and Piedmont Business Capital.The institutions are preparing to be ready to go when the new funding becomes available in 2025.

This story is republished from Blue Ridge Public Radio and is made possible ?through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Rodney Andrews (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — The director of an energy research center at the University of Kentucky told state lawmakers Friday it’s not likely a nuclear power plant will be built in Kentucky over the next 10 years, though some nuclear energy companies are interested in moving to the state.?

A new state law passed by the GOP-dominated legislature this year will make Rodney Andrews, the director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, the chair of a new research authority aiming to research and promote nuclear energy. The authority, administratively attached to the research center, is required by state law to present a study on workforce and education needs for nuclear energy by December, along with presenting another study by the end of 2025 determining the best locations for nuclear facilities.?

Andrews updated the Interim Natural Resources and Energy Committee on efforts to form the nuclear energy research authority along with another new commission established by lawmakers that creates new barriers to retiring a a fossil fuel-fired power plant. Both the nuclear authority and the power plant retirement review commission are administratively housed at the University of Kentucky’s research center.??

Andrews told lawmakers the state would be “extremely lucky” to see nuclear power within its borders in the next ten years, citing long permitting delays to build new nuclear power plants. Newer nuclear technology such as smaller, modular nuclear power plants have people “very excited,” he said, but no such modular reactors have been built yet.?

He said while the nuclear energy research authority isn’t fully operational yet, conversations have already started with a company that’s interested in locating a “nuclear facility” in Paducah.

“We’re also working with several companies that have expressed a strong interest in exploring bringing nuclear power to the state,” Andrews said. “There’s a great deal of interest among the utilities, but there is also significant interest from some of our largest power consumers.”?

WKMS, the public radio station in Murray, reported earlier this year a land deal was struck in McCracken County for a company seeking to use lasers to recycle depleted uranium stores, including uranium “tails” at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in West Kentucky. Andrews declined to offer more details to the Lantern about the company interested in moving to Paducah.?

Kentucky has never had a nuclear power plant. But the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in West Kentucky produced enriched uranium for the country’s nuclear weapons program and later for commercial nuclear power plants. Maxey Flats in northeastern Kentucky served as a disposal site for low-level radioactive waste during the 20th century. Both installations contaminated surrounding soil and water and required extensive remediation.

Nuclear reactors don’t produce direct greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. But energy analysts are divided on whether nuclear energy can be developed quickly enough to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Appointment delays for board creating fossil fuel retirement barriers

Andrews also updated lawmakers on efforts to form the Energy Inventory and Planning Commission, or EPIC, a new agency that utilities would have to come to first when requesting to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant in the state, such as plants using coal or natural gas.?

Utilities and environmentalists decried the bill establishing EPIC, saying it would result in ratepayers bearing the costs of keeping aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the grid when lower-cost alternatives are available. Critics also said the board’s statutory makeup had pro-industry and pro-fossil fuel biases with little representation for the interests of ratepayers. Proponents of the bill, including Senate President Robert Stivers, argued EPIC was needed to make sure the state’s energy capacity was secure in the face of rising energy demands.?

Andrews, as director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, would be a part of a five-member executive committee for EPIC alongside members representing utilities and the coal industry. Utilities would have to approach this committee and have a request to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant analyzed before requesting the retirement before the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator that has traditionally analyzed and approved or denied power plant retirements.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear — who echoed the concerns of utilities in vetoing the bill and calling it unconstitutional — is over a month overdue in making appointments to EPIC. The? statutory deadline was July 1.

Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, asked Andrews if the appointments to EPIC were forthcoming or if he was aware of anything that was “holding up” Beshear’s? appointments. Andrews replied the governor’s office had “gotten recommendations” and that the appointments would happen “very quickly.”?

Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, in a statement to the Lantern in early July said the office was “working on a process that is legal under the Kentucky Constitution” to make the appointments, and that letters seeking nominations had been sent.?

Andrews, speaking with the Lantern after his presentation to lawmakers, said the research center can provide expertise to make sure the “work product is as technically sound as possible” for both the nuclear research authority and the fossil fuel retirement review commission.?

He told lawmakers he was in the “very early” work of building the scope of how EPIC would operate, which includes considering the state’s future power needs, including possibly? trying to attract large energy consumers such as data centers.

“The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one you don't have to produce in the first place,” said Byron Gary, a Kentucky Resources Council attorney. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Investor-owned Kentucky Power faced strong criticism last year when it asked to increase its electricity rates in response to “historic” economic decline among the 20 Eastern Kentucky counties it serves.?

The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) ultimately slashed the proposed rate hike by over two-thirds, approving a 5.66% increase in residential bills. But as part of that decision, Kentucky Power agreed to collaborate with a coalition of consumer and renewable energy advocacy groups on ways to help ratepayers reduce their electricity bills by making their homes more energy efficient.

Kentucky Power ratepayers already paid the state’s highest average residential electricity bill at $187 a month before last year’s rate increase, and the area the utility serves includes some of the poorest communities in the state and the entire country.?

Advocates and the utility met over recent months, but the coalition of groups is disappointed in what Kentucky Power has proposed and plans to urge the PSC to push the utility to be more ambitious with its energy efficiency offerings. These groups say energy efficiency programs could offer home upgrades that households could repay through monthly utility bills while they save electricity and money.?

Byron Gary, a Kentucky Resources Council attorney representing the groups, said much more could be done “to cut down on the suffering of folks in Eastern Kentucky as well as the continued reliance on fossil fuels.”?

He said the groups hope robust energy efficiency offerings could also reduce the utility’s power demand and, the groups hope, dissuade the utility from building a new natural gas-fired power plant that ratepayers would bear the costs of.?

“The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one you don’t have to produce in the first place,” Gary said.?

Kentucky Power spokesperson Sarah Nusbaum in a statement said the utility is surprised and disappointed by the criticism “especially from groups we would have expected to support energy efficiency programs.” Nusbaum said the utility’s goal is to gauge interest from ratepayers in the new program offerings that could then lead to those programs being ramped up and expanded.

The ratepayers who pay the highest bills

During a hearing over Kentucky Power’s rate case last year, then-PSC Chairman Kent Chandler honed in on data provided by the utility that showed Kentucky Power’s poorest ratepayers had, on average, the highest electricity usage compared to the utility’s average residential customer. That high usage leads to high bills.

“Those customers that are likely least able to afford their bill, relative to the average residential customer, have the highest bill, is that right?” Chandler asked Kentucky Power President Cynthia Wiseman during the hearing.?

“I would presume that’s true,” Wiseman replied.?

Bills are significantly higher for those whose incomes are low enough to qualify for federal assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Program (LIHEAP), a federally funded program that helps low-income people afford utility bills.

The average monthly electricity consumption for all Kentucky residential ratepayers in 2022 was 1,094 kilowatt-hours, according to the Energy Information Administration. But the data presented by Chandler showed electricity consumption for Kentucky Power ratepayers was higher than that average — significantly higher for those receiving LIHEAP assistance.?

During the winter months when electricity consumption peaks for Kentucky Power, the Eastern Kentucky utility’s ratepayers who take part in LIHEAP on average use more than 2,500 kilowatt-hours per month. Multiply that consumption by Kentucky Power’s average residential rate? — approximately 16 cents per kilowatt in 2022, among the highest in the state? — and you get monthly electricity costs north of $400. During some months the past three winters, roughly 20% of Kentucky Power ratepayers who take part in LIHEAP have used more than 4,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to Kentucky Power data provided to the PSC. Wiseman during a November 2023 PSC hearing mentioned some ratepayers’ monthly electricity usage has gone as high as 6,000 kilowatt-hours.?

A major reason cited by Kentucky Power leadership for such high electricity consumption: Many homes need better insulation and better, more efficient heating sources.?

Disagreement after a collaboration

That’s where energy efficiency programs and “weatherizing” a home can play a role in reducing electricity usage and electricity bills. Chris Woolery, a residential energy coordinator for the nonprofit Mountain Association supporting economic development in Eastern Kentucky, said that kind of work can include better insulation, air sealing a home and installing energy-efficient heat pumps to warm a household.?

Many Kentuckians, Woolery said, have types of resistance heat such as electric furnaces and baseboard heaters, or they use space heaters.?

“That is some of the most expensive and inefficient heat that you can buy,” Woolery said, saying switching people to use heat pumps is key. “When a utility can invest in getting people off of resistance heat, they can often save so much money in peak demand, generation or power purchase costs that it offsets the investment.”

A focus on improving Kentucky Power’s energy efficiency programs is something that state government officials, nonprofit housing builders, consumer advocacy and renewable energy groups and Kentucky Power all collaborated on in a series of stakeholder meetings.?

The meetings were characterized as “mutually beneficial” by Barry Nolen, a customer and distribution services manager with Kentucky Power, in testimony filed before the PSC.?

Kentucky Power is proposing to add additional funding for an existing program that helps ratepayers get energy efficiency upgrades through home air sealing, new insulation, new doors, new windows and new lighting. The federal Weatherization Assistance Program is what facilitates those upgrades, but oftentimes homeowners who need that help are deferred or denied it because of damage or structural issues to a home.?

If there’s a roof leak, for example, newly installed insulation could be destroyed by water damage. That’s where the federal Weatherization Readiness Fund comes in to support ratepayers making home repairs necessary before making energy efficiency improvements. Kentucky Power is also offering additional funding for a federal fund, up to $1,000 for 60 homes over three years.

But advocates that collaborated with Kentucky Power say while the new investments are appreciated, they still don't meet the scale of the need among Kentucky Power’s ratepayers.?

“It must be in the thousands, if not the tens of thousands of homes that need improvements in Kentucky Power’s territory,” said Andy McDonald, vice-chair of the solar energy advocacy group Kentucky Solar Energy Society. “We appreciate that Kentucky Power is aware of this issue and concerned about it” but that the program “is not in proportion to the need.”

The groups also see potential for going further with new programs the utility could offer. The groups point to a type of program called Inclusive Utility Investment (IUI) where individual households could receive energy efficiency upgrades to their home in exchange for a charge on their bill, potentially saving money on their bill while the utility still recoups their investment. They also point to the potential of replicating a program offering home battery storage systems.

McDonald shared with the Lantern a consultant report from the Vermont-based consulting firm Energy Futures Group that showed the amount of investment in energy efficiency programs Kentucky Power would be proposing is much lower than what other utilities offer and lower than what Kentucky Power itself has invested in the past. The PSC in 2018 scrapped almost all of Kentucky Power’s energy efficiency programs stating the “high levels of spending” on the programs couldn’t be justified.??

Nusbaum, the Kentucky Power spokesperson, said in her statement the utility was focused on programs that were “proven and cost-effective to customers” and that the utility didn’t believe an IUI program “would provide benefits that would outweigh the cost to our customers.”?

Nusbaum also said they determined the amount of funding for the Weatherization Readiness Fund through consultation with community action agencies in the state that administer such help, an investment level the utility believes is “impactful for customers” while also being mindful of what ratepayers will have to pay on their bills to implement such programs.?

“We worked hard to develop this proposal to help our customers,” Nusbaum said. “Some of the good work we felt was accomplished to make this happen, we did with some of the groups criticizing the current proposal. It’s disappointing to hear negative feedback and opposition from these stakeholders, especially since this opposition can delay or even prevent the important [demand side management] benefits these programs will provide for our most vulnerable customers.”

Worries over fossil fuels

These disagreements over energy efficiency come as Kentucky Power is seeking more power generation, some of it potentially through additional fossil fuels. The prospect concerns advocacy groups that the cost of building, for example, a new natural gas-fired power plant would fall on ratepayers.?

“We're really excited that they're starting new programs, but we're just disappointed that the scale is not enough to affect that [natural gas] peaker plant that's proposed,” Woolery said. “Every one of those investments is so meaningful to the families that received them, but in the grand scheme it’s going to take a whole lot more to offset the need, right?”

Kentucky Power currently only has one natural gas-fired power plant and it’s unclear if the utility will have access to electricity generation from a West Virginia coal-fired power plant beyond 2028. Kentucky Power is a subsidiary of American Electric Power based Columbus, Ohio.

As of now, that leaves the utility having to purchase the rest of its power from the regional electricity grid operator PJM, which can expose the utility to potentially paying higher power prices compared to producing it on its own. The PSC scolded Kentucky Power last year for having insufficient in-house power generation available during a December 2022 winter storm, forcing the utility to pay exorbitantly high electricity prices from PJM as much of the South and Midwest faced a power demand crunch.

Kentucky Power leadership in an energy planning document filed to the PSC last year wrote its “preferred plan” for the future was to add to its energy portfolio a 480-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant along with 700 megawatts of new wind power, 800 megawatts of new solar power and 50 megawatts of electricity battery storage. The utility also put out requests to purchase up to 1,800 megawatts of fossil fuel-fired and renewable energy last year.?

Nusbaum, the utility spokesperson, in her statement said while energy efficiency programs are an important part of addressing future energy needs, it can not “alone cannot fully address all of them.”?

Woolery framed the energy efficiency programs as a choice Kentucky Power has to make: invest in a “really risky path” of adding a natural gas-fired power plant amid uncertainty over how greenhouse gas emissions will be regulated, or invest in a “virtual power plant.” He said that means investing in energy efficiency in homes, rooftop solar, household battery storage that can reduce the future energy demand — and the potential for a new natural gas fuel-fired power plant — the utility is considering.

“It just seems like the smart play, the play that's going to make more jobs, going to save more money, going to create less risk and uncertainty is to invest in ourselves, to invest in our communities,” Woolery said.

Cleanup efforts at the Isom IGA store in East Kentucky after the flooding of July 2022. (Photo by Malcolm Wilson)

This story was produced through a collaboration between the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America, and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group.

On the day he would become homeless, Wesley Bryant was awoken by his wife, Alexis.

“Get up,” she told him. “There’s a flood outside.”

It was 8 a.m. on a Thursday in late July, two years ago in rural Pike County, Kentucky, and rain had been pouring for days. Overnight, it got heavier. Homes and vehicles were being swept down the narrow valleys of Eastern Kentucky’s mountainous terrain.

Dozens of people died after more than a foot of rain fell from July 26 through July 30, 2022, flooding 13 rural counties in Eastern Kentucky. Yet as these communities attempt to rebuild, they’re being overlooked for federal spending that’s protecting wealthier and more urbanized Americans from such weather disasters.

Wesley, Alexis, their two daughters and Alexis’ sister evacuated, hiking the half-mile to Alexis’ mother’s house via the mountains behind their own home to avoid flooded roads. They’ve been living there ever since.

Kentucky is a regular victim of flooding. During the past century, more than 100 people have died in storms across the state, including at least 44 two summers ago. Heat-trapping pollution is driving up rainfall rates and flood risks.

Thousands of survivors were forced to move out of damaged homes, including Wesley and his family. Their house, which Wesley’s grandfather built in the 1970s, is unlivable. Insulation peels from the ceiling and the floors bubble with water damage. Finding contractors to fix the house has been difficult because thousands of other flooded properties are also being repaired or replaced.

Their furniture and appliances were destroyed, and Wesley estimates replacing them would cost around $20,000. The family was denied FEMA disaster assistance so they’ve had to foot these costs themselves. “We just need a little help from our government,” he said.

Despite histories of flooding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) classifies Pike County and the 12 other counties that flooded two years ago as facing “low” risks in the event of a natural disaster like a flood. That’s largely because they have less to lose —financially — compared to more urbanized areas.

Critics of FEMA’s risk-determination tool, called the National Risk Index, say it doesn’t include enough information about rural communities, especially when it comes to flooding, leading it to understate hazards.

That suggests that as the federal government cranks up spending on infrastructure, including the allocation of more than $1 billion to help reduce future flood threats, families in East Kentucky and other rural regions are at risk of missing out on projects that could help them prepare better for the next disaster.

What is the National Risk Index

FEMA developed its National Risk Index to help local and state officials and residents plan for emergencies through an online tool. The agency sourced historic rainfall and other data to characterize these risks, allowing it to paint a national picture of threats from local disasters, findings that influence its spending decisions.

FEMA began developing the risk index in 2016, though initial work dates to 2008. The first iteration of the risk index was released in October 2020, and the data has been updated twice since then, most recently in March 2023.

Work to update how the risk index handles inland flooding is expected early next year. In a press release touting new requirements that forced the coming update, the Biden administration said that in “recent years, communities have seen repeated flooding that threatens both lives and property” but that the agency’s approaches to measuring risks based on historical data “have become outdated.”

The agency is also working on a “climate-informed” risk index looking at future hazards but, so far, inland flooding is not on the list of disasters planned to be included.

FEMA’s national and regional press offices declined to be interviewed or answer questions for this story.

“There’s a bias against, I think, rural communities, especially in the flood dataset,” said Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, a nonprofit that certifies floodplain managers and educates policymakers about flood loss. He said this bias could profoundly confuse or affect emergency managers in those areas.

“It’s giving false results,” Berginnis said. “I think we’ve got to be very thoughtful and very careful on how we use [the risk index] for the hazard of flood in particular.”

The building of homes and communities in vulnerable locations and the effects of heat-trapping pollution are converging to escalate the frequency of weather disasters across the U.S. One of the effects of climate change is an intensification in the amount of rainfall that can fall every hour. A federal report on the latest climate science showed the rainiest days across the Southeast are dumping more than a third more water on average now than was the case in the late 1950s. Ongoing emissions and warming threaten to continue to boost rainfall rates.

“If it’s gone up that much already, we might be wise to be concerned,” said Scott Denning, an atmospheric sciences professor at Colorado State University who studies carbon dioxide, water, and energy cycles. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

That rain often falls on ground where coal mining excavations removed mountaintops. Researchers overlaid data regarding fatalities from the floods with maps of mountaintop removal mining and found that many of the deaths were downstream from or adjacent to such sites.

Neglecting rural Americans

Todd DePriest doesn’t “believe in Facebook,” but uses his mother’s account to surf the website’s digital marketplace. That’s what he was doing two summers ago when he saw alerts about severe floods in Letcher County, Kentucky, where he serves as the mayor of Jenkins, population 1,800.

Public service announcements warning people to “turn around, don’t drown” during floods were circulating on his mother’s feed. DePriest got up from his computer to look out the window at the torrential rain and realized the threat his own town was about to face.

DePriest jumped in his Jeep to check on the bridge at the lower end of Jenkins. When he got there, the road across the bridge had already flooded.

“I started calling people I knew down there and said, ‘Hey, the water’s up and if you want to get out of here, we’re going to have to do something pretty quick,’” DePriest said.

His next calls were to the fire department to prepare them for the emergencies to which they were likely to respond, then to city workers to get essential maintenance vehicles like garbage trucks to higher ground.

Letcher County was one of the hardest hit of the 13 counties declared federal disaster areas by FEMA. Five of those killed across the region were in Letcher County.

Two years since the floods, the region is still rebuilding. “They (FEMA) were telling us it was going to take four or five, six years to recover and get through this,” DePriest said. “And I thought, well, there’s no way it’s going to take that long.”

Now, DePriest hopes it only takes five years.

“All the processes and dealing with FEMA – and I think they’re fair in what they do – but it’s just a process,” DePriest said.

The National Risk Index multiplies a community’s expected annual loss in dollars by their risk factor. Like most of the east Kentucky counties that flooded two summers ago, Letcher County’s risk level is scored “very low” by the risk index.

That’s because it includes annual asset loss in its equations.

Rural counties like Letcher, where the average home costs about $75,000 and median household income is half the national average, score lower on the risk scale because there are fewer dollars to lose when disaster strikes. The area’s flood hazard threat is deemed relatively high but the potential consequences in financial losses are lower compared with denser areas.

The urban-rural disparity can be examined by comparing how the National Risk Index judges Jackson, Kentucky, a small city about 80 miles southeast of Lexington, with Jackson, Mississippi, the Magnolia State’s populous capital.

Both cities saw disastrous flooding during the summer of 2022. Unlike its namesake in Kentucky, Jackson, Mississippians suffered no flood deaths, though financial damage was far worse —?an estimated $1 billion.

Hinds County – home to Mississippi’s capital – is assigned a “relatively moderate” risk level. Its social vulnerability is categorized as very high, with community resiliency categorized as relatively high, meaning the community is expected to bounce back more effortlessly after disaster. River flooding is deemed the second greatest natural disaster risk, with annual losses estimated at about $15 million.

To compare, Breathitt County, where Jackson, Kentucky, is located, is given a “very low” risk level by the National Risk Index. Its social vulnerability is categorized as relatively high and community resiliency is categorized as very low, suggesting it would need more help after disasters. Although FEMA considers river flooding the greatest disaster risk to the community, its annual losses are rated at just $1.3 million.

This urban-rural difference matters because FEMA uses the National Risk Index to determine how much money communities should receive to better prepare for natural disasters. For example, it’s being used to make decisions about spending $1.2 trillion available to lessen future flood risks under the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The risk index is also used to determine which communities get money through FEMA’s Community Disaster Resilience Zones program, which designated 483 community census tracts as Community Disaster Resilience Zones last year. This means the communities inside those tracts can receive extra money for disaster planning. Of those census tracts, a third are federally classified as rural.

Disaster experts say relying solely on the risk index can disadvantage places that lack long-term weather records — which are often missing from rural communities.

Weather stations can be sparse in treacherous landscapes. Rural areas are among the last to have their flood hazards mapped by FEMA, with the agency prioritizing higher-density regions. And National Weather Service offices tend to be located in more urban areas, according to Melanie Gall, co-director of the Center for Emergency Management Homeland Security at Arizona State University.

“I think that we miss a lot,” she said.

Progress post-flood

Immediately after the July 2022 floods, FEMA and Kentucky Emergency Management began temporarily providing trailers for hundreds of flood survivors. Both programs have since ended.

FEMA gave trailer occupants the option to purchase their units as permanent housing. The trailer cost was determined by a formula that factored the type of unit, its size, and how many months it had been occupied by the interested buyer.

In the middle of the most recent winter, 18 months after torrential rainfall on steep slopes left so many families homeless, federal trailers that hadn’t been paid for were hauled away.

Kentucky’s program offered more flexibility: While the program has ended, three families still live in state-funded campers, according to Julia Stanganelli, flood recovery coordinator for the Housing Development Alliance. The Eastern Kentucky-based affordable housing developer has led the efforts to rehab and rebuild houses lost in the flood using state disaster money.

The three families are living in the campers while they wait for a new housing development to be built above the floodplain in Knott County, Kentucky, Stanganelli said.

East Kentucky’s population was declining long before the floods. Shaping Our Appalachian Region, a nonprofit focused on population retention and growth, estimates Eastern Kentucky has lost nearly 55,000 residents since 2000. The floods accelerated the losses.

During the 2022 floods, already sparse cell service went out entirely, and even the U.S. Weather Service’s on-duty warning meteorologist faced busy or disconnected phone lines, recalls Jane Marie Wix, a warning coordination meteorologist with the Weather Service.

Wix said the creek near her house turned into a “river,” preventing her from reaching work. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless before.”

Locals are working to better prepare for the next disaster, with or without federal government help.

Todd DePriest, the mayor of Jenkins, worked with the nonprofit law firm Appalachian Citizens Law Center to pay for four stream monitors that can trigger flood warnings.

Wesley Bryant, the Pike County resident whose home flooded two years ago, said he’s called his state representatives “hundreds of times” to keep Eastern Kentucky’s disaster recovery top of mind.

Bryant said he recently felt “pretty defeated” after receiving another notification about failing to qualify for federal assistance. But he said he won’t quit fighting.

“This is my home, this is my commonwealth,” Wesley said. “I’m going to fight for it.”

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Canoeing the Green River is one of Mammoth Cave National Park's many above ground attractions. (National Park Service)

Mammoth Cave National Park is famous for what’s below the ground, featuring the world’s longest explored cave system with hundreds of miles of passages and a unique ecosystem of fish, insects, worms and crustaceans. But it’s what’s happening in the air above the cave system that has Kentucky environmentalists concerned.?

Mammoth Cave is one of the country’s haziest national parks, says a national group dedicated to conserving the parks. Environmental groups say a Kentucky plan being drafted for controlling the air pollution that causes haze falls short — criticisms state officials largely refute.

Haze is tiny, airborne particulate matter that can obscure outdoor visibility. It can be created from natural sources such as wildfires but largely comes from man-made sources, such as emissions from motor vehicles and power plants. This pollution can impact people’s health by aggravating asthma, reducing lung function and leading to heart problems. It can also negatively impact wildlife.

“We’re seeing more of these haze pollutants depositing into the soil and the water and impacting wildlife, because they eat a lot of things that are in the soil and in the water,” said Natalie Levine, the senior manager for clean air and climate programs at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the group that analyzed haze pollution in national parks.?

According to the NPCA, the large majority of that haze drifting into national parks is man-made. And at Mammoth Cave, more than 70% of pollution contributing to haze is coming from electricity generation — specifically coal-fired power plants.?

Smokestack emissions from coal-fired power plants contain toxic gasses sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which can react with water and other atmospheric gasses to become acid rain that acidifies water and soil and harms the wildlife that rely on them. Excess nitrogen and sulfur from these gasses can be deposited into the soil and water through acid rain or by settling onto surfaces through the air, potentially killing and inhibiting the growth of trees and other plants.?

“We are concerned about our national parks. We’re concerned about their biodiversity. We’re concerned about hazy skies and giving people the best outdoor experience possible. But we’re really talking about the health of the communities as well,” said Julia Finch, the director of the Sierra Club’s Kentucky chapter.

A spokesperson for Kentucky’s environmental protection cabinet, however, says its efforts to reduce haze “are significantly reducing emissions”? and that air quality around the national park is better than national standards.?

John Mura, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet that houses the Division for Air Quality, in a statement said the state is committed to working with federal agencies “and other interested parties to ensure the cleanest air quality possible for our citizens by understanding and addressing the emission sources that are contributing to visibility issues at Mammoth Cave National Park.”?

Slow improvements in haze

Haze protections for national parks date back to the establishment of the Clean Air Act in the 1960s and the additions and amendments added to it over the decades,?

In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), empowered through the Clean Air Act, issued new regulations requiring states to develop regional plans to reduce haze in national parks and control the pollution sources contributing to it. Such regional plans, for example, could require coal-fired power plants to install smokestack scrubbers or controls to filter out sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions. The long-term goal of the plans is to return national parks to their original natural visibility by 2064.?

But there have been a number of delays in getting states to submit these plans, Kentucky included. The EPA required the first version of these plans to be submitted by the end of 2007; Kentucky did, but 37 states did not. Progress reports on how states are meeting goals set in their haze plans are due every five years, and new versions of the regional haze plans are due every 10 years.?

The EPA set another deadline for states to submit their second version of regional haze plans in July 2021, a deadline that Kentucky and 14 other states did not meet. Kentucky is now trying to submit a new draft haze plan for the EPA to consider by a new deadline of Sept. 29 under the potential threat the EPA could step in and create its own haze plan for Kentucky.?

State officials say Kentucky’s first regional plan has decreased the state’s sulfur dioxide emissions by 310,047 tons since 2008, and that air quality at the park is better than national standards.?

Data from the National Park Service (NPS) does show visibility and the impacts of acid rain and ozone at the park have improved in a little over a decade since the state’s first haze plan was submitted, though acid rain and ozone are still impacting wildlife and human health.?

Median visibility at the park only reached a “fair” classification as of 2021 after having “poor” visibility since 2009, according to NPS data. The amount of sulfur and nitrogen deposited into the park’s soil and water every year through acid rain and the air has decreased, though sulfur levels have decreased much more significantly than nitrogen levels.?

The levels of ozone, a reactive gas largely created from emissions from power plants and cars that can harm human health, have also decreased since 2009. Ozone impacts to vegetation in the park are rated at a “good” level but remain as only “fair” for human health, according to the NPS.?

Environmentalists say more should be done

Even with that progress, environmental groups including the Kentucky Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Kentucky Resources Council, say the updated haze plan Kentucky is considering doesn’t do nearly enough to reduce air pollution impacting the park through haze and acid rain.??

These environmental groups say only two coal-fired power plants — the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Shawnee Fossil Plant in McCracken County and the Big Rivers Electric Corporation’s D.B. Wilson Generating Station — were analyzed by the state as potential sources of haze pollution in the draft plan when over a dozen more pollution sources including other power plants and industry are also contributing to the haze.?

Among the two power plants analyzed, these groups say, the state decided to not require any additional emissions controls to reduce nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from the plants. The groups say state officials also only accounted for controlling sulfur dioxide emissions and not nitrogen dioxide emissions, which also can create haze.?

“In the excluded list were five coal plants and nine other industrial facilities, including those with aluminum and metal smelter operations, oil and gas operations, and lime and cement operations,” said Audrey Ernstberger, a lobbyist with the Kentucky Resources Council at a public hearing on the draft haze plan last month.

Ernstberger said the result, according to KRC’s analysis, is that more than 82,000 tons of haze pollution will still be released under the draft plan.?

In Kentucky’s draft plan, state officials write that because the electric utility Big Rivers Electric Corp. had installed a device in November 2022 to control sulfur dioxide at its Wilson coal-fired power plant, a deeper analysis into potential emissions controls wasn’t needed.?

Officials also write that the emission levels of nitrogen dioxide coming from the Wilson and Shawnee plants didn’t exceed “screening thresholds” in the state’s modeling, so officials “did not perform any reasonable progress analyses” for nitrogen dioxide emissions.?

For the Shawnee Fossil Plant, Mura said the state worked with the Tennessee Valley Authority to modify its state air permit to limit sulfur dioxide from the plant to 8,208 tons per year starting in 2028. State officials chose that limit following a deeper “four-factor” analysis conducted into potential emission controls for the coal-fired plant.?

When asked by the Lantern why the state chose only the Wilson and Shawnee plants to analyze for haze pollution, Mura said the state used modeling to determine the plants were “significantly impacting Mammoth Cave National Park and that limiting SO2 emissions at these facilities would have the greatest impact in improving visibility in the region.”?

If Kentucky meets the September deadline for submitting a haze plan, the EPA could approve the plan as is, ask the state to make revisions or step in and make its own plan. A federal judge last month signed a consent decree directing the EPA to speed up action on haze plans submitted by 32 other states.?

Hilary Lambert, a former Lexington resident who led a New York-based water protection nonprofit, said at the July public hearing she owns a cabin in Green County less than 50 miles east of Mammoth Cave National Park. She echoed what she wrote in a Louisville Courier-Journal column saying the state needs to do more to curb pollution and ensure compliance with state and federal regulations.?

“It's the state's own, the commonwealth's only big national park, and it's a jewel for people to visit,” Lambert said at the hearing. “Please get up to date and bring a number of businesses into compliance with the law to clean up the air for everybody.”

Lewis Ritchie pulls a kayak through floodwater after delivering groceries to his father-in-law on July 28, 2022 outside Jackson in Breathitt County. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Over a week in July 2022, more than a foot of rainfall came down on Eastern Kentucky bringing a deluge of flood waters that displaced thousands of people and killed more than 40. A recent study published by Kentucky’s former top geologist suggests environmental damage from surface coal mining worsened the deadly disaster, perhaps significantly.

Bill Haneberg, the author of the study, led the Kentucky Geological Survey as state geologist until 2023 and fielded questions after the catastrophic floods about the role coal mining played in the flooding. That spurred him to try and find an answer, analyzing federal rainfall data from July 2022 and other datasets involving topography and where mountaintop removal sites were located in the region.?

Surface coal mining, which includes mountaintop removal mining, has had sprawling impacts on the landscape in Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia. With surface coal mining, trees and soil are removed, and rock on the side and top of a mountain is blown off with explosives to reach a coal seam underneath. What remains, environmental and mine safety advocates say, is a mined surface with little vegetation and little to no water retention.?

Haneberg said the July 2022 floods were a 1,000-year rainfall event and would have been a “bad flood” regardless of surface mining’s impacts. But he believes his study shows surface coal mining made the floods “significantly worse.”

His study found that the maximum additional water that could have been contributed by surface coal mining, compared to unmined areas, were:

• 28% more along the North Fork Kentucky River near Jackson, the Breathitt County seat. That’s equivalent to approximately 17 billion gallons more water added.?
• 41% more at the confluence of Troublesome Creek and the Nork Fork Kentucky River. That’s equivalent to 6.1 billion gallons more water added.?
• 21% more along the North Fork Kentucky River near Hazard, the Perry County seat. That’s equivalent to approximately 4.1 billion gallons of water.
• 22% more along the North Fork Kentucky River near Whitesburg, the Letcher County seat. That’s equivalent to approximately 0.3 billion gallons more water added.?
• Over 50% more in areas adjacent to mined land, and between 50% to 150% more ?— essentially doubling the amount of water — in small tributaries originating from mined land.?

The calculations are for the maximum potential of surface mining’s contribution, which assumes that the mined lands in the areas studied had zero ability to absorb water. The actual amount of water contributed, Haneberg said, is likely less than the maximum. But he said the point of the study was to show the potential contributions surface mining had in the disaster, an important context to have moving forward.?

“Coal mining has been declining in Eastern Kentucky, but those mine lands are going to be with us for a long, long time,” Haneberg told the Lantern. “If you don’t understand that context for the events you’re trying to mitigate or the problems you’re trying to solve, there’s a good chance you may be wrong, and when you’re dealing with hazards like this, that could be very deadly and expensive.”?

He said that context is especially important given that climate change is increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding events in Appalachia.?

“You can’t fix a problem you can’t define, and one of the worst things to do is deny that there’s any problem at all,” Haneberg said.?

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a progressive grassroots advocacy group, alongside former federal and state coal mine inspectors, last year called on the federal Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Enforcement to launch an investigation into how surface mining affected the July 2022 floods.?

Davie Randsell, a former supervisor for the Kentucky Division of Mining Permits who was part of that call to action, said the potential impacts of surface mining on Eastern Kentucky flooding goes beyond active mines to include the reduced ability of reclaimed mine lands to absorb and hold back water, too.?

“It doesn’t replicate what was there before,” Randsell said of reclamation and the “eons” required to create new sedimentary rock that was destroyed. “It’s still going to be much more highly permeable, and it’s going to discharge more water.”?

She said the new study was a “hallmark statement” of what federal officials need to investigate. Emails sent to an inbox for media inquiries to the federal office asking whether the office was considering an investigation were not returned.?

Beverly May, a retired epidemiologist with the University of Kentucky and a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, said the study was “completely consistent” with what she saw in the days after the flood and her own documentation.?

May was one of the authors of a separate study from University of Kentucky researchers last year that analyzed the locations of people killed in the July 2022 floods and found a number of fatality locations were adjacent, or downstream from, mountaintop removal mine sites. The study also found more than 40% of analyzed fatalities from the July 2022 floods happened within a half-mile of Troublesome Creek, a tributary that flows into the North Fork Kentucky River.?

May said she remembered driving a woman from one of the federal relief camps to visit the woman’s father down the hill. The woman, May said, told her during the drive she was a cousin to four children who drowned in Knott County.?

May said when she turned up the road along where Montgomery Creek flows into Troublesome Creek in Knott County she saw that the force of the flood waters had washed away much of the dirt supporting the road along the creek, and the road itself was broken off along the edges.?

“I get almost to her dad’s house, look in front of me, and there is a flat horizon of a huge mountaintop removal job…it just fills up the horizon,” May recalled. “I stopped whatever the conversation I was having and took a breath. And I said, ‘Do you think that mine has something to do with the flood?’ And she looked at it and paused a minute, and she said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never thought about that.’”?

Sights like this barge loaded with coal on the Ohio Rive near Cairo, Illinois, would become more rare under a Biden administration rule that seeks to curb heat-trapping emissions by drastically reducing the burning of coal and gas to produce electricity. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — A litigator for the Kentucky attorney general disputed the role of carbon dioxide emissions in warming the world’s climate, despite near-total agreement among scientists that the clear gas is a major contributor to warming.

Speaking Thursday to state lawmakers, Vic Maddox, counsel on special litigation for Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman, cited the work of two physicists — William Happer and Richard Lindzen — who insist there is no climate emergency and have long disputed or questioned the scientific consensus on climate change. Maddox pointed to two recent publications — an eight-page article from June, published in an open-access archive maintained by Cornell University, and a two-page document from July.

According to Maddox, Happer and Lindzen contend that carbon dioxide has become a “weak greenhouse gas” because of the “saturation effect,” and that the more carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere the “less of a warming effect it has.”

Maddox was among several witnesses appearing before the legislature’s Interim Joint Natural Resources and Energy Committee which was discussing the implications of new federal rules requiring coal-fired power plants and new natural gas-fired power plants to capture 90% of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 if the plants intend to run beyond 2039.?

As of earlier this year, Kentucky generated more than 70% of its electricity from burning coal according to federal data, an outlier in the country as utilities have transitioned to cheaper alternatives such as natural gas or renewables. Coal is considered to be the “dirtiest” fossil fuel in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from burning it for electricity.

Coleman, along with other Republican state attorneys general and investor-owned utilities in Kentucky, is challenging the rule which he calls a “radical green agenda that would only leave Kentucky in the dark.”

Maddox, in explaining the AG’s legal efforts to block the Biden administration rule, said the EPA should consider the physicists’ conclusions about the role of carbon dioxide emissions.

“We think the EPA should consider it, and we think that as these cases go forward, there may be an opportunity to present this sort of material to the court for consideration,” Maddox said. “The question here is …is carbon dioxide really an important greenhouse gas at this point? Is it causing the problem that the EPA wants to solve, and will its elimination or reduction actually result in the result that it seeks?”?

Scientists have come to a near universal consensus that the Earth’s climate is getting warmer mostly because of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels that releases carbon dioxide emissions, those being a primary driver of global warming. Scientists have also refuted the theory, which dates back more than a century, that the atmosphere will warm at a much slower rate because it is already “saturated” with carbon dioxide.?

A climate scientist from the University of Washington, who reviewed the eight-page June document from Happer and Lindzen that Maddox cited, criticized the methodology of the document and the small number and quality of references in that document. He also said the document, which he characterized as “shoddy work,” wasn’t a peer-reviewed publication nor had it appeared in a scientific journal.

“The Cornell archive simply provides people with a place to self-publish, rather similar to some websites,” said Thomas Ackerman, a professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences. “There is a grain of truth to the absorption saturation argument, but the application here is wrong. It would take a lot of radiative transfer physics to explain that in detail, but, if that argument were true, a lot of us scientists would have figured that out a long time ago.”

“If this were a meaningful paper, it would be peer-reviewed and published,” Ackerman said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body at the United Nations of the world’s leading climate scientists, in its latest synthesis report found greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide have “unequivocally” caused global warming with impacts to ecosystems on land and water, increases in extreme heat events and sea level rises likely attributed to climate change.?

When asked by the Lantern about Happer’s and Lindzen’s skepticism about climate change, Maddox didn’t directly address the question and claimed that models predicting climate change by the IPCC were inaccurate and “so inadequate that they can’t predict what has already happened.”?

Maddox referenced a book from Steven Koonin, another physicist who worked in the U.S. Department of Energy under President Barack Obama, in his criticisms of the IPCC. That book has been criticized as misleading, using strawman arguments to attack climate science or falsely asserting that climate science isn’t settled.

In a 2021 article in National Review, the physicists Lindzen and Happer criticized the Biden?administration for signing onto the Paris climate accord and “joining in the crusade against a supposed ‘climate emergency.’ We use the word ‘crusade’ advisedly, since the frenzy over climate resembles the medieval crusades against foreign infidels and home-grown heretics. There is even a children’s climate crusade.”

The two physicists in that article insisted there is no climate emergency: “Nor will there be one. None of the lurid predictions — dangerously accelerating sea-level rise, increasingly extreme weather, more deadly forest fires, unprecedented warming, etc. — are any more accurate than the fire-and-brimstone sermons used to stoke fanaticism in medieval crusaders.”

Last year was the warmest since global records began in 1850 at 1.18 degrees Celsius (2.12 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century average of 13.9 degrees Celsius? (57.0 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The global annual temperature increased at an average rate of 0.06 degrees Celsius (0.11 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade since 1850 and more than three times that rate since 1982, NOAA reports.

Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, a co-chair of the interim committee who has previously denied the science of climate change, asked in response to Maddox’s presentation if government leaders were willing to subject citizens to electricity rate increases “because of the so-called existential threat of climate change.”?

“The leaders in this country are really trying to force us to fuel switch, which would decrease the amount of coal,” Gooch said, mentioning that coal-fired power plants were being built abroad while the United States government is “rejecting” them. “It’s a real problem.”?

This story was updated with comments from a University of Washington climate scientist.

Cellist and vocalist Ben Sollee, above, in his "Misty Miles" video, will speak at the Kentucky Bike Walk Summit next month in Lexington. (Ben Sollee)

Acclaimed cellist and native Kentuckian Ben Sollee said he gained a sense of freedom growing up in Lexington on his bicycle. He would hop on it to ride around the neighborhood, no cell phone and little worries with him, not having to be home until dark.?

But as he grew into adulthood and a career as a touring musician across the country and world, traveling by cars, planes and trains, he began to feel disconnected from the “experience of music and being in a place” given his fast-paced, time-consuming travel.?

In 2009, he was booked to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee and decided to try getting there via a newly-bought bicycle capable of carrying more than 50 pounds of equipment, supplies and, of course, his cello. He remembers the roughly 330 miles between Lexington and the music festival as “very hot” as he pedaled across the Cumberland Plateau, playing several smaller shows along the way.

“The wonderful thing about being on a bicycle is you can only ride so far and so fast, especially when you’re hauling so much gear,” Sollee told the Lantern. “I found myself being very present.”?

He said over the next five years he would ride about 6,000 miles on his bike as he incorporated it into some of his tours. The bicycle, he said, provides him not only a healthy way to get around but also a way to be more present in his community and with himself.?

It’s that message of how bicycling has improved his life and its connections with his music that he hopes to bring as one of the keynote speakers for the Bike Walk Kentucky Summit next month at Transylvania University in Lexington.?

The conference, scheduled for Aug. 15-16, is described by organizers as a gathering of hundreds of Kentucky leaders in and outside of government hoping to brainstorm and envision safer and more numerous walking, hiking and biking routes and facilities across the state. A similar summit took place at the private university in 2018 connected to the nonprofit Bike Walk Kentucky.

Jim Gray, the secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and a former Lexington mayor,? will give opening remarks along with current Mayor Linda Gorton. In a statement, Gray said the summit will “promote safe practices and encourage more complete streets to support a safer and more inclusive transportation system that protects all road users.”?

Other keynote speakers at the summit include Bill Nesper, the executive director of the League of American Bicyclists; Angie Schmidt, a writer and expert on sustainable transportation, and tourism and recreation leaders Kalene Griffith and David Wright from Bentonville, Arkansas, a community highlighted by Axios for its investments into the cycling industry.?

Sollee hopes the summit can promote cycling as not only something that’s healthy for Kentuckians and the environment but also something to be celebrated — highlighting the challenges bicyclists face on public streets battling traffic but also the fun it can bring people, too.?

“The biggest thing we could possibly do is just celebrate and promote people that use their feet and bicycles in the community,” Sollee said. “We really have to be very proactive about sharing, not just what a battle it is out there to ride your bicycle on public streets, but also what a joy it is, and how you know how it helps us connect with other people in our community.”

Those interested in attending the summit can register on Bike Walk Kentucky’s website.

A wild turkey hen and her brood. (Photo by Pat Howard courtesy of Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources)

State fish and wildlife agencies are conducting scientific research to shed more light on the status of turkey populations — and need the public’s help, according to a news release from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

The department is encouraging anyone who observes wild turkeys in Kentucky during July or August to enter some basic information about their sightings into an online survey portal. Data collected through this survey help the department to better understand turkey population trends over time.

To report sightings, visit fw.ky.gov and enter the key words “turkey survey” in the search bar to access the summer turkey online survey portal. A printable form of the survey may also be downloaded, printed and filled out, then scanned or photographed with a smartphone and emailed to [email protected].

Turkey observation data gained through public participation are used in conjunction with research findings, making this citizen-science data set vital for long-term conservation, says KDFWR.

“The turkey population is studied by department staff and graduate student researchers, but they can only cover a limited area of the state,” said Zak Danks, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Wild Turkey Program coordinator. “Keen-eyed volunteers who report turkey sightings through this survey really expand our ability to monitor the flock.”

The turkey program compiles data from these observations from interested citizens and staff into a statewide index of hatch and survival of young turkeys, or “poults.” This index helps department biologists assess reproductive success, which is important to the sustainability of the wild turkey population.

While Kentucky turkey hunters have reported near-record statewide harvests each of the past two spring hunting seasons, hunters across the southeastern U.S. have reported seeing fewer turkeys in recent years.

“A lot has changed across the Commonwealth since this survey began in 1984, back when turkeys were being released to restore a statewide population,” Danks said. “Today, turkey flocks face many pressures, including predation and disease. Whether we’re talking turkeys or Kentucky’s other native species, having an engaged citizenry to help monitor wildlife will be key to helping us adapt into the future.”

Synchronous fireflies in a meadow at the 2021 Pennsylvania Firefly Festival. (Peggy Butler)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.?

Every year in late June, Peggy Butler and her husband, Ken, welcome visitors to rural northwestern Pennsylvania for the chance to glimpse the rare and beguiling Photinus carolinus. This firefly species flashes synchronously, creating dazzling spectacles of light. The abundance of fireflies on their property in Forest County — there are at least 17 species in addition to the synchronous firefly — led the Butlers to found the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival.?

Launched in 2013, the annual event has become so popular that the Butlers had to institute a lottery system to protect the fireflies that visitors so desperately wanted to see. This year, 2,500 people applied for just 130 spots.?

The intense interest in the festival highlights how much Americans love fireflies. Summer nights spent watching fireflies (and debating whether or not they should be called lightning bugs) are a cherished tradition across the country. But this tradition could be threatened by climate change, according to a new study.?

Researchers found that climate change is among the most serious threats to firefly populations in the United States. To understand what determines firefly abundance, researchers analyzed more than 24,000 surveys conducted by citizen scientists from 2008 to 2016 using the program Firefly Watch.?

Other studies have established that short-term weather affects fireflies, which makes sense because their life cycles last between one to two years, with most of that time spent as larvae living in the soil, where they are particularly vulnerable.?

“What we were really surprised to find is it’s also long-term weather patterns, like averages and things that are expected to change with climate change, that are actually the number one drivers of firefly populations,” said Darin McNeil, the study’s lead investigator and an assistant professor of wildlife ecology and management at the University of Kentucky. Increasing temperatures have a negative impact on fireflies, McNeil said, and as some places become hotter and drier, their firefly populations could disappear.?

Like the giant panda, fireflies are a charismatic ambassador for their less iconic brethren, shining light on the plight of declining insect populations worldwide. “There are a lot of insect species that are in dire need of conservation work and scientific study,” McNeil said. “But it’s sometimes hard to get people excited about dung beetles, for example.”?

Recent research has shown that insect populations fell by 45 percent in the last 40 years, a collapse so extreme that scientists have branded it “the insect apocalypse.” Anecdotal evidence suggests firefly populations are also in decline, and 14 species of fireflies in North America have been assessed as threatened. The Bethany Beach firefly, found only in coastal Delaware and Maryland, is critically endangered.?

For many people, even those who are afraid of other insects, fireflies evoke wonder, magic and nostalgia, a symbol of fairy tales and childhood. “They’re friendly little bugs. They don’t bite. They don’t sting,” Peggy Butler said. “That light really attracts people to ask, ‘How do they do that?’ And it sparks their curiosity.” She paused, laughing. “Sorry for all the puns.”?

Catching fireflies and marveling at their light is a shared experience across time and geography. “They’ve been written about and sung about for centuries,” said Sarah Lower, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor of biology at Bucknell University. “I mean, how fascinating is it that an insect produces its own light?”

Conservationists hope that by learning more about and educating people about what hurts fireflies, they will also help other insects who are harmed by the same things. Other than climate change, fireflies are threatened by pesticides, light pollution and unrestricted development.

The Allegheny National Forest, where the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival is held, is largely sheltered from some of these scourges of modern life. “It’s very wild here. We have half a million acres of national forest where we live,” Butler said. “Fireflies prefer very dark places. There has to be a lot of moisture and undisturbed soils.”?

The Butlers avoid pesticides, rarely mow and limit the use of outdoor lighting during the summer. Fireflies flash to attract mates, and light pollution interferes with their signaling.

At the festival each year, guides lead small groups of attendees into the forest to witness the synchronized flashing of Photinus carolinus. It is often a powerful and emotional experience, especially for people who have never seen a firefly before. “When we take them back into the forest, into the pitch darkness, and they see that synchronous activity, they’re wowed,” Butler said. “You can hear the murmurs. You can hear the ‘Wow, oh my gosh. Look at that.’”

Photinus carolinus was previously thought only to live farther south, in the Great Smoky Mountains. In the Smokies, these insects’ mating displays are a “big phenomenon,” Lower said, making the region a beacon for firefly tourists. It is not known if Photinus carolinus exists elsewhere in northern Appalachia, though Lower theorizes that it’s possible, and they have been found in other parts of Pennsylvania.?

Lower was a member of the team that first confirmed the presence of Photinus carolinus in the Allegheny National Forest in 2012, and she is now on the board for the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival, advising the organization about how to keep the event sustainable.

A map of firefly abundance and ideal climate conditions generated for the recent study shows hot spots in Pennsylvania, and McNeil called Pennsylvania “the heart of firefly country.” This is perhaps why the firefly is the state insect. But what climate change will mean for Pennsylvania’s beloved fireflies in the long-term is still unclear.?

Because of climate change, Pennsylvania is becoming hotter and wetter,with increased rainfall and more intense storms. Butler has seen how flooding can affect the fireflies on her property. “In 2015, we had a big flash flood in our area, and it wiped out the undergrowth about two weeks before the festival in the forest right behind us,” she said. “That year, and for two to three years after that, we didn’t see the synchronous fireflies in those areas at all.”?

Lower said it’s too soon to predict what will happen to fireflies in specific places because of climate change, and outcomes will be different for each species and will depend on their habitat requirements. “The thing I’m most concerned about is if it changes really rapidly,” she said. “We actually don’t have a very great idea of how far fireflies can travel.”

McNeil said firefly populations may appear stable to people in Pennsylvania as climate change accelerates, even though what is actually happening is a “turnover in species.” There are more than 100 species of fireflies in the United States, and some of those species, like the common Big Dipper firefly, named for its J-shaped flight trajectory, may thrive, even as other, less adaptable species are lost.?

Lower and McNeil encourage people to manage their properties in ways that benefit fireflies, by leaving leaf litter on lawns over the winter, for example, and to participate in community science around fireflies. The efforts of residents across the United States made this study possible and could make others possible in the many areas of firefly research that are understudied. Collecting data about fireflies in your own backyard “can go a long way toward their conservation,” McNeil said. “And if you bring your kids out to count fireflies, those are future conservationists.”?

Fireflies may be small but their presence—and diverse abundance—is important. “We could probably lose all of our fireflies, and it would not impact your day to day much, aside from the summer nights being a bit less magical,” McNeil said. “But fireflies serve as what we would call a bioindicator, telling us something about the broader health of our ecosystem.” Their disappearance is a warning, not only for insect populations but for us. “The question is,” McNeil said, “how many species can we lose before we see huge consequences to human society?”?

Kent Chandler, the former chair of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, speaking before lawmakers in June. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

The chair of Kentucky’s utility regulator is leaving the post after almost three years to the disappointment of some consumer advocates.?

Kentucky Public Service Commission Chair Kent Chandler’s term on the three-person commission expired on June 30. Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, said Chandler had resigned and that the governor appreciated Chandler’s service. She said his replacement would be appointed soon.?

Chandler in a statement to the Lantern said he had no indication or confidence he would be reappointed to another four-year term, based on a lack of communication from the Beshear administration regarding his reappointment.?

“I decided it was best for me and my family to walk away at the end of my term,” Chandler said, noting he appreciated serving the commission in a number of roles including leading it the last three years.?

Attorneys who represent ratepayers — both households and manufacturers — praised Chandler’s leadership and expertise as chair.

“I’ve been practicing at the Kentucky commission for 38 years. Kent Chandler is by far the hardest working and smartest commissioner that has been on the bench in my memory,” said Michael Kurtz, general counsel for Kentucky Industrial Utility Customers, a coalition of manufacturers.

Long-time environmental advocate Tom FitzGerald called Chandler’s departure a “significant loss” for the state, particularly for residential and small business ratepayers. FitzGerald, the former executive director of the nonprofit legal firm Kentucky Resources Council, in an email said while some utility representatives might have issues with a particular PSC decision, nobody “can credibly state that he was not among the most diligent, thoughtful, involved, and fair commissioners that we have had at the PSC.”?

“I am very disappointed that Gov. Beshear failed to reappoint chair Chandler,” FitzGerald said. “Those of us who represent ratepayers with low- and fixed-incomes who are among the most vulnerable to high utility costs, are especially appreciative of his service and the sacrifice of his family in allowing him to put in long hours at short pay in service to the ratepayers of the Commonwealth.”

FitzGerald said Chandler’s departure comes at a time of unprecedented change in how electricity is generated and used, ranging from the “integration of renewables and storage to the grid” to the “retirement of uneconomic coal-fired units.” He said while he believed the two remaining commissioners at the regulator are “able and thoughtful people,” neither have the “breadth of experience” that Chandler has.?

PSC faces increasing demands

The Kentucky Public Service Commissioner (PSC) regulates the rates and services of more than 1,100 utilities, ranging from massive investor-owned electricity providers such as Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities to small water districts that provide drinking water to rural communities. The regulator also fields complaints from Kentuckians about service and rates and hears requests from utilities to retire or build new power generation.

The PSC is facing increasing demands to vet a surge of renewable energy developers seeking to build solar installations, navigate new laws passed by the GOP-dominated legislature placing barriers on retiring fossil fuel-fired power plants, and oversee water utilities grappling with aging and dilapidated pipes, water tanks and treatment plants.?

In his statement to the Lantern, Chandler said: “Most people don’t know what the public service commission is, and maybe they shouldn’t have to know. The irony is that if a PSC is well-resourced and doing a good job at regulating rates and service, over time their work should be seamless and unnoticeable, and the efforts should result in affordable and consistent utility service by those they regulate. Of course, it’s not obvious year to year the impact the PSC has on the public, so taking the PSC’s efforts for granted can lead to a lack of resources made available to the agency.”?

Chandler said he had the “utmost confidence” the remaining commissioners and the regulator’s “incredible staff” would continue the PSC’s mission “without missing a beat.”?

Chandler last year called for more funding for the commission, saying “something has to change” because the regulator was dealing with an increasing number of cases, with expanding complexity, coinciding with having fewer and less experienced staff than in the past.?

The GOP-dominated legislature in the two-year state budget enacted this year did increase funding for the regulator by a little over a million dollars from fiscal year 2023-2024 to fiscal year 2024-2025 for a total yearly budget of nearly $18 million.?

But the legislature also put new burdens on the regulator in the form of mandated eight-month deadlines the commission has to issue decisions by in certain types of cases, including the building of new power plants. Those deadlines were passed as a part of Senate Bill 349. Beshear in an April letter to the legislature said the regulator would take on a little over $1 million in unfunded costs because of SB 349, among other passed laws that the governor said would have funding omissions.?

Under Chandler’s leadership, the commission had strongly scrutinized future power generation plans utilities are required to create and present, had opened investigations into electricity cost discounts given by utilities to cryptocurrency mining operations, honed in on power outages and costs faced by utilities during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022 and slashed a much-criticized rate hike sought by utility Kentucky Power.?

Chandler had previously served as an attorney in the Attorney General’s Office of Rate Intervention when Beshear was attorney general. Before his appointment, Chandler served as an advisor to the commission on federal wholesale gas and electricity markets and also served as the commission’s executive director. He was appointed as a commissioner and designated as the commission’s vice chair in July 2020 and was designated as chair of the commission in August 2021.?

Whoever the Democratic governor does appoint to the commission would have to be confirmed by the GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate, which isn’t a guarantee. Amy Cubbage, an attorney who formerly served as Beshear’s general counsel among other roles in his administration, wasn’t confirmed by the Senate to the commission in 2022.

This map from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shows planned locations for CP2, a a giant liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and an associated pipeline. FERC issued crucial approvals for the projects Thursday. (Photo courtesy of FERC)

A massive and contentious liquefied natural gas export project in coastal Louisiana and an associated pipeline got a key approval from federal regulators Thursday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order granting permission for Venture Global to build and operate the CP2 terminal in Cameron Parish along the Gulf Coast and construct and operate the CP Express Pipeline connecting the terminal to the gas pipeline network in east Texas and southwest Louisiana. Earthjustice, an environmental law group, said the terminal would “export more liquefied methane gas than any U.S. terminal ever approved.”

Commissioner Allison Clements, who was taking part in her last meeting on the commission after she opted not to seek another term, was the lone dissent. Clements has consistently urged the commission to more fully vet greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas projects.

“The commission has not adequately addressed the project’s environmental and socioeconomic impacts, including adverse impacts on environmental justice communities,” Clements said.

“These projects will have enormous emissions of greenhouse gasses equivalent to putting more than 1.8 million new gas fueled cars on the road each year. The order does not meaningfully assess those emissions.”

The project will still need an air permit from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and other permits, and it cannot begin exporting gas to countries lacking free-trade agreements (which constitute about 90% of the global liquified natural gas market) without authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Sierra Club noted.

President Joe Biden’s administration implemented a pause on LNG export approvals in January in order to allow the DOE to update its authorization analyses.

“Today, we have an evolving understanding of the market need for LNG, the long-term supply of LNG, and the perilous impacts of methane on our planet,” the White House said at the time. “We also must adequately guard against risks to the health of our communities, especially frontline communities in the United States who disproportionately shoulder the burden of pollution from new export facilities.”

In April, 25 Republican governors called on the administration to end the freeze.

“It creates instability and threatens future energy security throughout the world at a time when our allies need us the most. It sends a message that the U.S. is not a reliable energy partner,” they said in a statement released by the Republican Governors Association.

In a statement reported by an industry publication, Venture Global’s CEO applauded “the commission and FERC staff for their independent and thorough review and approval of CP2 LNG.”

Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, called the CP2 terminal a “carbon bomb” and the Sierra Club said CP2 is a “disastrous project that puts polluters over people.”

The terminal is planned next to the existing Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG facility that has already racked up air pollution violations and about two miles from the proposed Commonwealth LNG facility. The Sierra Club noted that the area “has more low-income residents than 88% of the country.”

In a news conference after the FERC meeting, Chairman Willie Phillips, who voted to approve the project, said he’s made environmental justice, which aims to protect low income and minority communities from polluting infrastructure projects, a priority.

“I believe we have a duty to those communities. We also have a duty to abide by the law,” Phillips said, adding that FERC’s evaluation of environmental impact goes “above and beyond” what’s required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The order, he said, has “over 130 conditions regarding public safety, engineering and environmental impacts.”

The Sierra Club said that while FERC has acknowledged the need to do more to protect overburdened communities from environmental injustices, “it will take more than lip service, and this approval is a clear step in the wrong direction.”

Valves on a Kentucky River hydroelectric plant await the installation of turbines. (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Moore)

Jonathan Moore sees potential for reliable, durable electric power in Kentucky’s hundreds of miles of waterways, more navigable water than many states can boast.

The Kentucky River is a prime example, says Moore, a partner in the company Appalachian Hydro Associates. Taking advantage of a system of locks and dams dating back to the 19th century, his company has partnered with Berea College in recent years to build two hydroelectric plants at locks?on the Kentucky River. One plant has been online since 2021, and Moore said the second plant should be fully constructed by the end of the year.?

These hydro plants produce only a small amount of electricity, a few megawatts at most, while other renewable energy sources such as utility-scale solar can generate hundreds of megawatts of power. But Moore said the small number “belies the fact that it’s going to generate that power all the time for 100 years or more — basically forever.”?

“Appalachia in general has a good deal of potential,” Moore said. “It’s low-hanging fruit in the renewable energy spectrum for power that can be produced when the wind doesn’t blow in, the sun doesn’t shine.”?

Federal funding, announced Wednesday, will help construct a third hydroelectric plant along the river, another partnership with Berea College.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials announced more than $375 million in partially forgivable loans and grants across the country through two U.S. Department of Agriculture programs — the funding made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act — to help fund numerous energy projects, including installing rooftop solar panels on farms and heat pumps at small businesses.?

In Kentucky, the USDA is providing about $16.6 million in partially forgivable loans for the latest hydropower plant. Moore said the federal support will help build the plant much more quickly. Power from the third plant, like the others, will be sold at a discount to the utility East Kentucky Power Cooperative to generate revenue for Berea College. Moore said a total of six plants are planned along the river, which he believes can add up to a significant amount of electricity.?

“I’m glad that water’s going to turn a turbine and get some people power,” he said.?

Another grant provided through the USDA is helping a Hancock County farmer try out solar power on his farm for the first time. Justin Obenchain, 37, grows about 20 acres of sweet corn and uses energy-intensive freezers year-round to keep the corn fresh for sale to local schools and elsewhere.?

He learned about the grant program through a local agriculture extension agent and saw solar as a way to curb some of the cost of powering the freezers.

“I thought it would be something that would fit us pretty well,” Obenchain said. “An open mind to what’s coming is going to be very beneficial in the long run.”?

He received a $40,000 grant through the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP, which covered about half the cost of the rooftop solar installations now located on his farm. He expects the about 90 solar panels to be turned on sometime in July, he said, potentially an opportunity to show his neighbors how solar power works for him.?

“??I think everything deserves a look. And some farms it may fit, some it may not,” Obenchain said. “But I think for ours, it’ll be a good fit.”

A collection of plastic pellets known as nurdles that washed up on a beach in Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo by Andrew Wunderley/Charleston Waterkeeper)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.

The plastic pellets washing up on beaches and in marshes around Charleston, South Carolina, became very obvious about five years ago.

Called nurdles, these pebble-sized particles that are the raw material for many plastic products floated, too, in the aquamarine waters of the harbor, many carried at high tide to Sullivan’s Island, known for its white sand and million-dollar homes, where they caused alarm.

“We had been working to enact single-use plastic bans and then we started to see this nurdle problem,” recalled Andrew Wunderley, the executive director of Charleston Waterkeeper, part of the national Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental organization. “Now we had industrial-like plastic pollution.”

So Charleston Waterkeeper joined with the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit law firm, and the Charleston-based Coastal Conservation League, to identify what they believed to be the source of the nurdles and then to take that company, Frontier Logistics, L.P., to federal court, in March 2020. A year later, the environmental advocates and Frontier reached a settlement that included $1 million to improve water quality in the Charleston Harbor watershed.

From South Carolina to California, nearly 60 lawsuits have been filed since 2015, mostly by citizens or environmental groups, targeting the plastics industry. The litigation comes amid a rapidly expanding body of scientific knowledge detailing how burgeoning plastics production damages the planet and threatens public health.

Most recently, attorneys general in Connecticut, Minnesota and New York have raised the stakes with their own plastics lawsuits, bringing with them considerable legal firepower.

And, in California, a two-year-old investigation by Attorney General Rob Bonta into the plastics industry and its claims about recycling shows signs of concluding, potentially resulting in a case pitting the largest state in the nation against one of the largest plastic makers in the world, ExxonMobil, and powerful industry trade associations such as the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Plastics Industry Association (PIA).

In late May, the ACC and the PIA filed their own lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., objecting to Bonta’s effort to obtain through subpoenas certain internal documents from the associations, including some involving the controversial practice of “advanced” or “chemical” recycling, while claiming California was infringing on their first amendment rights to advocate for their preferred public policy.

Bonta’s media office declined to comment on the status of the California investigation. Still, in April, the attorney general told a Reuters reporter that a decision on whether to proceed with the plastics litigation could be made “within weeks.”

Typically, these plastics lawsuits attempt to hold the companies that use plastic packaging or stores that use plastic bags accountable for alleged deceptive marketing claims about the environment or recycling.

Most are still working their way through the courts, though some have been dismissed, and environmental advocates count a few victories, such as the nurdle case in South Carolina.

“There has been zero action at the state or federal level to stop pollution from the plastics industry,” Wunderley said, four years after the South Carolina settlement. “It’s left to the citizens to pick up the slack. When the state and federal government won’t act or haven’t acted, we can step in and hold these polluters accountable.”

Plastics lawsuits follow climate lawsuits

Plastic pollution has found its way to the highest mountains and deepest parts of the ocean, into the bellies of marine mammals, the placentas of new mothers and human blood. Made of more than 16,000 chemicals, there’s a growing field of medical research that links plastics to obesity, infertility, an increased risk of miscarriage, cardiovascular disease and cancers.

Plastic production continues to soar, with petrochemical companies producing 460 million metric tons of plastic in 2019, an amount that could triple by 2060, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Across the globe, less than 10 percent gets recycled.

The plastics litigation follows an explosion of similar lawsuits responding to the global climate crisis. A report, compiled by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) and Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change, last year identified 2,180 “climate change” cases between 2020 and 2022 alone.

The climate cases are typically aimed at holding governments accountable to their climate commitments, challenging governmental action or inaction about emissions or adaptation to climate change—or attempting to establish liability primarily of fossil fuel companies for harm caused by the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events.

The UNEP report found that the litigation had influenced policy in some European countries, but many cases in the United States have faced lengthy procedural delays and climate litigation has not yet translated into systemic shifts in climate governance.

The New York University School of Law launched a plastics litigation tracker in 2022 and has observed a variety of plastics-related lawsuits in federal and state courts. Plaintiffs have included individuals as well as environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club and Earth Island Institute. Some cases, like the South Carolina lawsuit, cite provisions of the federal Clean Water Act. But others take on the industry on grounds that the plastic waste is a public nuisance, or that companies are making false claims about their business practices or products.

In one such early case, filed in Superior Court in California in 2018, a resident of Lafayette, a San Francisco suburb, targeted Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., now Keurig Dr. Pepper, and the recyclability claims for its individual serving plastic coffee pods, called K-Cups, in what became a class action case.

The lawsuit alleged that most recycling facilities were not properly equipped to capture items as small as K-Cups and, even in rare cases where they could, they ended up in landfills because there was no recycling market for them.

Without admitting any wrongdoing, the company agreed in February 2022 to a $10 million settlement and to add a qualifying statement to its recyclability claims that it still uses: “Check Locally — Not Recycled in Many Communities.”

“From a false labeling standpoint, Keurig was almost as good as it gets,” said retired California attorney Howard Hirsch, the lead lawyer on that case and several other plastics lawsuits. “When we started that case, they had emblazoned in large letters on the box, ‘Have your cup and recycle it, too.’” The plastic pods had become controversial, he said, “and clearly, they were responding to the backlash over the environmental impacts of their packaging.”

A Keurig spokeswoman, Katie Gilroy, said the company is working with communities and recyclers to more widely recycle its coffee pods, and later this year, Keurig will offer a mail-back recycling program. The company is also testing pods of ground coffee pressed and wrapped in a compostable plant-based coating, she said.

Hirsch has also represented the California nonprofit environmental group The Last Beach Cleanup, which over the last five years has filed three lawsuits related to recyclability claims, settling two of them with the third still making its way through the courts.

The main connection he sees between plastics litigation and climate litigation is the source of the issue—the petrochemical industry—since nearly all plastics are made from fossil fuels, the same primary contributor to global warming.

“It’s really all part of the same story, with the petrochemical industry sort of shifting the blame for its operations and trying to make American consumers feel as though they are the ones that need to take responsibility for these companies,” Hirsch said.

Ross Eisenberg, president of America’s Plastic Makers, part of the American Chemistry Council lobby group, called the rise in plastics litigation “disappointing.” In a written statement, Eisenberg said that “legal action has diverted attention away from the importance of recycling. Regardless, we remain steadfast in our mission to advocate for effective policy, collaborate with communities, and invest in new technologies that help to increase plastics recycling for a cleaner, more sustainable future.”

Minnesota, Connecticut challenge Hefty bag maker

Beyond private civil lawsuits including class actions, state attorneys general are now filing lawsuits, raising the stakes, said Bethany Noll Davis, executive director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, which manages the litigation tracker with the Guarini Center for Environmental, Energy & Land Use Law, both of which are housed at the NYU School of Law.

Significant recent filings, she said, came in Connecticut and Minnesota, where the attorneys general have sued the manufacturers of Hefty bags, Reynolds Consumer Products.

In the Minnesota case, filed in June 2023, in state court, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison claims the bags are marketed for collecting waste plastic to be recycled. But, according to the complaint, “the otherwise recyclable items placed into the bags do not get recycled, and that the bags themselves are not recyclable anywhere … when contaminated by waste residue.”

The Connecticut lawsuit, filed in January 2023 in state court in Hartford, claims that any Hefty bags containing waste plastic are in practice “diverted to landfills or incinerators.”

Reynolds Consumer Products did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuits.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit in November against PepsiCo Inc., claiming the food and beverage giant had harmed the public and the environment with its single-use plastic packaging.

“PepsiCo has long known of the harms caused by its single-use plastic packaging, acknowledging on its website that there is a ‘plastic pollution crisis’ and that its own packaging has ‘potential environmental impacts,’” the lawsuit claims. “By its continued manufacturing, production, marketing, distribution, and sale of vast quantities of single-use plastic packaging, PepsiCo has significantly contributed to, and continues to contribute to, the existence of a public nuisance that injures the community living in the city of Buffalo and surrounding area,” according to the lawsuit.

A PepsiCo representative responded in a written statement: “Packaging waste is a serious issue that requires collaboration from many stakeholders. PepsiCo is focused on being part of the solution and is pursuing goals to improve and enhance recycling programs.”

A dearth of federal policy on recycling complicates matters and invites litigation, said Steven Cook, an attorney with the law and government relations firm Bracewell, with clients that include fossil fuel and other energy companies. He worked three years as a deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management with the Environmental Protection Agency, and more than two decades as a lead counsel at LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest plastic, chemical and refining companies.

But plastics remain essential to society, he said. “Our modern society doesn’t run without (plastics). You can’t run a hospital without plastics. You can’t get to zero emissions from cars without plastics. Consumers … wanted packaging that does certain things.”

Companies, he said, are attempting to address the problem of plastic waste, “but Congress will make a policy choice at some point. Until they do then you go to the courts.”

Plastic makers’ liability questioned

Greenwashing cases against companies that use plastic packaging are scattered across the country, with their outcomes uncertain, said Alyssa Johl, vice president and general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental group seeking to hold fossil fuel companies and other climate polluters accountable for the damages they have caused.

In the future, plastics litigation appears headed toward the petrochemical companies that make plastic that gets turned into packaging or bags, she said.

The Center for Climate Integrity published a report in February that concluded “petrochemical companies, independently and through industry trade associations and front groups, have deceived consumers, policymakers, and regulators into believing that they could address the plastic waste crisis through a series of false solutions,” such as recycling.

When Bonta, California’s attorney general, announced his investigation two years ago, his office said it had issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil, seeking information relating to the company’s role in deceiving the public.

ExxonMobil responded with a denial.

“We reject the allegations made by the Attorney General’s office in its press release,” the company said at the time. “We share society’s concerns and are collaborating with governments, including the State of California, communities, and other industries to support projects around the world to improve waste management and circularity.”

That investigation has been kept tightly under wraps, but there are indications that Bonta could be investigating claims around both mechanical recycling, where waste plastic is sorted, cleaned, melted and molded into new plastic products, as well as what the industry now dubs “advanced recycling,” a term used to describe a variety of chemical-based, industrial processes, that seek to turn plastic waste back into basic plastics building blocks.

But so far such technologies remain unproven, and environmentalists say most of them are polluting, energy-intensive and ineffective, turning the waste into new, dirty synthetic gases or oils.

Meanwhile, legal experts expect to see a new genre of plastics lawsuits emerge dealing with how plastics may be making people sick as plastic breaks down into micro- and even more tiny nano-plastics, carrying toxic chemicals into the body.

With scientists raising alarms about plastics and health, it’s only a matter of time before the lawyers weigh in, said Davis, the executive director of the NYU Law School’s State Energy & Environmental Impact Center. “And the minute we find more out about that, I think we could see a new frontier of lawsuits,” she said.

Lawsuit outcome ‘extraordinarily positive’

In South Carolina, Wunderley, the Waterkeeper, describes plastic as “Charleston’s dirty little secret,” affecting salt marshes, oyster beds and beaches. “We do cleanups and it’s almost all?plastic and almost all single-use plastic,” he said.

The company, without admitting any fault or wrongdoing, moved its nurdle-handling operations away from a pier in Charleston Harbor, according to the settlement agreement, and consented to prevent the pellets from its new facility from escaping into the environment and allowed for an independent audit of its control measures.

Wunderley said he still finds some nurdles when he patrols the harbor and tries to identify the source. But he considers the outcome of the 2020 lawsuit a success. The new $1 million Healthy Harbors fund has helped some low-income families near Charleston better maintain their septic systems, thereby reducing sewage overflows, and funded an urban gardening program. It has also helped keep the Charleston Waterkeeper program on the water and looking for sources of pollution.

It’s part of an ongoing effort, Wunderley said, to take a bite out of Charleston’s “little sliver of this global plastic pollution crisis.”

Gov. Andy Beshear, right, surveys storm damage from storms in May. (Gov. Andy Beshear)

The storms that swept through Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend killed at least 6 people, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.?

The previous known death total was 5. The sixth death was a 99-year-old woman in Laurel County, Beshear said.?

Previous deaths were reported in Hopkins, Caldwell, Hardin, Mercer and Jefferson Counties.?

The late May storms included an EF-3 strength tornado that sped through an adjacent area to the devastating 2021 tornado in West Kentucky.?

Beshear said his administration will submit a disaster declaration request to President Joe Biden’s administration.

The timeline on that, he said, will depend on “when we think we have enough damage documented to where we feel like we have a good probability of getting that disaster declaration.”

“There was a lot of damage,” he said. “And so I believe we at least should get a disaster declaration. We’ve got to make sure that we have enough before we make that application.”

Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, met with reporters to discuss the GOP farm bill. (Photo by John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on Tuesday released their framework for a new five-year farm bill that will set the policy and funding levels for key food, agriculture and conservation programs.

The top Republican on the committee, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, laid out?GOP priorities?with reporters during a Tuesday morning briefing prior to publication of the framework.

Those priorities include an increase in reference prices for all covered commodities; increased spending for conservation programs by pulling funds from climate legislation passed in 2022;?“cost-neutral” updates?to the formula that calculates benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP; increased crop insurance levels; and reporting requirements for foreign purchase and ownership of farmland.

“Hopefully, we can take all of these together and build on that so we can actually get a farm bill passed,” Boozman said.

The GOP measure also doubles funding for land grant universities for research on topics such as fertilizer application, pesticides and labor, Boozman said.

Boozman said the investment in research will help with “getting agriculture into this century.”

Boozman said the framework will also boost crop insurance by increasing support for the?Supplemental Coverage Option?to 80% and the coverage level to 90% for more than 55 specialty and row crops.

He added that the Senate’s framework is similar to the one House Republicans put forth.

“Following on the House Committee on Agriculture’s bipartisan passage of (a) farmer-focused farm bill, we are putting forth a framework that exhibits a shared common ground with our Democrat counterparts on several key priorities and offers a path forward in the places where we differ,” Boozman said.

House action

The House Committee on Agriculture?passed its version of the farm bill out of committee in late May,?and while four Democrats joined Republicans in approving the bill, nearly two dozen Democrats were against it.

The House version of the farm bill is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, but there is currently no cost estimate for the Senate GOP version. There is also no bill text for the Senate version.

The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30, and if Congress doesn’t pass a new one, an extension would be needed of policies enacted under the 2018 farm bill.

Boozman said he hopes Congress doesn’t have to pass an extension, but if so, he expects to get the farm bill done during the lame-duck session after the November elections.

Like the House GOP version, the Senate legislation would divert funds from climate-related legislation passed in 2022 for conservation projects that would remove some climate-smart guardrails, which has drawn objections from Democrats.

Boozman said taking off the guardrails would “make it more useful.”

Nutrition programs

The Senate Republican farm bill framework would not make any changes to benefits and eligibility for SNAP, but it curtails an update tool used by the Thrifty Food Plan.

“The Republican framework restores Congress’ constitutional spending authority by returning to a cost-neutral and transparent process for future five-year reevaluations of the (Thrifty Food Plan) based on the most up-to-date consumption data and dietary guidance, all while ensuring an annual inflationary adjustment,” according to the framework.

In 2018, the farm bill allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reevaluate the Thrifty Food plan and?in 2021 the agency updated?it to reflect the cost of living, which led to a 21% increase in SNAP benefits. About 12.8% of U.S. households were food-insecure in 2022,?according to USDA.?More than 41 million people?use SNAP benefits.

The Senate’s version reverts to a “cost-neutral” model, Boozman said, which is similar to the House Republican version. Democrats have already opposed those changes.

The Democratic chair of the Senate committee, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, released a?section-by-section version?of the Democrats’ farm bill in early May. That version would boost eligibility for SNAP benefits, but there is no legislative text for that bill either.

Foreign ownership of farmland

Limiting foreign ownership of U.S. farmland has?garnered bipartisan support in Congress, as states have passed their own laws on the issue.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said the biggest foreign land ownership comes from Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, but there is concern in Congress about ownership by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea — which own less than 400,000 acres of land.

Lawmakers are pushing for federal reporting requirements in the Senate GOP farm bill under Title XII, the miscellaneous section.

“This modernization will help ensure compliance with reporting requirements and provides a clearer picture of the scope and scale of the issues foreign ownership of U.S. farmland poses to our country,” according to the framework.

Sam Satterly investigated a hazardous waste dump known as the “Gully of the Drums” in Jefferson Memorial Forest, a Louisville public park, while she was a graduate student at the University of Louisville. (Photo courtesy of Sam Satterly)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.

LOUISVILLE — City officials are taking their first public step toward cleaning up hazardous waste in a popular park after a local graduate student last year called out a 45-year comedy of errors by federal, state and local agencies that allowed the dumped drums and chemicals to escape remediation.

Louisville parks officials have a $68,000 plan to dig trenches and take soil samples in an area dubbed “Gully of the Drums.” The site sits about 700 feet from the notorious “Valley of the Drums,” where some 17,000 hazardous waste drums were discovered in the late 1970s on farmland 17 miles south of downtown Louisville, which were removed in one of the first major federal Superfund cleanups in the United States.

The EPA didn’t clean up the much smaller Gully of the Drums at the time. At least twice since then — after the Environmental Protection Agency had declared the Valley of the Drums cleanup a success — Kentucky environmental regulators and EPA officials found pollutants lingering in the soil above health and safety levels that would normally spur remediation.

But at the site, which is in a public forest preserved as a tribute to area veterans, as many as 40 to 45 barrels remain in the woods, leeching what’s left of their toxic contents into the soil. The new study, if approved by the Louisville Metro Council, will involve taking soil samples near the visible drums as well as digging trenches to see whether unseen barrels or containers of toxic waste were also buried, and then testing the soil to see if that area has hazardous waste.

The Louisville Metro Council Thursday night received the proposed site assessment plan and referred it to its parks committee for review next week. That action alone signals that the city government is starting to take responsibility for a situation that most recently was brought to light by Sam Satterley, an Iraq War veteran and former graduate student at the University of Louisville.

In December, Satterley completed research on both dump sites as part of a graduate degree she earned in sustainability. Her thesis revealed previously untold stories about the origins of the Gully of the Drums — and how it shares a connection to the Valley of the Drums.

“When I saw it (the site assessment plan) on the council agenda, I was completely overwhelmed,” said Satterly, who has detailed decades of missed opportunities to clean up the Gully of the Drums.

She noted that the company poised to get the contract, Shield Environmental, did a similar site evaluation over a decade ago, wrapping it up in 2011, and found contamination that exceeded what would normally trigger a cleanup.?

But at that time, state environmental regulators, who had commissioned that study, dropped the ball and did not require a cleanup.

“I want to make sure this doesn’t fall through the cracks again,” Satterley said Friday.

Officials with the parks department and in the office of Mayor Craig Greenberg did not respond to several requests for comment on Friday.?

But in their request for the funding, city officials said Shield’s services “are critical” to the environment and “a remediation plan or cleanup of hazardous materials will be the likely outcome.”

For Louisville Metro Councilman Dan Seum Jr., whose district includes the memorial forest, cleaning up the hazardous waste is important for helping visitors feel safe at a time when he and other officials are making the park a regional destination.

“I believe we will get a good investigation and advice” from Shield, Seum said Friday. “I want to make sure (the forest) is environmentally safe.”

Seum said he also wants to make sure the environmental investigation is transparent, with results made public.?

He said language in the company’s proposal about needing a “non-disclosure agreement” or “confidentiality agreement” to “ensure that any information discovered related to on-site waste materials is not shared” beyond the project’s parties is confusing. “I’m going to look into that. We want it to be open.”

Greenberg, the Louisville mayor, has been previously criticized for his administration’s use of non-disclosure agreements.

Images of Valley of the Drums, along with the frightening revelation of chemical plant dumping in Love Canal, near Niagara Falls, led Congress in 1980 to pass the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund. The law taxed chemical and petroleum industries to pay for the program and EPA got the authority to directly respond to toxic dumps that threatened the public or environment, and then assess cleanup costs on the “responsible parties.”

Despite the Valley of the Drums cleanup, the dumping in what would become Jefferson Memorial Forest was never cleaned up.

Across the country, there are likely many such smaller dump sites such as the one in Jefferson Memorial Forest that “fell off the charts and went into oblivion” as EPA and states were inundated with reports of toxic dumps to investigate in the 1980s, said Louisville environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald, who has looked into legal issues related to the site.

In its 2011 report, Shield noted drums and other containers scattered along 300 feet of the forest floor. By then, the liquid wastes were gone, but testing of the soil near the drums found pesticides, PCBs and a mix of heavy metals at levels over what would normally require agency action.?

As recently as 2016, state environmental regulators had described Gully of the Drums as “an imminent threat to human health and the environment.”

One of Satterley’s professors, Lauren Heberle, chair of sociology and an expert on Superfund cleanups, said she’s “very encouraged” that Louisville is poised to complete the original Shield environmental assessment from almost 15 years ago.

But she said the plan, which doesn’t call for new testing of groundwater or a nearby creek, “seems like a missed opportunity.” She also questioned why the project’s scope also does not include looking for the presence of PFAS or other toxic substances that they might not have been asked to test for before.

The proposal said that the previous study did not find contamination in groundwater or the creek at levels that warranted action. The new proposal assumes “nothing has changed dramatically” since 2011, Heberle said.

Heberle credited Satterley’s research and public presentation for spurring action. “I’m glad to see Louisville Metro government take responsibility for completing the assessment and hope they will also follow up on remediation in a way that cleans the site of any remaining toxic or hazardous materials.”

The Kentucky Lantern’s three full time reporters took home 6 awards Thursday from the Society of Professional Journalism’s (SPJ) Louisville chapter. From left to right: McKenna Horsley, Sarah Ladd, and Liam Niemeyer. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Justin Hicks).

The Kentucky Lantern’s three full time reporters took home six awards Thursday from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Louisville chapter.?

Politics reporter McKenna Horsley won two second place awards — one in the education category and one in politics. The winning stories included her coverage of what Kentucky schools can teach students about sex and gender; the state’s ongoing teacher shortage; how trans youth in the commonwealth are stuck in the middle of politics; and the failure of lawmakers to pre-file bills in a transparent way

“These awards highlight some of Kentucky’s best journalists, and it’s exciting that the Lantern is recognized among them,” Horsley said, thanking her sources for their reliability in “a hectic election year.”?

“While Kentucky found itself in the national spotlight,” she said, “it was important for me to showcase voices within our commonwealth.”??

Energy and Environment reporter Liam Niemeyer won two third place awards — one in the continuing coverage category for coverage of tornado donations and one in the enterprise reporting for his coverage of crypto mines.?

“One of the things I’m grateful for about the Lantern is the chance to do meaningful journalism across the state,” Niemeyer said. “I’m glad to see my work recognized with stories from West Kentucky to Eastern Kentucky, and at the end of the day, Lantern readers make that work possible.”

Health and Policy reporter Sarah Ladd won first place in the feature writing category for her conversation with poet laureate Silas House, a profile on Kentuckians who answer 988 and story about Kentucky’s key sign language interpreters. Ladd also won second place in Health reporting for her COVID-19 retrospective, coverage of a treatment trial for Alzheimer’s disease, and a story on how the pandemic interrupted nursing students’ education.?

“It’s not lost on me that nobody owes me their story or time,” Ladd said. “I’m so humbled by and grateful for everyone who spoke to me for these award-winning pieces.”??

“The Lantern got off to a great start because of our reporters,” said Jamie Lucke, the Lantern’s editor. “It’s rewarding to see their hard work and commitment to both journalism and Kentucky recognized in this way.”

A photo taken in 1960 of deteriorating steel drums containing radioactive residues near Coldwater Creek, by the Mallinckrodt-St. Louis Sites Task Force Working Group (State Historical Society of Missouri, Kay Drey Mallinckrodt Collection, 1943-2006).

Offering compensation to thousands of Americans across nine states exposed to radiation from the nation’s nuclear weapons program would be too expensive, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office said Wednesday.

With less than two weeks until the existing Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expires, a spokesperson in Johnson’s office said the speaker supports renewing the program where it already exists but not expanding it, creating a huge obstacle for advocates and cancer patients from St. Louis to the Navajo Nation who were exposed to bomb testing or nuclear waste.

“House Republican Leadership is committed to ensuring the federal government fulfills its existing obligations to Americans exposed to nuclear radiation,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Independent. “Unfortunately, the current Senate bill is estimated to cost $50-60 billion in new mandatory spending with no offsets and was supported by only 20 of 49 Republicans in the Senate.”

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, originally passed by Congress in 1990, offers compensation to uranium miners and civilians who were downwind of nuclear bomb testing in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. It expires June 10, and for months, advocates and members of Congress — especially from Missouri and New Mexico —?have been lobbying Congress to expand it.

U.S. senators have twice passed legislation that would expand RECA, but it hasn’t gone anywhere in the House of Representatives. The legislation would add the remaining parts of Arizona, Utah and Nevada to the program and bring coverage to downwinders in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Guam. It would also offer coverage for residents exposed to radioactive waste in Missouri, Tennessee, Alaska and Kentucky.

Dawn Chapman, who co-founded Just Moms STL to advocate for communities affected by World War II-era nuclear waste that contaminated parts of the St. Louis area, called Johnson’s statement “shocking.”

“I think that’s a pitiful excuse,” Chapman said of the limited Republican support. “I think that there isn’t even an excuse for the fiscal conservatives that say, ‘Put America first,’ because they clearly didn’t do that.”

Chapman and supporters of the legislation believe the $50-60 billion price tag is an overestimation, and she noted that cost is spread over five years.

She said supporters have worked to cut the costs of the program, including narrowing the list of health conditions that would qualify for compensation. If costs were a concern, Chapman said, Johnson should have met with advocates to work on further cuts.

Chapman said she’d return to Washington, D.C., next week, and “the least he can do is meet with us for 10 minutes.”

Johnson’s position was revealed Tuesday evening on social media by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and sparked outrage among the state’s congressional delegation.

U.S. Reps. Cori Bush, a Democrat from St. Louis, and Ann Wagner, a Republican from the nearby suburbs, vowed to oppose any extension of RECA that didn’t add Missouri.

On social media Wednesday afternoon, Hawley said the federal government “has not begun to meet its obligations to nuclear radiation victims.”

“(Missouri) victims have gotten zilch,” Hawley said.

Parts of the St. Louis area have been contaminated for 75 years with radioactive waste left over from the effort to build the world’s first atomic bomb during World War II. Uranium refined in downtown St. Louis was used in the first sustained nuclear chain reaction in Chicago, a breakthrough in the Manhattan Project, the name given to the effort to develop the bomb.

After the war, waste from uranium refining efforts was trucked from St. Louis to surrounding counties and dumped near Coldwater Creek and in a quarry in Weldon Spring, polluting surface and groundwater. Remaining waste was dumped at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, where it remains today.

Generations of St. Louis-area families lived in homes near contaminated sites without warning from the federal government. A study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found exposure to the creek elevated residents’ risk of cancer. Residents of nearby communities suffer higher-than-normal rates of breast, colon, prostate, kidney and bladder cancers and leukemia. Childhood brain and nervous system cancers are also higher.

This story is republished from the Missouri Independent, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

An aerial view shows high voltage power lines on May 16, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Twenty-one states are joining a push by President Joe Biden’s administration to modernize the nation’s aging electric grid, which is under pressure from growing demand, a changing mix of power generation and severe weather. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Twenty-one states, including Kentucky, are joining a push by the Biden administration to modernize America’s aging electric grid, which is under pressure from growing demand, a changing power generation mix that includes lots of wind and solar and severe weather.

The administration, which has set a goal of a carbon-free power sector by 2035, announced Tuesday that the states had joined what it called the “Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative,” which is intended to “help drive grid adaptation quickly and cost-effectively to meet the challenges and opportunities that the power sector faces.”

In exchange for federal technical and financial assistance opportunities, participating states will “prioritize efforts that support the adoption of modern grid solutions to expand grid capacity and build modern grid capabilities on both new and existing transmission and distribution lines.”

That means in part focusing on ways to get more out of existing transmission lines, since building new ones can take a decade or more in some cases.

“There are technologies we can use to optimize the current infrastructure we have,” said Verna Mandez, director of transmission at Advanced Energy United, a clean energy trade group.

Those include reconductoring existing lines to handle more juice as well as so-called grid-enhancing technologies, a suite of tools that include sensors, power-flow controls, software and hardware that can better deliver real-time weather data, among other technologies.

In many cases, those technologies have been adopted in other countries but uptake has lagged here, in part because utilities aren’t incentivized to adopt them and generally don’t face consequences as a result of grid congestion, which costs electric customers billions of dollars each year.

“Most transmission providers get more money when they build transmission projects,” Mandez said.

The White House said in a news release that adopting newer technologies “means that renewables and other clean sources of power can be integrated sooner and more cost-effectively than waiting for new transmission construction, which will address load growth challenges more rapidly, create good-paying jobs and lower Americans’ utility bills.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has also in several orders prodded utilities and grid operators to consider more use of grid-enhancing technologies.

And some states are taking action on their own. Virginia, which did not join the initiative announced Tuesday, passed legislation signed by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin that requires utilities to consider grid-enhancing technologies in their planning. Last year, Montana passed legislation aimed at increasing use of advanced reconductoring. Minnesota’s legislature also voted this month to add grid-enhancing technologies to the state’s transmission planning process and require some utilities to evaluate the tools for highly congested lines.

‘More tools than ever’

To get a more reliable and cleaner electric grid, as well as accommodate electric demand that’s growing for the first time in more than a decade,? the U.S. needs lots of new transmission capacity, experts agree.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy found that almost all regions of the country would benefit from more transmission lines and a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study estimated that getting to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 could require anywhere from 1,400 to 10,100 miles of new high capacity transmission lines per year starting in 2026.

That’s why the Biden administration has been pushing hard to remove roadblocks to new transmission lines, which can take a decade or more to develop in some cases, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission published a landmark new rule on regional transmission planning and cost allocation. Last month the administration also announced a public-private partnership to upgrade 100,000 miles of transmission lines over the next five years and the Department of Energy has identified 10 potential “national interest” electric transmission corridors, a designation that would help expedite the projects and give developers access to federal financing.

“The power sector, which is responsible for a quarter of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, now has more tools than ever – including unprecedented financial support, efficient permitting, and long-term regulatory certainty – to reduce pollution and upgrade the grid to support more factories, electric vehicles and other growing sources of electricity demand,” the White House said.

The states joining the effort are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

A solar and battery storage development operated by Entergy in Searcy, Arkansas. Solar power growth is expected to help some parts of the country meet electric demand this summer. (Robert Zullo/ States Newsroom)

With some parts of the country already facing heat waves, the organization in charge of setting reliability standards for the American electric grid is warning that a scorching summer could lead to a shortage of power generation in some regions.

The warning comes as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there’s a 99% chance that 2024 will rank among the five warmest years on record and 55% chance it will be the hottest on record.

Overall, though, the analysis by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation painted a rosier picture than last year’s report, in part because of a surge in solar power development.

The nation has enough energy supply to handle normal peak demand, called “load” in the electric industry, largely because of 25 gigawatts of new solar power capacity — at full capacity that’s the rough equivalent maximum output of 25 large fossil or nuclear power plants. (The number of homes that can be powered from one gigawatt of solar can vary widely across the country). But the new panels have helped move some areas from what NERC calls “elevated risk” of power shortfalls in last year’s analysis? to “normal risk” this year.

“Resource additions are providing needed capacity to keep up with rising peak demand in most areas,” Mark Olson, the organization’s manager of reliability assessments, told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week. New power transfer agreements, growth in demand response programs, which incentivize customers to reduce power usage during times of grid stress, and delayed power plant retirements “are also contributing to an overall improved resource outlook for the upcoming summer,” NERC says.

A solar surge

A separate FERC staff presentation said solar will make up 10% of overall national electric generation capacity by the end of this summer, with natural gas providing 42%, coal providing 14% and wind power at 13%.

Solar power is growing fast across the country, with the U.S. hitting five million total solar installations (most of them residential), per the Solar Energy Industries Association. Reaching that milestone took 50 years, but the industry group projects that hitting 10 million solar installations will only take six years. Solar power for the first time accounted for more than half of new electric generation capacity added in 2023, the group noted.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects “a record addition” of new utility-scale solar power this year, with about 36.4 gigawatts projected to be installed. More than half of that new capacity is planned for Texas, California and Florida.

The Gemini facility scheduled to begin operation this year near Las Vegas, with a planned solar capacity of nearly 700 megawatts and battery storage capacity of up to 380 megawatts, is expected to become the nation’s largest solar project.

Battery storage is also growing rapidly, with more than 14 gigawatts expected to be added this year, according to the EIA. Batteries complement solar generation well, since solar’s peak production doesn’t generally line up with peak demand on the grid, which happens later in the day. Batteries allow excess solar power to be banked for when it’s needed.

But a changing power mix also comes with new challenges and risks, NERC warned.

In his presentation to FERC, Olson said that while the overall summer electric reliability outlook has improved, some regions are seeing what he described as growing risks during extreme weather.

“Shortages could occur when demand is high and solar, wind or hydro output are low,” he said.

Those regions include parts of the Midwest and South in the grid area managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, New England, Texas, much of the Southwest and California. Grid operators, though, are becoming increasingly adept at planning and running electric grids with large amounts of intermittent resources.

“It’s refreshing to finally get the recognition that renewables can help with reliability,” said Simon Mahan, executive director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association.

Shifting seasons and climate change

While most of the country has historically been “summer-peaking,” meaning regions hit their highest demand for electricity during the summer months, some areas are increasingly seeing demand spike in winter, a trend that is expected to continue as result of heating electrification, other decarbonization policies and more extreme, protracted cold weather events. Indeed, the majority of recent electric grid failures have been during severe winter weather, such as Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, which caused blackouts in several southern states and Uri in 2021, which caused a catastrophic collapse of the Texas electric grid that caused an estimated 246 deaths.

But summer heat still poses risks, NERC says, contributing to both high demand and power plant outages, such as at natural gas power plants.

“Last summer brought record temperatures, extended heat waves and wildfires to large parts of North America,” the organization said. And though energy emergency alerts were few and no electricity supply interruptions happened as a result of insufficient power resources, grid operators “faced significant challenges and drew upon procedures and protocols to obtain all available resources, manage system demand and ensure that energy is delivered over the transmission network to meet the system demand.” Utilities and state and local officials in many areas also “used mechanisms and public appeals to lower customer demand during periods of strained supplies,” NERC added.

Christy Walsh, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Sustainable FERC Project, said the reliability reports show how climate change is central to the pressures facing the electric grid.

“And it needs to be at the center of our solutions too,” she said in a statement to States Newsroom. “Earlier and more intense hurricanes brought on by increasing sea temperatures are a new and noteworthy concern, and this underscores the need for more large-scale transmission and connections between regions. Most of the new additions were wind, solar and storage, and last summer especially we saw just how crucial these resources can be during extreme heat events. We need to make sure we have a grid that can withstand the weather and move resources around during times of stress.”

A steam engine at the repair shop owned by the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. (Photo provided)

For Chris Campbell, Estill County is where almost everyone has a connection to the rail lines that run by the “twin cities” of Irvine and Ravenna, the latter founded by a railroad in the early 20th century.?

Campbell, while not an Estill County native, is a train enthusiast and president of the Irvine-based nonprofit Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. that is trying to transform the county’s long-time rail yard into an “economic incubator” that can be a draw for his part of Appalachian Kentucky.?

The vision: turning the rail yard into a community greenspace, dubbed the “The Yard,” featuring a pavilion for music, a campground, jogging trails, a museum and a renovated repair shop where historic steam engines are restored. Campbell foresees thousands of people coming in for music shows, spending the night, spending money at local restaurants and stores, and visiting other Eastern Kentucky attractions.

The nonprofit is getting a big boost ?toward making that a reality in the form of a nearly $5 million federal grant announced this week to clean up the rail yard, remediating decades of industrial use from hauling coal out of Kentucky’s mountains.

Visitors to the new community space could help “a new economy spring up” on ground where the economy has long been based on coal mining and railroading, says Campbell.?

“None of these ideas can even come to fruition if you don’t do the literal groundwork to make it possible. So, the literal groundwork is moving dirt around and to make it legal to have the general public on it,” Campbell told the Lantern.?

The almost $5 million grant is from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields program, which has more funding to distribute thanks to passage of federal spending bills such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Two area development districts and the city of Barbourville also recently received grants through the program to assess properties and create an inventory of properties to be potentially remediated and restored.?

Campbell said the work already done toward the project — which includes a music stage that could start hosting music as soon as this fall — has been made possible through private donations and other state and federal funding in recent years.

Along with building that community space, Campbell said, those at the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation want to preserve the legacy of the region’s railroading into the future.?

A steam engine repair shop supplied jobs in Ravenna before trains moved to diesel-electric engines, and the nonprofit is restoring a 20th century steam engine that’s seen plenty of time in Kentucky. Campbell said the nonprofit, which owns the rail yard, ?hopes to acquire the tracks from CSX in the future to be able to bring tourists into town by train. He said trains occasionally come down the tracks if they need repairs but the runs are no longer regular.

“People that worked for the railroad were really passionate about it,” Campbell said. “We’re interested in the history of railroading and preserving it but also doing it in a way that’s marketable and has some longevity.”?

Campbell said the nonprofit, which owns the rail yard, ?hopes to acquire the tracks from CSX in the future to be able to bring tourists into town by train. He said trains occasionally come down the tracks but the runs are no longer regular.

Bernheim Forest encompasses 16,000 acres in Jefferson and Bullitt counties. (Bernheim Forest)

The Bernheim Forest and Arboretum is asking Kentucky’s highest court to take up a legal battle over condemnation of some of its land to build a gas pipeline.

In April, the Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling last year from the Bullitt Circuit Court that said Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) can exercise eminent domain to acquire land that is protected by conservation easements to build a natural gas pipeline.

Now, an attorney working on behalf of the research forest in a Monday filing is asking the Kentucky Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court decision. It’s the latest development in a years-long legal battle over LG&E and KU’s push to build a gas pipeline through a 494-acre wildlife corridor originally put into conservation through state-purchased easements that restrict development and require the property to be used as habitat for wildlife.

Environmental advocates have argued the ecological impacts haven’t been considered in developing the pipeline, while LG&E and KU representatives have argued the pipeline is needed for natural gas reliability. Louisville Public Media previously reported internal documents from the utility showed the gas pipeline would primarily benefit the Jim Beam distillery, though the chief operating officer for the utility has denied that.

In the Monday filing, an attorney for Bernheim Forest argued one of the reasons justices should take up the case is that the appeals court interpretation of the law could “extinguish” the existence of state-owned conservation easements. The Kentucky Land Heritage Conservation Fund, a state board that invests funding across Kentucky toward preserving land, originally helped purchase the property for the wildlife corridor.

Randal Strobo wrote in his filing that eminent domain use was limited to privately-owned lands and that publicly-owned conservation easements can’t “simply disappear when a party wishes to condemn the encumbered property without violating several constitutional limits on legislative acts.”

Only a small minority of requests made to the state Supreme Court to take up a case, known as a motion for discretionary review, are granted by justices.

In the April appeals court ruling, Judge Christopher McNeil wrote that some of the arguments made by research forest attorneys were previously rejected by the appeals court in a different case brought forward by the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund. McNeil wrote LG&E and KU can seize the land because Kentucky law doesn’t prevent land protected by conservation easements from being taken through eminent domain.

An LG&E and KU spokesperson in a statement last week said the utility was pleased with the appeals court decision that reinforces the utility’s plans “to enhance reliable natural gas service for customers and support continued growth and economic development within the region.”

A statement from Bernheim Forest in April said the nonprofit’s leaders were “obviously disappointed” with the appeals court decision. The more than 16,000-acre privately-owned research forest founded in the 20th century features an arboretum, educational programs and more than 40 miles of hiking trails.

About 900 companies, trade associations and other groups registered to lobby during the 2024 session of the Kentucky legislature held at the Capitol in Frankfort. Their combined spending was roughly $1 million higher than the previous record set the year before. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — Legislation affecting power plant retirements helped drive spending to lobby the Kentucky legislature to a new high of $12.4 million during the 2024 session.

A bill that created new hurdles for utilities that want to retire power plants fired by fossil fuels spurred investor-owned utilities and power cooperatives to spend much more than usual in trying to influence state legislators.

The Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives ranked third in lobbying spending during the session at $129,400, and LG&E and KU Energy came in fourth at $123,400, according to Kentucky Lantern’s review of reports filed with the Legislative Ethics Commission covering the period of Jan. 1 through April 30.

Kentucky Senate advances bill creating new hurdles for utilities to retire power plants

Duke Energy came in eighth place at $100,600 while East Kentucky Power Cooperative ranked 11th at $85,000.

About 900 companies, trade associations and other groups registered to lobby during the 2024 session, ethics commission records show. And the combined spending of those groups was roughly $1 million higher than the previous record spent lobbying during the 2023 session.

The top spender of all in this year’s session was the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which lobbies scores of bills affecting business each year and is always at or near the top in lobbying spending. For the 2024 session it reported spending $201,300. Among its top priorities this year were budget bills designed to keep the legislature on track to continue lowering the state income tax.

Greater Louisville Inc., the chamber of of commerce for the state’s largest metropolitan area, is also a top lobby spender every year and in the 2024 session if ranked seventh at $104,900.

But the distinctive characteristic of the list of top lobbying groups for this year’s session is that utilities spent more.

The main reason for that was Senate Bill 349 that created a new commission — with significant fossil fuel industry representation — to review a utility’s plan to retire a power plant fired by fossil fuels before that plan could be presented to the state’s official utility regulator, the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

The investor-owned utilities opposed the bill. The member-owned cooperatives supported it.

SB 349 passed both chambers and was later vetoed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear who said it was the wrong approach to helping assure a reliable supply of electricity to Kentucky homes and businesses. But Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate easily overrode Beshear’s veto.

Frankfort commission voices support for city utility as state senator pushes to sell its telecom

Another big spender in this year’s session was newcomer Frankfort Plant Board, which ranked 12th in lobby spending at $81,000 — all spent to successfully defeat legislation unveiled last December by Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, that in its original form would have forced the board to sell its telecommunications services to a private company.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky was the second highest spender on the list. It reported spending $150,700 through the first four months of the year. Its priorities included opposition to House Bill 5, the Safer Kentucky Act, which will increase criminal penalties and create new crimes including street camping. The ACLU also opposed? bills banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools and universities.

Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn., of Washington, reported spending $102,700 with most of that spent on advertising in opposition to legislation that tightened regulations on pharmacy benefit managers.

What to know about the certificate of need debate in Kentucky

Others in the top 10 in lobby spending this year were:

• Kentucky League of Cities, which reported spending $109,100.
• Kentucky Hospital Assn., $105,500, whose lobbying efforts included successfully opposing legislation that would have loosened certificate of need requirements on health care providers.
• Altria Client Services, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, $99,920, which lobbied for new restrictions on vape retailers enacted by the legislature and signed by Beshear.

Here is a list of the companies, associations and other groups that reported spending the most on lobbying expenses during the first four months of 2024, according to updated data posted Monday on the ethics commission website.

Nearly 90 percent of the total spending was on compensation for lobbyists, according to the ethics commission website.

Following the list of top lobby spenders is a list of individual lobbyists who received the most in lobbying fees. The ethics commission website shows that there are slightly more than 700 registered lobbyists. Each of those on the list below is a contract lobbyist who represents numerous clients. The list shows the total number of clients represented by the lobbyist and three of the lobbyists’ larger clients.

Groups that spent the most lobbying

Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Frankfort, business ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$201,292

ACLU of Kentucky, Louisville, non-profit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $150,726

Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, Louisville, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $129,416

LG&E and KU Energy, Louisville, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $123,427

Kentucky League of Cities, Lexington, city governments ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$109,113

Kentucky Hospital Assn., Louisville ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $105,490

Greater Louisville Inc., Louisville, business ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$104,900

Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn., Washington, pharmacy issues ? $102,693

Duke Energy, Cincinnati, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $100,577

Altria (Philip Morris USA), Richmond, VA , tobacco? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$99,920

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Winchester, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $85,634

Frankfort Plant Board, Frankfort, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$81,032

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, London, non-profit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $79,318

Elevance Health (Anthem), Louisville, insurance ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$78,946

Kentucky Retail Federation, Frankfort, retail stores ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $77,900

Kentucky Justice Assn., Frankfort, justice issues ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $67,141

Kentucky Education Assn., Frankfort, teachers? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$65,181

Kentucky Primary Care Assn., Frankfort, health care ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$64,138

Americans for Prosperity, Louisville, conservative advocacy group ? ? ? ? ? $62,788

Kentucky Medical Assn., Louisville, doctors ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$62,439

?Top paid lobbyists

Patrick Jennings, ?$366,209, representing?72 clients including Kentucky Hospital Assn., AT&T, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.

Bob Babbage, $333,500, 48 clients including MCGlobal Holdings, Underdog Fantasy, ROBLOX.

Stephen Huffman, $323,700, 25 clients including Keeneland, Revolutionary Racing, Red Mile.

John McCarthy, $281,454,?108 clients including Churchill Downs, Altria, Netsmart

Ronald Pryor, $242,795, 11 clients including HCA Healthcare, Kentucky Hospital Assn., LifePoint Health.

Sean Cutter, $238,805, 60 clients including Google, Kinder Morgan Energy, RAI Services.

James M. Higdon, $223,494,?60 clients including Unite US, Centigix, YDK! Action.

Kelley Abell, $223,069, 26 clients including Brightspring Health, Dish Network, Ky. Assn. of Adult Day Centers.

Jason Bentley, $218,311, 55 clients including Kinder Morgan Energy, RAI Services, Ky Distillers Assn.

Katherine Hall, $218,064, 70 clients including Ky. Assn. of Health Care Facilities, Necco, Satoshi Action Fund.

Chris Nolan, $214,699, 58 clients including Good Rx, Humana, Ascend Elements.

Jason Underwood, $206,200, 8 clients including Enervenue, United Healthcare, Airbnb.

Laura Owens, $183,250, 34 clients including Archer Gaming, Baptist Health, Cooper Surgical.

Amy Wickliffe,?$176,512, 94 clients including Churchill Downs, Al J. Schneider Co., Kentucky American Water.

Mike Biagi, $166,236, 19 clients including Kentucky Downs, Appalachian Regional Health, Ky. Credit Union League.

Trey Grayson, $160,150, 28 clients including Secure Elections Project, Academic Partnerships LLC, Kentucky Competes.

Dustin Miller, $151,587, 26 clients including Elevance Health, Ky. Consumer Finance Assn., Altria.

John Cooper, $144,514, 22 clients including Ky. Bankers Assn., Ky. Medical Assn., Toyota.

Timothy Corrigan, $141,336, 23 clients including Dow Chemical, Continental Refining, Outfront Media.

Rebecca Hartsough, $136,800, 41 clients including Grant Ready Ky., Novo Nordisk, SidePrize LLC.

Some of the coal mined in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming comes from surface mines like this one. (Photo courtesy of Wyoming BLM via Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0)

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday released plans to end future leasing of its managed coal resources in the Powder River Basin in eastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming in a move that has angered Montana’s Republican political leaders but is being cheered by environmental groups who fought for changes to leasing plans over the past decade.

The BLM issued final supplemental environmental impact statements and amendments to its land use plans for the Miles City Field Office in Montana and the Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming, both of which recommend an end to future federal coal leasing in the regions despite the bureau considering alternatives that would allow for some future leasing.

The official plans will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, which opens up a 30-day window for people to file protests. After the window closes and the protests are resolved by the director of the BLM, which does not have a specific timeframe but in recent years has taken about nine months, the final Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan will be published and take effect.

The decisions by the BLM are key because the Powder River Basin in the two states accounts for 85% of federal coal production and about 40% of U.S. annual coal production, but the bureau says coal production in the Miles City Field Office region has declined over the past decade as more utilities move toward other energy sources for power.

The environmental groups that pushed for the end to new coal leasing called the decision a “sea change” in federal efforts to move toward cleaner energy sources.

“This decision opens new doors to a future where our public lands are not sacrificed for fossil fuel profits and, instead, can prove a bulwark of ecological and community resilience in the face of global warming,” Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, the executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, said in a statement.

The plan for Montana would close about 1.2 million acres to new coal leasing but would allow current coal production at the Spring Creek Mine, owned by the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, to continue through 2035. It would allow production at the Rosebud Mine, owned by Westmoreland, through 2060 under their current leases, the BLM said in the notice in the Federal Register. The Absaloka Mine lost its final customer in April, the Billings Gazette reported.

Existing mines in Wyoming would be able to produce coal until 2041. The current period for the new plans runs through 2038.

The new environmental impact statement and land use plan amendments come eight years after the Western Organization of Resource Councils first challenged the 2015 Record of Decision for future leasing operations, alleging it violated the National Environmental Policy Act. In 2018, a judge found the BLM had violated NEPA, which led to another coal screening for the plans and a new NEPA analysis released in 2019 under the Trump administration.

But the Miles City plan was challenged again by the same group in 2020. In August 2022, a U.S. District Court of Montana judge also found the BLM had violated NEPA by failing to address public health and environmental effects from the mining. He ordered another new coal screening and NEPA analysis that this time considered no-leasing and limited-leasing alternatives as well as impacts to public health from burning fossil fuels in the area.

“Coal has powered our nation for many decades, but technology, economics and markets are changing radically,” Western Organization of Resource Councils Board Chair Paula Antoine said Thursday in response to the decisions. “BLM’s announcement recognizes that coal’s era is ending, and it’s time to focus on supporting our communities through the transition away from coal, investing in workers, and moving to heal our lands, water and climate as we enter a bright clean energy future.”

The BLM said in its announcement that the Spring Creek and Rosebud mines produced a combined 18.5 million short tons (37 million pounds) of coal in 2022, which was down from 28 million short tons (56 million pounds) in 2007, “as older coal-fired electric power plants have closed and generation has shifted to natural gas and renewable energy sources.”

“Both U.S. total coal production and Powder River Basin coal production peaked in 2008 and have since declined steeply, according to the Energy Information Administration,” BLM spokesperson Mark Jacobsen said in the bureau’s announcement.

Montana Republicans unhappy with another Biden energy move; Tester reviewing

Montana’s Republican governor and three GOP members of the state’s federal delegation, who have for years been saying the Biden administration’s efforts to move the U.S toward more renewable and clean energy and away from using fossil fuels for power, sent out a joint news release decrying the BLM’s decision and blaming the “far left” for the proposed plans.

Gov. Greg Gianforte in August wrote to BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning that accepting few or no future leases would harm the state’s coal trust, Colstrip and the economy.

The group of Republicans expressed similar sentiments recently regarding the EPA’s singling-out the coal-fired plants at Colstrip with new emissions standards and believe that efforts to move away from coal and oil and gas to power the state will hurt the state’s power grid and cost workers jobs.

“Every action taken by the Biden administration is driving up the cost of affordable energy and threatening the reliability of our electrical grid. Affordable power generated by coal keeps the lights on in Montana and fuels manufacturing across the country and world,” Gianforte said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is nothing more than a gift to China and our adversaries and a slap in the face to hardworking Montanans.”

U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, who represents eastern Montana, blamed the decision on appeasing “climate extremists” and said the plans would jeopardize Montanans’ way of life.

“BLM either does not understand or does not care that their unreliable green new deal energy sources are not feasible in places like Montana and pose real threats to our economy and national security,” Rosendale said.

A spokesperson for Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, said Tester was reviewing the proposal and calling on Montanans to submit comments during the 30-day protest window.

“Senator Tester will always stand up to President Biden’s energy policies when they don’t make sense for Montana,” spokesperson Eli Cousin said in a statement.

The new proposal comes on the heels of the BLM publishing a final rule that will allow two new types of leases on federal public lands: restoration and mitigation leases, which put those uses on the same footing as extraction. The rules have already been criticized by the same group of Montana Republican leaders who say the changes will also harm Montana’s energy industry.

The different alternatives BLM considered

But the parameters of the court-ordered review meant that three out of four of the proposed alternatives the BLM considered for the Miles City Field Office would have closed off significant acreage to new leasing.

The first alternative was to take no action and keep the 2019 plans in place, which would have made 1.2 million acres available for possible leasing.

But the three other options applied screens, multiple-use considerations, and climate change scenarios that greatly reduced the available acreage. Alternative B would have left about 69,000 acres available for possible leasing, while Alternative C would have made about 810 acres available.

But the alternative the BLM decided to pick makes no coal available for leasing. The Miles City planning area encompasses 2.7 million acres of BLM land and 11.7 million acres of federal coal mineral estate over 17 counties in eastern Montana.

The environmental impact analysis says the alternative the BLM chose would mean no new impacts to air quality caused by new or pending coal leases. The report forecasts Spring Creek and Rosebud would continue to support about 620 jobs through 2035 resulting in nearly $50 million in average annual income.

Utilizing Alternative D would also mean the Spring Creek Mine would run out of coal reserves about 53 years earlier than under Alternatives A and B, which would eventually lead to a loss of economic revenue and programs funded by federal coal production, the report says.

But Montana environmental groups that have fought for the changes say the new plans are a step forward in moving away from coal and cutting down on pollution.

Mark Fix, a Miles City rancher who is a member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, said the new plans reflect reality in 2024.

“Coal companies in this region already have decades of coal locked up in leasing, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll find buyers that far into the future given the competition from more affordable energy sources,” Fix said. “This plan protects taxpayers from wasting publicly owned resources on lowball leases to subsidize an industry in decline. It’s time we take a clear-eyed look at the future and start investing in a transition away from coal.”

The story is republished from the Daily Montanan, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

A herd of wild swine is called a sounder. (USDA)

FRANKFORT — Because an “educated” pig is harder to track or trap, Kentucky is taking steps to prevent the hunting of feral hogs known to damage crops, woodlands and potentially spread disease.?

Kentucky wildlife management officials are finalizing a ban on the hunting of wild pigs in an effort to more easily capture them. Under the new regulation, pigs could still be shot if they’re damaging private land, although wildlife experts are encouraging landowners to instead contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to have the animals removed.?

Steven Fields, an attorney for the department, told lawmakers during a legislative hearing earlier this week that if a sounder — the name for a herd of wild swine — knows it’s being hunted, the sounder avoids humans and shifts its activities to night, making it harder to track.

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, the governing board overseeing the KDFWR, voted in December to approve a regulation eliminating the existing year-round hunting season for wild hogs.

Ben Robinson, the wildlife division director at the state agency, told the board the department was trying to prevent “anybody from shooting a pig at any time” because it can make feral hogs hard to trap en masse, something state and federal officials have actively been pursuing.?

“It goes against what we’re trying to do with our trapping efforts by educating these pigs, making them much more difficult to trap,” Robinson said in December. “We’re having a lot of success with our partners, [U.S. Fish and] Wildlife Service, USDA, in trapping these animals and keeping them out of Kentucky. So by allowing landowners to just shoot freely, that goes against what we’re trying to do.”?

To report wild pig sightings, damage or criminal release, call 1-800-858-1549.

Robinson said other wildlife management agencies in the South had recommended the Kentucky agency take measures to prevent a problematic “pig hunting culture” from being established.?

The agency has been encouraging ?Kentuckians to refrain from shooting feral hogs and instead report sightings so that the animals can be trapped and removed.

U.S. Department of Agriculture data as of January 2024 shows the range of feral hog populations including parts of Eastern Kentucky, Northern Kentucky and counties near the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Wild pig populations have been steadily moving northward and westward, according to the USDA.?

Feral hogs can carry a number of diseases harmful to wildlife, livestock and humans, along with causing billions of dollars in agricultural damages across the country. One analysis highlighted Kentucky as one of the top 15 states affected by invasive wild pigs.

Electric power lines are seen attached to transmission towers on Sept. 28, 2023, in the Everglades, Florida. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday issued a long-awaited overhaul of how regional electric transmission lines are planned and paid for. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A divided Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday issued a long-awaited overhaul of how regional electric transmission lines are planned and paid for, a move cheered by clean power groups but blasted by a conservative commissioner who said it was driven by “special interests” and exceeds the commission’s authority.

The commission’s final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, intended to prod utilities and grid operators across the country into more forward-looking, comprehensive and cost-effective planning of large electric transmission lines and better account for the broad benefits those wires provide, was nearly three years in the making. It passed on a 2-1 vote, with the commission’s two Democratic appointees voting yes and the lone Republican opposed.

FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said an aging grid, increasing severe weather, demand growth from new manufacturing, data centers and increasing electrification as well as a changing generation mix all threaten reliability at a time when construction of the high voltage transmission lines that help get power to where it’s needed has slumped to a record low.

“This rule cannot come fast enough. There is an urgent need to act to ensure the reliability and the affordability of our grid,” Phillips said. “We simply will not be able to address these converging challenges and continue to supply the reliable, abundant and affordable power the American people depend on without taking a clear-eyed, long term, forward-looking approach to transmission planning.”

But Commissioner Mark Christie, a conservative former Virginia utility commissioner, vehemently dissented to the rule, calling it “a pretext to enact a sweeping policy agenda that Congress never passed” and one that will “facilitate a massive transfer of wealth from consumers to for-profit special interests.”

Christie has long opposed transmission cost allocation schemes that he claimed would force customers in some states to pay for the pro-renewable policies of their neighbors. “I was perfectly prepared to vote for this final rule if it were a bipartisan compromise, if it preserved the state role that everyone sitting up here voted for two years ago,” he said.

The genie and the bottle

The sprawling rule requires transmission operators to conduct transmission planning at least every five years, looking out along a 20-year horizon using “best available data to develop well-informed projections” of needs, according to a staff presentation. To identify those transmission needs, providers need to consider state laws and regulations, utility planning documents, fuel cost trends, power plant retirements, requests from developers looking to connect to the grid as well as “policy goals and corporate commitments.” They also must consider “grid-enhancing technologies,” a suite of potentially cost-saving tools common in other countries that have been slow to take root in the U.S., despite years of prodding from advocates, as well as identifying opportunities to upgrade existing lines, called “right-sizing.”

Transmission providers, including utilities and the organizations that manage the grid in much of the country, are also required to use a list of seven economic and reliability benefits as they evaluate and select long-term regional transmission projects as well as establish an evaluation process with transparent selection criteria that are not “unduly discriminatory or preferential, aim to ensure that more efficient or cost-effective long-term regional transmission facilities are selected and seek to maximize benefits accounting for costs over time without over-building transmission facilities.”

Christie criticized those “mandated inputs” and said states have no ability to consent to those criteria.

A major big problem FERC is trying to fix is that even as construction of large transmission projects has nearly ground to a halt, utilities in many parts of the countries are on a building spree of smaller — potentially duplicative and inefficient — projects that are easier to get approved and paid for, increasing customer bills.

“The absence of this type of regional transmission planning is resulting in piecemeal transmission expansion that addresses relatively near-term transmission needs,” the staff presentation reads. “The status quo approach results in transmission providers investing in relatively inefficient or less cost-effective transmission infrastructure, with the costs ultimately recovered through commission-jurisdictional rates. This dynamic results in, among other things, transmission customers paying more than is necessary or appropriate to meet their transmission needs, and customers missing out on benefits that outweigh their costs, which results in less efficient or cost-effective transmission investments.”

For example, proponents of the new rule point to hundreds of millions of dollars in transmission costs that will result from the closure of a Maryland power plant in the region overseen by PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, as an example of poor planning.

“It is hard to imagine the region could not have found a more cost-effective solution had it begun planning for that retirement along with other anticipated shifts further ahead of time,” said Democratic Commissioner Allison Clements, who took Christie to task over his dissent. She said he was pushing the commission to take a “fraught voyage” to decide which public policies are appropriate for creating transmission demands.

“All transmission needs are inherently influenced by state policies of all stripes,” she said. “The truth is that enormous sums of money are going to be spent on transmission investment regardless of whether or not it’s done within the framework of this new rule.”

She argued that the new rule will protect customers from the pricey, fits-and-starts transmission buildout happening in much of the nation now.

“Not everything is about politics,” she said. “It is not the commission’s job to try and force the genie that is the energy transition back in the bottle. It is our legal responsibility to protect consumers in light of whatever is going on in the world around us.”

Neil Chatterjee, a Republican former FERC chairman, posted on X that he would have voted for the rule if he was still on the commission.

“Today’s @ferc rule was voted out 2-1 but that does NOT mean it’s a partisan rule making,” he wrote. “Had I authored this rule as chair would it have looked exactly like this? Of course not. But it would have been in the range. Regulatory rule making is hard.”

‘Benefit of having a big grid’?

Competitive transmission providers and clean energy groups were celebrating Monday. Organizations ranging from the American Council on Renewable Energy and the National Audubon Society to the Conservative Energy Network and Americans for a Clean Energy Grid issued statements applauding the order.

Some renewable power organizations had privately wondered whether a drive for a unanimous vote might produce a more watered-down rule to get Christie onboard. That might have left states with big renewable power goals paying for all the transmission costs necessary to accommodate them, as New Jersey is doing for its planned offshore wind buildout, even though that power generation could mean cheaper, cleaner electricity for its neighbors, also, along with other benefits.

The U.S. Department of Energy has found a “pressing need” for new transmission infrastructure across the country to alleviate congestion and improve reliability. Grid congestion costs electric customers billions of dollars a year, according to some reports. And because of the more diffuse nature of renewable power, getting it from where it’s produced to where it’s needed, as in the vast amount of wind power in the Great Plains, can require large, multi-state transmission lines.

“Families and businesses are paying the price for utilities’ and grid operators’ failure to address our critical electricity infrastructure needs,” said Heather O’Neill, president and CEO at national clean power business association Advanced Energy United. “Building more multi-state transmission lines unclogs the traffic jams on America’s electricity superhighways and unlocks our ability to keep up with our growing energy needs.”

Justin Vickers, a senior attorney for the Sierra Club, said the rule appears to be firmly within FERC’s jurisdiction, despite Christie’s concerns to the contrary.

“I think the commission is on very strong footing here,” he said. “This is a way of maximizing the benefits of living in a big country. We can send power around the country. It increases reliability and it lowers price. That’s the benefit of having a big grid. .. Let’s take advantage of it.”

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, said it was “disappointed” that FERC declined to include a “right of first refusal” policy for some transmission projects, which would have given their members first crack at some of the lines. The organization also said the rule lacked “regional flexibilities for evaluating project benefits.”

“A one-size-fits-all approach does not work, as different regions have different needs and different states have different policies,” said Phil Moeller, an executive vice president at the institute.

Cattle crowd inside a feedlot operated by JBS Five Rivers Colorado Beef on August 22, 2012 in Wiley, Colorado. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.?

About five miles south of Broken Bow, in the heart of central Nebraska, thousands of cattle stand in feedlots at Adams Land & Cattle Co., a supplier of beef to the meat giant Tyson Foods.

From the air, the feedlots look dusty brown and packed with cows — not a vision of happy animals grazing on open pastureland, enriching the soil with carbon. But when the animals are slaughtered, processed and sent onward to consumers, labels on the final product can claim that they were raised in a “climate friendly” way.??

In late 2022, Tyson — one of the country’s “big four” meat packers — applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), seeking a “climate friendly” label for its Brazen Beef brand. The production of Brazen Beef, the label claims, achieves a “10 percent greenhouse gas reduction.” Soon after, the USDA approved the label.

Happy cows, good food, more profits for farmers

Immediately, environmental groups questioned the claim and petitioned the agency to stop using it, citing livestock’s significant greenhouse gas emissions and the growing pile of research that documents them. These groups and journalism outlets, including Inside Climate News, have asked the agency for the data it used to support its rubber-stamping of Tyson’s label but have essentially gotten nowhere.

“There are lots of misleading claims on food, but it’s hard to imagine a claim that’s more misleading than ‘climate friendly’ beef,” said Scott Faber, a senior vice president at the Environmental Working Group (EWG). “It’s like putting a cancer-free label on a cigarette. There’s no worse food choice for the climate than beef.”

The USDA has since confirmed it is currently considering and has approved similar labels for more livestock companies, but would not say which ones.

Last week, the EWG, a longtime watchdog of the USDA, published a new analysis, outlining its efforts over the last year to push the agency for more transparency, including asking it to provide the specific rationale for allowing Brazen Beef to carry the “climate friendly” label. Last year, the group filed a Freedom of Information Act request, seeking the data that Tyson supplied to the agency in support of its application, but received only a heavily redacted response. EWG also petitioned the agency to not allow climate friendly or low carbon claims on beef.

The Biden administration’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, appropriated nearly $20 billion for agricultural practices deemed to have benefits for the climate. Another $3.1 billion is available through a Biden-era program called the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities.?

To earn the “climate friendly” label, Tyson requires ranchers to meet the criteria of its internal “Climate-Smart Beef” program, but EWG notes that the company fails to provide information about the practices that farmers are required to adopt or about which farmers participate in the program. The only farm it has publicly identified is the Adams company in Nebraska.

A USDA spokesperson told Inside Climate News it can only rely on a third-party verification company to substantiate a label claim and could not provide the data Tyson submitted for its review.??

“Because Congress did not provide USDA with on-farm oversight authority that would enable it to verify these types of labeling claims, companies must use third-party certifying organizations to substantiate these claims,” the spokesperson wrote in an email, directing Inside Climate News to the third-party verifier or Tyson for more information.?

The third-party verification company, Where Food Comes From, did not respond to emailed questions from Inside Climate News, and Tyson did not respond to emails seeking comment.

The USDA said it is reviewing EWG’s petitions and announced in June 2023 that it’s working on strengthening the “substantiation of animal-raising claims, which includes the type of claim affixed to the Brazen Beef product.”

The agency said other livestock companies were seeking similar labels and that the agency has approved them, but would not identify those companies, saying Inside Climate News would have to seek the information through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“They’re being incredibly obstinate about sharing anything right now,” said Matthew Hayek, a researcher with New York University who studies the environmental and climate impacts of the food system. “Speaking as a scientist, it’s not transparent and it’s a scandal in its own right that the government can’t provide this information.”

This lack of transparency from the agency worries environmental and legal advocacy groups, especially now that billions of dollars in taxpayer funds are available for agricultural practices deemed to have benefits for the climate. The Biden administration’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, appropriated nearly $20 billion for these practices; another $3.1 billion is available through a Biden-era program called the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities.

“This is an important test case for USDA,” Faber said. “If they can’t say no to a clearly misleading climate claim like ‘climate friendly’ beef, why should they be trusted to say no to other misleading climate claims? There’s a lot of money at stake.”

Tyson is the primary recipient of about $60 million in funding from the Climate-Smart Commodities program that will help the company “expand climate-smart markets and increase carbon sequestration and reduce emissions in the production of beef and row crops for livestock feed,” according to the USDA.??

Other recipients of that grant include McDonald’s, the biggest buyer of beef in the United States, and Where Food Comes From.

The funds for the Climate-Smart Commodities program come from the agency’s Commodity Credit Corporation and are not subject to congressional approval or oversight.?

Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the USDA, asking for details about funding to support “low carbon” beef. The agency’s response was heavily redacted and the Center is now appealing.

“The industry continues to make big claims about sequestering carbon, with no science or scale to back it up, and uses very fuzzy accounting for their methane emissions, even though cattle are the main agricultural source of domestic methane emissions,” explained Jennifer Molidor, a senior campaigner for the group, in an email to Inside Climate News. “Brazen Beef has used a third party auditor, but it’s not clear what baseline and metrics they are using either.”

“If the USDA wants climate-smart agriculture, propping up the beef industry isn’t the smartest way to go about it,” Molidor added.

On its website, Tyson claims to reach its 10 percent greenhouse gas reduction through improved grazing methods and practices that reduce emissions from growing feed. But it does not publish the data and it says farmers can “customize their practices depending on their unique geographic location and circumstances.”

The company also says it worked with two environmental advocacy groups, the Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy, to develop its carbon accounting methodology.?

Katie Anderson, a senior director with the Environmental Defense Fund, said the organization’s role in Tyson’s Climate Smart Beef program was limited to sharing its method for measuring nitrogen, the major component of fertilizer used to grow livestock feed. When nitrogen-based fertilizer is applied to farm fields, much of it is lost to the air as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The organization’s method calculates nitrous oxide emissions across watersheds or “entire sourcing regions,” making it less cumbersome for individual farms to calculate.

“The models make it easier and more accurate for food and agriculture companies to report progress toward the nitrogen-related parts of their climate and water quality goals for their direct operations and supply chains,” Anderson said.???

Tyson did not pay the group for its contribution.

The Nature Conservancy, which has received funding from Tyson for some of its conservation projects in the company’s home state of Arkansas, was paid to share some of its expertise on sustainable agriculture and translating data from farmers.

“We only shared knowledge and advice, which Tyson took into consideration when working on the model,” said Nancy Labbe, the co-director of TNC’s Regenerative Grazing Lands program, who noted that the data on Tyson’s accounting methodology would have to come from the company itself.?

Both the Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy have received funding from the USDA via the Climate-Smart Commodities program.

Silvia Secchi, a natural resource economist at the University of Iowa and outspoken critic of U.S. agricultural policy, said the environmental groups, universities and corporations taking money from the USDA for climate-focused efforts should all be subject to the same rules.

“USDA should have a transparent methodology that’s applicable to everyone—the outsourcing, the monitoring, the verification—for all these groups that have incentives to make things look better than they are,” Secchi said. “There’s no transparency. How are they actually going to verify that farmers are reducing nitrogen? Are they getting GPS coordinates for tractors every day of the year? I think it’s complete bulls- – – t. They’re only looking at select indicators, not the whole system.”

Already, the agency has expanded its definition of “climate smart” to practices critics say are not climate smart and may actually lead to more greenhouse gas emissions.

Though it has long worked to downplay its climate impact, the livestock industry has become increasingly sensitive to growing consumer awareness of livestock’s huge carbon footprint. It has spent millions lobbying against climate action and courting academic specialists to minimize the greenhouse gas emissions of livestock.?

“There’s no transparency. How are they actually going to verify that farmers are reducing nitrogen?”

Last month the American Farm Bureau Federation, the country’s most powerful farm lobbying group, which had long denied the science behind human-caused climate change, celebrated a drop in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“America’s farmers and ranchers are leading the way in greenhouse gas emission reduction through voluntary conservation efforts and market-based incentives,” the Farm Bureau said, noting that agricultural emissions fell by 2 percent from 2021 to 2022, “ the largest decrease of any economic sector.”

But Ben Lilliston, the director of rural strategies and climate change for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, noted that the drop was not the result of voluntary farm practices. High fertilizer prices, in part caused by the war in Ukraine, resulted in less fertilizer use as farmers switched to planting soybeans rather than corn, which is especially nitrogen intensive. Less corn and less fertilizer led to lower nitrous oxide emissions. Over roughly the same period, a multi-year drought killed thousands of cattle, resulting in lower methane emissions from cattle. (Cattle are the biggest source of agricultural methane, largely from their belches and from the way their manure is stored.)

“Those are the two drivers that reduced emissions,” Lilliston said. “It wasn’t anything the industry did or anything farmers did.”

“When we do reduce the number of cattle, we reduce emissions, and when we do plant other crops besides corn — crops that aren’t as fertilizer intensive — emissions go down,” Lilliston added. “This is the pathway to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

The downplaying of livestock’s carbon impact isn’t just the work of the American farm and livestock lobbies. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations last year came under fire as reporters revealed that researchers had been pressured to downplay livestock’s climate impact in a landmark report.?

Last month, Hayek, of NYU, accused the FAO of misusing his data in a subsequent report that he and others say downplayed the importance of reducing beef and dairy consumption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which research has demonstrated is critical, especially in developing countries.?

The food system, from farm to consumer, accounts for about one-third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock production accounting for about two-thirds of that. It is now widely understood that emissions from the food system alone will push temperatures past the 1.5 degree Celsius target set in the Paris Agreement. Assuming the world continues to eat meat and dairy the way it does now, most of the warming projected to come from the food system will come from livestock, recent research has found.

Industry efforts to pursue “low carbon” and “climate friendly” labeling are another step toward minimizing its climate and broader environmental impacts — and they further mislead consumers, critics say. “It implies there’s a beef choice that’s good for the climate,” Faber said.

The debate over low carbon beef claims could, in theory, end up facing legal challenges.

In February, the New York Attorney General’s office sued the world’s largest beef company, Brazil-based JBS, for misleading consumers by promising to achieve “net zero” emissions by 2040, even though the company clearly has a growth strategy that relies on ramping up beef production.?

“It would be difficult to achieve if not impossible,” said Peter Lehner, an attorney for Earthjustice whose work focuses on agriculture. “The measures JBS are taking are not enough and that would overlap with Tyson.”

“You can’t claim to be climate friendly or net zero because beef production ineluctably uses an enormous amount of land and emits an enormous amount of methane and nitrous oxide,” he added. “You can reduce that, but you’re still not close to a climate friendly food.”

Power plants that burn fossil fuels would have to significantly curb heat-trapping carbon emissions under new EPA rules being challenged in federal court by Kentucky's Russell Coleman and other Republican attorneys general. (Getty Images)

Kentucky’s chief law enforcement officer has joined Republican attorneys general from 24 other states in challenging new federal rules aimed at curbing water pollution and nearly all greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and newly constructed gas-fired power plants.

A news release from Kentucky Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman on Thursday said the Environmental Protection Agency’s “package of job-killing energy regulations … would drive up prices on Kentucky families.”?

“We’re fighting this radical green agenda that would only leave Kentucky in the dark,” Coleman said in a? statement.

The challenge filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. says the attorneys general will “show that the final rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and otherwise is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”?

The state legislature last month appropriated?$3 million to Coleman to boost his efforts litigating federal environmental regulations.

The new EPA rules target the management of older toxic coal ash landfills and ponds created from burning coal for electricity, air pollution from mercury and other toxic metals from burning coal, wastewater pollution from coal-fired power plants and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.?

Specifically, one of the new regulations will require coal-fired power plants to “control” 90% of carbon emissions by 2032 if the plants are intended to run beyond 2039. If implemented, the rule would mean a sea change in how Kentucky generates its electricity. As of 2021, Kentucky was one of just four states that generated more than 70% of its electricity from burning coal, according to the Energy Information Administration.?

Environmental groups have hailed the EPA rules as a long-awaited move to cut down on air and water pollution, particularly from coal-fired power plants. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the rules were fulfilling the Biden administration’s vision “to tackle climate change and to protect all communities from pollution in our air, water, and in our neighborhoods.”

The International Energy Agency has previously found that burning coal for electricity across the globe has been the single largest source of global temperature increase.?

Some utilities and lobbying organizations for the coal industry have pushed back on the rules, arguing they rely on unproven technologies to capture carbon emissions and could strain electricity reliability at a time when nationwide energy demand is surging.?

Anthony Campbell, the president and CEO of the nonprofit utility East Kentucky Power Cooperative, in a statement said the EPA’s attempt to “force wide adoption” of carbon capture technology will “be disastrous for America’s electric grid.”?

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which generates electricity for 16 electric cooperatives in Central and East Kentucky, supported a bill passed into law by state legislators earlier this year that created new barriers for utilities to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants.?

Supporters of that legislation, Senate Bill 349, had argued it was needed to ensure the reliability of Kentucky’s electricity, a notion refuted by the leader of Kentucky’s largest utility Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities. Investor-owned utilities including LG&E and KU had joined environmental groups in opposing SB 349, arguing it could burden ratepayers with the costs of keeping aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants online.?

The Artemis Power Tech facility, photographed last year before noise canceling blankets were installed, sits among the Wolfe County woods, power lines connecting it to a nearby substation. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Nine months after a suspected cryptocurrency mine moved into her previously quiet part of Wolfe County, Brenda Campbell says noise canceling blankets installed by the operator are not helping and she still doesn’t know where to turn for relief from the constant, intrusive whirring.

Wolfe County Judge-Executive Raymond Banks agrees the noise blankets haven’t been very effective, though he said the data center company told him the noise levels are so low it wasn’t necessary to “even have to put what they put up there.”

“I think the sound will always be there regardless of what they do,” Banks recently told the Lantern.

Campbell and Banks are looking to Frankfort for answers and point to recent action by Arkansas lawmakers as a possible roadmap.

Spurred by rural communities’ complaints about noise and disruption, Arkansas lawmakers passed and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation this month requiring cryptocurrency mining operations to obtain state permits and when they operate near homes to implement “noise-reduction” techniques. The new law also bans some foreign governments, most notably China, from owning a cryptocurrency mining operation in Arkansas and restores authority to local governments to pass regulations related to cryptocurrency mines.?

To do this, the Arkansas legislature had to reverse a law that it had passed just last year, in part at the urging of a pro-crypto lobbying group, the Satoshi Action Fund. The earlier law had limited local governments’ authority to regulate noise from the facilities.?

Earlier this year, the Satoshi Action Fund lobbied the Kentucky legislature to pass House Bill 741, which was approved by the House but died in the Senate.

Rural counties without zoning most vulnerable

Crypto mining uses tremendous amounts of electricity to run high-powered computers that solve complex mathematical equations to secure online transactions of cryptocurrencies through a digital ledger called the “blockchain.” Mining companies that, for example, solve these equations for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin are rewarded with Bitcoin itself; one unit in Bitcoin was worth more than $60,000 earlier this month.

Electric fans used to cool the computers can generate a lot of sound.?

The Kentucky sponsor of the industry-sought bill, Rep. Adam Bowling, R-Middlesboro, said the legislation would steer noisy, large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations to industrial parks and other designated places for industry.?

But others said the bill would leave the many rural Kentucky counties that have no zoning laws without protection or recourse from crypto mining noise.

As recently as 2020 a little more than half of Kentucky counties had no planning and zoning offices or boards, according to a presentation that year by the Kentucky Association of Counties. Wolfe County is one of them.?

Bowling appeared before a legislative committee on March 13 with representatives from Satoshi Action Fund and Kentucky Blockchain Council, both groups supporting the bill.?

Bowling told the Lantern that some local governments are reactively trying to “change the rules and kind of patch it together” once cryptocurrency mining operations are already established and that the bill would put regulations in place before operations move into a community.?

“They want to get the rules and the regulations set out on the front end before they make multimillion dollar investments and then things are changed after the fact,” Bowling said.?

An? environmental group expressed concerns at the time that the bill would still allow for intrusive noise pollution from mining operations. Audrey Ernstberger, a lobbyist with the Kentucky Resources Council, told members of the House Banking and Insurance Committee in March that the bill “would selectively override the ability of local communities” to reasonably regulate off-site noise impacts from asset mining operations.

Ernstberger said the bill would have held crypto mines to the community’s most “lenient” noise regulations, instead of a more protective standard, and set no specific noise level parameters.

The bill cleared the Kentucky House with Republican support in a largely party line vote, but upon reaching the Senate was never assigned a committee.

In an interview with the Lantern, Ernstberger said the bill would have blocked communities from implementing more stringent noise or zoning regulations after a cryptocurrency mining operation has moved in. The bill provides no conditions for operating cryptocurrency mining facilities in a county without noise or zoning laws, which Ernstberger said could allow facilities to establish themselves anywhere without zoning.

Eric Peterson, the director of policy for the Satoshi Action Fund, in response to a question from a lawmaker at the committee hearing, said the group doesn’t want large-scale mining operations to set up “next to our house, next to a school, next to a church.”?

“Businesses in industrial zones, they create noise, they use a lot of energy. That’s where we want these things,” Peterson said.

The Satoshi Action Fund didn’t respond to emails requesting an interview about their advocacy on HB 741.

‘Just really no business like it’

In Arkansas, one of the new law’s sponsors, Republican state Sen. Missy Irvin, said the measure will provide “great legal standing” for those opposing nuisance cryptocurrency mines, referencing a legal battle between residents of an Arkansas community and a crypto mine.?

Another Arkansas Republican, Sen. Bryan King, of Green Forest, wanted the legislature to go even further by providing communities more notice of where crypto companies plan to mine. King unsuccessfully tried to require mining companies to file a notice with the state six months before buying or leasing land.

King doesn’t see zoning, which local governments traditionally use to decide where industry and business can locate, as a solution, in part because rural communities like those he represents do not want zoning. He also points to the unique nature of crypto mining.

“There’s just really no business like it,” King told the Lantern. “You may have a mill or industry that may emit noise from 8 to 5, but not 24-7, 365 (days a year).”

‘Just one day it’s there’

In Kentucky, Banks, the Wolfe County judge-executive, remains firmly opposed to zoning or a noise ordinance, fearing such laws could hamper future economic development in a county where many struggle with poverty.?

But Banks told the Lantern he wishes the county had received some notice that Artemis Power Tech’s data center was moving into his county before it powered up.

“We’re clueless — just one day, it’s there. Nobody ever mentioned it to me,” he said.

“I don’t have the answer to it. If I had known the thing was going in before it went in, I could have maybe have done some kind of ordinance to stop it.”

Campbell and her neighbors, which include her daughter, grandson and cousins, are still bothered by the high-pitched noise from the data center that set up shop next to an electrical substation in August 2023. Her efforts to curb the noise haven’t gained traction.?

An Artemis Power Tech representative in an email said the company in January installed “noise canceling blankets” after a “third-party construction site noise control assessment” and “have heard no further complaints since then.”

The representative added the company is “willing to take reasonable measures through open communication to ensure we are a long-term trusted partner here.”?

But Campbell said the blankets “have not helped at all.” She says the noise seems worse on days when the weather is warmer because the cooling fans run harder.

The Artemis Power Tech representative told the Lantern it decided to install noise blankets instead of a physical noise barrier because building such a barrier would require trees to be cut down and “reduce noise absorption effectiveness.”

Banks had told the Lantern in October the noise issue would be fixed with the company promising to install a “noise barrier.”?

Campbell said that what started as her concerns about noise have expanded to broader worries about regulation of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole — who owns and runs cryptocurrency mining operations, how cryptocurrency is being used and more.

“I just feel like that somebody has dropped the ball and that they’re just not paying attention,” Campbell said. “It just seems like the whole situation is being ignored, not only at the local level but also, you know, at the state and national level.”

She applauds what Arkansas is doing to protect local communities.?

“They changed their mind that something needed to be done,” Campbell said.

Lane Boldman, executive director of the Kentucky Conservation Committee, a statewide environmental advocacy group, said Campbell’s situation is an example of a crypto mining operation taking advantage of a rural county’s lack of zoning.??

Boldman noted that solar energy projects must promise to mitigate excessive construction noise as part of a hearing before the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

Cryptocurrency mining operations don’t have any similar process to mitigate local impacts, she said..

“They probably cause just as much noise, if not worse noise in some ways, because it doesn’t stop,” Boldman said.?

Southwest Power Pool runs a portion of the American electric grid that runs from the Canadian border to Texas and includes all or part of 17 central and western states. The organization has successfully integrated thousands of megawatts of variable wind power into its system. (Courtesy of Southwest Power Pool)

A little more than two years ago, a clean energy record was broken. For the first time, a regional transmission organization met more than 90% of its electric demand, called load, with renewable power.

But if you don’t follow the electric industry closely, you might be surprised where it happened.

On March 29, 2022, Southwest Power Pool, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the grid operator for a red-state heavy portion of the central U.S., hit a renewable penetration level of 90.2%, almost all of it from wind power.

“In a decade’s time, our region has gone from thinking of 25% renewable-penetration levels as nearly unreachable to a point where we regularly exceed 75% without reliability concerns,” said Bruce Rew, SPP’s vice president of operations, in a news release.

Growing electric demand, major coal plant closures and more wind and solar power have been seen by some policymakers, regulators and clean power critics as harbingers of a coming electric reliability crisis.

During a campaign event last year in Iowa – which got more than 64% of its electricity from wind turbines in 2022 – former President Donald Trump criticized intermittent power and mused about a couple unable to watch TV because the wind wasn’t blowing. The Project 2025 plan organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation for a future GOP administration said? President Joe Biden’s carbon reduction targets, as well as corporate and state clean power goals, “have thrust the United States into a new energy crisis,” including a less reliable grid.

However, in parts of the country that are home to tens of millions of people, grid operators every day are finding that a cleaner electric grid isn’t necessarily a less reliable one, though it does come with new problems to solve.

“The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed,” said Ric O’Connell, executive director of GridLab, a nonprofit that provides technical assistance to renewable power advocates and regulators on electric grid issues.

‘Some kind of magic amount’

Nationwide, wind and solar accounted for a little more than 14% of utility-scale electric generation in 2023, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. But in Texas, California and the states that make up SPP, among other areas, the amount of renewable power on the grid at any given time is often much larger.

California has seen wind, solar and hydropower production exceeding 100% of demand in some cases for hours at a time in the area managed by the California Independent System Operator.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs most of the Texas electric grid, has also been setting new renewable penetration records.? At 2:13 p.m. on March 29, nearly 76% of the generation on the system was renewable, mostly wind and solar.

‘I think it’s really important to recognize that we get to these points in time on the grid that we get to these extremely high levels of renewables and the lights are not going out,” said Elise Caplan, vice president of regulatory affairs at the American Council on Renewable Energy, a nonprofit representing renewable developers, investors, manufacturers, utilities, corporate power buyers and other firms.

However, it’s important to note that those records being set are snapshots at certain times. As some experts have pointed out, traditional power plants still need to run even when renewables are surging to balance that variability. And, of course, the wind isn’t always blowing and the sun isn’t always shining. For perspective:? Averaged out over the year, wind was about 37% of the Southwest Power Pool’s generation mix in 2023, with natural gas and coal power plants accounting for about 54% and hydropower and nuclear making up the rest.

But the numbers do show that grid operators are successfully integrating renewable power at thresholds that were thought unworkable not so long ago.

Michael Milligan, an independent power consultant who spent more than two decades focusing on wind and solar integration at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where he was the lab’s principal researcher before retiring, said utility engineers in years past routinely assumed there were limits on how much intermittent power the grid could handle, usually a “single digit percent.”

“There was kind of a sense that once we get beyond some kind of magic amount it’s going to get too difficult,” he said. “Actual experience is really valuable.”

Fifteen years ago, “nobody thought we’d have the amount of penetration we have today,” said Howard Gugel, vice president of regulatory oversight for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which develops and enforces standards for the power system. But the growth in wind, solar and batteries – also known as inverter-based resources because they convert electricity from direct current to alternating current to send the power onto the grid – has posed new reliability concerns.

Inverter-based resources lack the heavy rotating generators at traditional power plants, which are generally synchronized to the grid frequency of 60 Hz, said Greg Brinkman, an engineer in the grid operations planning group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The natural inertia those synchronous generators provide can help them through grid disturbances without incident, whereas inverter-based resources need software and programming to do so.

Gugel said NERC has reviewed several incidents in which grid “perturbations” caused several inverter-based plants, generally solar, to trip off at the same time. “That began to give us some concerns,” he said.

Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed NERC to come up with reliability standards for inverter-based resources, which the organization is currently developing.

“We have a lot of clean energy and renewable energy resources that are being connected to the grid and this new rule is a great step to address what we see as reliability concerns regarding this transition,” FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said in October. “When appropriately programmed, IBRs can provide operational flexibility and the ability of IBRs to perform with precision, speed and control could mitigate disturbances on the bulk power system.”

Transmission as ‘a great enabler’

Rew, the senior vice president at Southwest Power Pool, which has members in 14 states and about 18 million people living in its footprint, said in an interview that production tax credits helped incentivize a surge of wind power development, which also pushed technological advances that increased the operating capabilities of the turbines, including increased “cut-out” speeds, the wind speed at which the turbine needs to shut down to avoid damage.

A major regional transmission planning and expansion process the organization embarked on in the late 2000s helped knit together what had been a collection of systems individually built for numerous individual utilities and positioned the organization to accommodate large amounts of wind generation.

“These regional projects really opened up transmission constraints and allowed us to operate as a single unit a lot better.That provided us the opportunity to really dispatch throughout the system and allowed us to get additional renewables transferring all around the system,” Rew said.

It was a forward-looking approach that is still paying dividends, he added.

“I think in a lot of ways we were visionary in recognizing what transmission could do as a great enabler,” Rew said. “It enables us not only to have greater reliability because we don’t have the transmission constraints and limitations that we did before but also greater economics and just? greater use of all the generation in the footprint.”

Of course, having large amounts of variable power also comes with challenges. SPP has about 33,000 megawatts of “nameplate” wind capacity, meaning the maximum amount those turbines can generate at optimal conditions. Even though Rew said the SPP region has some of the best wind resources in the world, it runs below that maximum output as a result of outages, differing wind speeds and other factors. That means wind and weather forecasting becomes even more critical to managing the grid. A drop in wind speeds, or an icing event, can mean losing thousands of megawatts of generation quickly. That’s a problem because supply and demand on electric grids need to be balanced in real time to avoid issues that can lead to blackouts or other calamities.

“We’re able to look out 10 days and project what the wind’s going to be, project what the load is going to be and be able to prepare our system to be able to operate with those changes,” Rew said. “There’s a lot that goes into making it successful every day.”

SPP’s electric markets also play a crucial role, since traditional power plants like gas and coal need incentives to be available when needed even though they might be running less often or at reduced output.

“That’s what we’re looking at for our market in terms of how we price the services that are necessary to maintain a reliable system and making sure that, one, we have market products that reflect what we’re using for grid operations,” Rew said. “And, two, that we have a pricing mechanism that appropriately compensates them for those services.”

The grid of the future

For the parts of the country that are lagging in renewable power, adding transmission is seen by clean energy advocates as a major piece of the puzzle.

“There is no perfect resource,” said Caplan, the vice president of regulatory affairs at the American Council on Renewable Energy. The most recent high-profile power grid crises were the result of fossil fuel power plants, mostly gas powered, failing to perform in cold weather, either because of inadequate weatherization or fuel shortages. Wind and solar are weather dependent, but the increasing surge in battery power helps smooth out those variances, storing juice when it’s needed. And transmission lines can create a grid bigger than the weather.

“We recognize that those resources are not always available but through this growth of storage and especially through the growth of transmission you can access renewables across a broader geographic area,” Caplan said.

That’s why a lot of eyes will be on a long-awaited rule from FERC expected to come next week that is intended to address thorny debates over regional transmission planning and how costs for new lines are allocated. Rew, the SPP executive, noted that with SPP’s high quality wind resources, developers outside the footprint might have to build twice as many turbines to get the same power output. Does it make sense to do that to meet, for example, a state renewable energy goal? Or is it better to build where the wind is stronger and use long transmission lines to get the power to where it’s needed?

“It doesn’t make sense for our ratepayers to pay for that in SPP, to export wind out for somebody else to get the benefit,” he said “So how do we do that from a national perspective?”

Groups like ACORE want a national planning rule that recognizes that? “an expansion of the nation’s grid is necessary to reliably and affordably accommodate new generation and improve reliability in the face of increasing severe weather events and wildfires.” They want broader accounting of the full benefits of transmission, “a mechanism to determine a cost allocation method when the states are unable to agree”? and other pro-renewable provisions. However, conservatives, including FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, a former Virginia utility regulator, have chafed at what they characterize as an attempt to force others to pay for the policy decisions of states that are pushing renewable power.

“It would be grossly unfair for FERC to force consumers in other states to pay for projects implementing the policies of politicians they never got the chance to vote for, when their own states’ policy-makers have not agreed to pay for those projects,” Christie wrote in response to a letter from four New York congressmen. “Such an imposition is contrary to American principles of democracy, a core principle of which is that the people have the right to elect the policy-makers who impose costs on them, so the people can hold them accountable.”

Downtown Hazard sits on the North Fork of the Kentucky River. The Perry County seat redoubled its efforts to fix up Main Street when prospective non-coal employers came to town and saw there were no good gathering places for them to take employees or have business meetings. (Photo by Austin Anthony)

CORBIN — Eastern Kentucky is about to get an avalanche of federal and state money to help it transition from its largely disappeared coal economy, but some of its towns are already lifting themselves up and setting examples for the region.

That was the upshot of the 36th annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Corbin, where Main Street is pretty much full again and New Orleans-style balconies show that young professionals are migrating there.

“A lot of younger people have wanted to move closer to downtown,” Corbin City Commissioner Allison Moore said during one panel discussion.

Conference attendees also heard about the revitalized downtowns in Hazard and Pineville, and about the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for which governments and nonprofits are already applying.

“There are now more resources than we have seen in our entire careers,” said Peter Hille, chairman of the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation and president of the Mountain Association, a nonprofit community-development lending institution based in Berea. He’s been doing community-development work in the region for more than 30 years.

In addition to federal money, state government now has a program to help provide matching funds that local governments often need to get grants, noted Casey Ellis of the Kentucky Council of Area Development Districts. Originally targeted to coal counties, its outlay of $1.5 million helped generate $12.8 million in grants last year, Ellis said.

After the conference, held April 25 and 26, Hille gave some examples of the funding opportunities for governments, nonprofits and others:

• U.S. Energy Department funds to reduce energy consumption and bring renewable energy to census tracts where coal mines have closed since 1999, as well as adjacent tracts.
• New programs through the Appalachian Regional Commission, most recently one for multi-state collaborative projects funded by the bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural energy program, which covers half of the installed cost for efficiency and renewable energy for rural businesses.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s? Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, to bring solar energy to homes of low-income people, and money to build the capacity and workforce needed to install the equipment.
• Several other agencies have money for workforce development and infrastructure, including broadband.

Hille also talked about the federal money at the conference’s closing lunch, but also pointed out the efforts by local leaders, often helped with government grants but mainly spurred by local initiative.

“We’ve been seeing our communities come back to life,” he said, “because they are recreating themselves as places where people can live and choose to live.”

That’s essential as communities look for employers to replace coal jobs, said Bailey Richards, downtown coordinator for the City of Hazard. She said the Perry County seat redoubled its efforts to fix up Main Street when prospective non-coal employers came to town and saw there were no good gathering places for them to take employees or have business meetings.

“We realized you have to build a community,” Richards said in one panel discussion. In the last five years, downtown redevelopment has brought 70 new businesses, 62 of which are still open, accounting for more than 250 jobs. Richards noted proudly that Hazard’s population rose 18 percent from 2010 to 2020, while Pikeville, which has the region’s best-known revitalized downtown, grew 12 percent.

In the Bell County seat of Pineville, Mayor Scott Madon looked out the window of his second-floor insurance office a few years ago and saw a public square with 20 percent of its buildings occupied. Now it’s 100 percent full, after a redevelopment plan that will hit its second big phase this summer, Madon said during a panel discussion.

One key was a five-year moratorium on property-tax assessment increases, which required the cooperation of the county government. Madon said the first property to emerge from the moratorium will pay $10,000 in property taxes this year, after generating only $400 a year before it was redeveloped. To help businesses succeed, Southeast Community College helps them work up business plans, and checks with them each quarter to see how they’re doing.

Hille said successes like Pineville’s and Corbin’s usually have “spark plugs” like Andy Salmons, who is both Corbin’s Main street manager and owner of a former drug store converted into a local-food restaurant and bar with apartments above. He did that 12 years ago, when half of downtown buildings were empty.

Skeptics, and there were many, “said nobody’s going to come to a farm-to-table, craft-beer bar in Corbin,” Salmons said. He ran out of money just before it was time to open, and people who wanted to see him succeed rounded up the last thing he needed for the Wrigley Taproom and Eatery: chairs.?

More openings followed, the town went fully “wet,” not just for restaurants, and other towns noticed and followed suit. “Corbin was a game changer in this region,” said Jacob Roan, the city’s parks director.

Some relief coming for housing shortage

Much of the conference focused on the region’s chronic housing shortage, which has been worsened by floods, inflation and high interest rates, which have also raised rents and home prices. But wait. “Help is on the way,” said Pam Johnson of Fahe, formerly the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises.

Using flood-relief money and other funds, and donated land, the state has started seven housing developments in the counties hit hardest by the 2022 flooding. It recently started taking applications for $298 million in federal disaster-recovery money intended for housing and infrastructure to support it.

The application deadline is June 1, said Matt Stephens, general counsel of the state Department for Local Government. The five counties hurt most by the floods – Breathitt, Letcher, Knott, Perry and Pike – will get 80% of the money. The other 20% is allocated to 15 other counties flooded in 2022.

“We’re looking at a summer and fall of housing starts that we have not seen,” Johnson said. “That’s going to give a boost to the communities.”

Eastern Kentucky has a housing shortage partly because it has shortages of three things related to housing: developable land, infrastructure and contractor, said Wendy Smith, a deputy executive director of Kentucky Housing Corp., a state agency.

Smith said rents have climbed so much that landlords who once took federal Section 8 housing vouchers no longer do so, to avoid inspections required by the program, and more than half the people who got vouchers from KHC turn them back in because they can’t find housing in the 210 days the voucher can be used.

She said there is little new “middle housing” such as duplexes and triplexes, on which developers make less money. And while there is money for apartment buildings and rent subsidies, many people in Eastern Kentucky don’t like apartment living.

“It’s because we’re connected to the land,” Corbin Mayor Suzie Rasmus said, unlike “the rest of the nation, that is so transitory.”

This story is the first in the latest series of stories about Appalachian Kentucky from the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. If you have story ideas, contact Director Emeritus Al Cross at [email protected] or Jenni Glendenning, the institute’s David Hawpe Fellow in Appalachian Reporting, at [email protected].?

The Ohio River, as seen in a trailer for the documentary "This Is The Ohio." (Screenshot)

A Louisville filmmaker is debuting a new documentary showcasing the rich history of the Ohio River and the future challenges it faces on Kentucky’s public television broadcaster.?

The one-hour documentary called “This Is The Ohio” features the travels of filmmaker Morgan Atkinson and his 981-mile journey along the river from the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers near Cairo, Illinois, to the city of Pittsburgh, according to a release.?

“I questioned the river’s true identity. I asked, ‘Is it solely a commercial highway essential to the economic well-being of the United States? Or is it a natural wonderwater providing incredible opportunities for recreational users? How about its status as America’s second most endangered waterway?’” Atkinson said in a statement. “I found the answers to be in all of the above.”

The nonprofit environmental advocacy organization American Rivers in an annual report last year ranked the Ohio River as the second most endangered river in the country, citing pollution and climate change as threats to wildlife and drinking water for millions of people who rely on the river.?

Kentucky Educational Television will premiere the documentary on Monday, May 6, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time with 12 subsequent airings. The documentary will also be able to be streamed online.?

The Ohio River, unlike other bodies of water across the country, doesn’t have a long-term strategic plan for its future nor does it receive federal funding. U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Democrat representing Louisville, in an interview included in the documentary noted the lack of federal funding and said he wants to make sure the waterway “is getting the resources it needs, that it deserves.”?

“That’s got to change,” McGarvey said in a statement. “Having a clean river is essential.”?

Gov. Andy Beshear and residents of the Paris Westside Neighborhood Association hold shovels at the groundbreaking ceremony. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

PARIS — When David Downey retired from the Navy in 1968 after serving in three wars, he came back to where he grew up, a home on the west side of Paris, Kentucky. But three years before he returned, a trash incinerator had been placed in his neighborhood, too.?

“The stench from it was ridiculous,” Downey, 97, said Monday. “You’re sitting in the kitchen trying to eat stuff, and all the stench is coming in — whether you had your windows up or down — the stench is coming in, and you’re eating supper. And that’s not a good thing.”?

The incinerator burned the community’s trash, and to some residents it was obvious why it was put in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhood.

City officials must have thought that “those people were not going to complain, or ask questions, or had the power to do anything about it or the money to get lawyers to stop it,” said Vanessa Logan, 74, president of the Paris Westside Neighborhood Association, who remembers when the site used to have a baseball field where men would play on the weekends, and where she would play as a kid visiting family.?

Eventually the city stopped burning its trash, turning the site into a waste transfer station, where garbage was dumped before being sent elsewhere. Residents still wanted it gone, with noisy garbage trucks rumbling back and forth through the neighborhood.?

“The land was just taken away from Black people,” Logan said. “A transfer station was put there, and they had no say so. They couldn’t say yes or no. So this is righting a wrong.”?

On Monday, they came a step closer to getting their wish as local, state and federal governments including state lawmakers, the regional Environmental Protection Agency administrator and Gov. Andy Beshear came together to break ground on a community recycling center — far from their residential neighborhood.

Bourbon County Judge-Executive Mike Williams, motioning to Downey and other veterans from the Westside neighborhood, said they “served their country honorably” even if they weren’t appreciated in the past.?

“Hopefully today they’ll feel appreciated, because this community is going to do something about social injustice that has been directed at them and their friends and family,” Williams said.?

Even with the community support to move the city’s dump, it took years of planning and lobbying going back to late 2019 to secure the land and finances for the new recycling center.?

The Bourbon County Fiscal Court voted to lease the land to the city for the new center. Beshear awarded a $2 million grant for the project in 2022. The Kentucky legislature this year allocated an additional $1.5 million. And Bill Alverson, a retired banker who has advocated for the project for years, made plenty of calls to lawmakers and other decision makers.?

“If I get in, I’m all in,” Alverson said. “Everybody had a little something to offer, and that’s what I had to offer. And I probably called some people two or three times about things.”?

Alverson said the existing dump will remain in the neighborhood until the new recycling center off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is completed. But he said the Environmental Protection Agency has also been a big help with getting the process started to remediate the existing dump, which is planned to be turned into green space.?

EPA Region 4 acting administrator Jeaneanne Gettle said the federal agency has started a preliminary assessment to allow the local community to access funding to redevelop the site through the EPA’s Brownfields program.?

“Communities deserve to have green space,” Gettle said to the crowd. “We look at it through that lens of environmental justice. Whatever you call it, whatever it is for you, we want you to have the resources that we now have available.”?

For Downey, the dump in his neighborhood was a “wrong in the beginning” that was turned right.?

The one constant the veteran sees is change.?

“Changes are made for the better,” Downey said. “As time goes on things change, and it’s going to be a change here again. I may not be here to see it, but there will be a change.”?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman (Kentucky Lantern photo by Mathew Mueller)

When Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman told state lawmakers in January about the budget needs of his office, Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, asked if he needed more resources to address a “regulatory avalanche” regarding a “green agenda” coming from the federal government.?

Coleman, a Republican, said his office would welcome them, saying there was a “shotgun of regulation targeting the coal industry, targeting coal-fired power plants” in the near term.?

The two men were referring to regulations either finalized or in the process of being finalized by the Biden administration, many of them issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. Broadly, these regulations seek to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change, along with cutting related air and water pollution and are aimed at fossil fuel-fired power plants and the transportation industry.?

“We’re going to be pushing back and fighting the EPA particularly in a way that is unprecedented,” Coleman said then, adding that he had the benefit of following former Attorney General Daniel Cameron who had built “a team to push back” and work with other attorneys general.?

Coleman has done just that through federal courts, leading and joining lawsuits with other Republican state attorneys general suing to block federal rules over a litany of issues, including methane emissions at oil and gas wells, deadly soot pollution from power plants and industry and attacking the EPA for pursuing environmental justice using civil rights laws, a petition calling it a form of “racial engineering.” Coleman recently trumpeted a federal judge ruling in favor of a legal challenge he led against a rule requiring state transportation officials to set goals for reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from vehicle tailpipes and other sources.?

The GOP-dominated legislature decided earlier this month in the final hours of this year’s legislative session that Coleman needed more financial support. Taking a bill originally about regional drivers licensing offices, Republicans added last-minute language giving $3 million to Coleman’s office from the state’s Budget Reserve Trust Fund or “rainy day” fund to create an “electric reliability defense program.”?

That bill became law after Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear line-item vetoed some last-minute appropriations added into that legislation, Senate Bill 91, but left the funding for the $3 million. A Beshear spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if he supported the funding.

Coleman told the Lantern the extra $3 million will be used to pay attorneys and find experts. He said the regulations will both impact prices and undermine electricity reliability for Kentuckians at a time when energy demand is rapidly increasing.?

Senate President Robert Stivers told reporters during the legislative session the idea behind the allocation was to have the attorney general litigate “overreaching regs” by the EPA and other agencies. He referenced the “Good Neighbor Plan,” Obama-era regulations strengthened under the Biden administration limiting downwind air pollution that creates smog.

Those regulations aren’t in effect in Kentucky and 11 other states after court orders suspending the rules amid legal challenges. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about the regulations earlier this year.?

A new legal battle between Republican attorneys general and the EPA could emerge soon as the agency last week finalized a suite of new rules that, among other aspects, targets carbon dioxide emissions at coal-fired power plants and new gas-fired power plants. Existing coal-fired power plants and new gas-fired power plants would have to “control” 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032 if power producers plan to operate the plants past 2039.?

Globally, burning coal for electricity plays an outsized role in warming the climate, according to the International Energy Agency. The intergovernmental, autonomous research organization found that burning coal across the world was the single largest source of global temperature increase. Kentucky is also among the minority of states still largely reliant on coal; a 2022 report from the Energy Information Administration, a federal agency collecting and analyzing energy-related data, found that Kentucky was one of four states in 2021 that generated more than 70% of its electricity from burning coal.?

Rules designed to protect public health

But for the leader of one Kentucky-based environmental legal group, the funding spent by the legislature to boost Coleman’s efforts is “a waste of taxpayer dollars that can be put to much better use.”?

Ashley Wilmes, the executive director for the Kentucky Resources Council, said it was “particularly unfortunate” that Coleman, who’s charged with representing ratepayers’ interests, is obstructing “an inevitable transition to a clean energy future, to a decarbonized energy future.”?

“It’s just disconcerting to see these attacks on EPA rules that are designed to protect public health and the environment at a time when we really need to be focusing instead on reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change and reducing air pollution emissions from a public health perspective,” Wilmes said.

Generally, utilities across the country are already transitioning on their own away from coal-fired power because of lower-cost options such as gas-fired power plants and renewable energy. Utilities, including those in Kentucky, are raising strong concerns about the feasibility of the EPA’s new carbon emissions rules for power plants, particularly its reliance on carbon capture technologies that are still being tested at utility scale.?

Wilmes said there is even more uncertainty being created for Kentucky utilities seeking a transition away from coal with the passage of laws by the Kentucky legislature that create additional barriers to retiring fossil fuel-fired power plants.?

A Stivers-backed bill this year creating a new review board to analyze fossil-fuel power plant retirement decisions became law after the legislature overrode a Beshear veto. Critics, ranging from investor-owned utilities to environmental groups, decried Senate Bill 349 as burdening ratepayers with the costs of keeping aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the power grid.?

Stivers, along with lobbying interests for the coal industry, argued SB 349 was needed to ensure the reliability of the state’s electricity supply. Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities President John Crockett, who was among utility representatives who testified against SB 349, had previously rebuffed assertions from Stivers that the state is facing an energy reliability crisis.?

Coleman responds to criticism

Coleman, like Stivers, argues that the EPA is going beyond the authority it has been given by Congress and that the legislative funding allows him to enforce the law.

“These folks who take another view, with all due respect, they need to go to Congress, they need to go to the people’s representatives and change the law. If their view should carry the day, they need to constitutionally go to Congress and change the law,” Coleman said.?

When asked what he personally thought of the issue of climate change — given the Biden administration cites it as a driving reason for pursuing these regulations — Coleman, without mentioning climate change, said “we have a duty to be good stewards of our land and our water.”?

When asked about calls from the leader of the United Nations urging rich countries such as the United States to end the use of coal for electricity by 2030 and have carbon-free electricity by 2035, Coleman said there was a “disconnect” with countries like the United States being asked to “severely restrict its use of carbon fuels” while China is “building coal fired power plants at an unprecedented pace.”?

One 2023 report found that China is building six times more coal-fired power plants than other countries, with the report’s authors saying the push for new coal being driven by the need for electricity created by a drought and a historic heat wave in 2022 that increased the demand for air conditioning. Scientists say that the heat wave’s likelihood was increased by climate change.?

The International Energy Agency in 2022 affirmed again that no new “unabated” coal-fired power plants can be built if the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius below pre-industrial temperature levels is to be met.

Wilmes said she believed the EPA with its new power plant regulations wrote “very defendable rules” but that “you just never know” what will ultimately happen given future litigation.?

“We knew we were going to see challenges to these rules,” she said.?

While Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has already said he’ll challenge the power plant rules, Coleman told the Lantern to “stay tuned” and that any challenge to federal rules wouldn’t be done alone.

“It is always a couple of dozen, the heft of a couple of dozen states pushing back on what we’re seeing coming out of the Biden administration,” Coleman said. “I deeply respect clean water, and clean air. This is a policy disagreement.”

The EPA first created rules regulating coal ash impoundments in 2015 after a dike collapsed flooding embankments and the Emory River near Harriman, Tennessee. Coal ash slurry was contained in a pond, above. (Greenpeace photo)

Kentucky is one of a minority of states that produces most of its electricity by burning coal. A byproduct of that legacy today: creating millions of tons of what’s known as coal ash, a waste from burning coal containing a slew of toxic metals that’s often stored by utilities and power producers in impoundment ponds and landfills.

Without proper protections or cleanup at these coal ash sites, the ash can be blown into the air or seep into nearby groundwater. Coal ash impoundments failing have led to environmental disaster, such as when more than 1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry poured into the Emory River near Kingston, Tennessee, in 2008. More than 50 workers who cleaned up the aftermath died and more than 150 are sick after not having proper protection.?

Such problems led the Environmental Protection Agency to issue rules in 2015 requiring the pits where the coal ash is stored to be lined and have dust controls and for the groundwater near operating coal-fired power plants to be monitored.

On Thursday, the EPA expanded those regulations to cover coal ash landfills and impoundments at retired or inactive coal-fired power plants as well, something environmental groups such as Earthjustice have called for. The agency is also seeking to regulate sites where coal ash has been disposed of outside of a regulated impoundment or landfill. The new coal ash rules are part of a number of other finalized rules that aim to dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution from coal-fired and gas-fired power plants.?

The EPA states 194 “legacy” impoundments at 85 facilities across the country will be subject to the expanded coal ash rule, with 11 such sites in Kentucky at former coal-fired power plants including the Kenneth C. Coleman Generating Station, the William C. Dale Power Station, the Green River Generating Station, the Tyrone Generating Station and the Pineville Generating Station.?

The federal agency notes some coal ash ponds at these former coal-fired power plants in Kentucky are closing or have closed under oversight from state officials, while the closure status is unclear for other sites. The EPA cites data from Earthjustice in its count of inactive coal ash sites that will now be regulated under the expanded rules. Earthjustice previously tallied the number of unregulated coal ash sites in Kentucky at 25.

Abell Russ, a senior attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, told reporters earlier this week groundwater contamination from unlined, unregulated “coal ash dumps” can often go unaddressed because the sites are classified as an inactive or “legacy” coal ash site by the EPA, even when situated next to coal ash sites that are regulated.?

“They’re not doing anything about it because they say it’s all coming from the older, larger ash pond that closed a long time ago, and so there’s no cleanup happening there,” Russ said. “This is a huge loophole.”?

Russ said the EPA expanding regulations to coal ash ponds at retired or former coal-fired power plants will require utilities to monitor and improve groundwater at these sites, though enforcement capacity remains a concern.?

Tom FitzGerald, a former long-time lobbyist for the environmental legal group Kentucky Resources Council, submitted a public comment about the rule urging the EPA to approve the expanded coal ash regulations, saying the exact number of unregulated, inactive coal ash sites was unknown because utilities aren’t required to report the total number of sites.?

“These dumps are almost certainly contaminating water and threatening health and the environment; however, monitoring data are not currently available for most unregulated sites,” Fitzgerald wrote. “It is appropriate and necessary that these legacy facilities be addressed and that they be required to be fully characterized and properly closed.”?

Kentucky utilities in previous public comments on the coal ash rule have criticized the expanded coal ash regulations as unnecessary, expensive to ratepayers and disruptive to remediation already conducted at some sites under the oversight of state officials.?

Clay Larkin, a lawyer for the Utility Information Exchange of Kentucky representing all of Kentucky’s major utilities, in a July 2023 public comment wrote that many of the “legacy” coal ash sites that would be newly regulated are “heavily revegetated” and would require “significant environmental impacts” to remove the coal ash.?

“State-led closure efforts at many of these sites have accomplished careful management of existing risks and, in some cases, complete elimination of risk,” Larkin wrote. “In reaching specific closure decisions, states have balanced the concerns of, and impacts on, local and regional populations while limiting or eliminating environmental impacts to areas where site conditions are already well understood because of years of study and evaluation.”?

In its final rule, the EPA explained that it could not exempt inactive coal ash sites that state officials have deemed as “closed” because of evidence that past state-approved closures were “significantly less protective” in preventing groundwater contamination.?

AES Indiana’s Petersburg Generating Station in Petersburg, Indiana, has been burning coal since the 1960s but will shutter all of its coal-firing units over the next few years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released a sweeping set of rules aimed at cutting air, water and land pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants. (Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released a sweeping set of rules aimed at cutting air, water and land pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Environmental and clean energy groups celebrated the announcement as long overdue, particularly for coal-burning power plants, which have saddled hundreds of communities across the country with dirty air and hundreds of millions of tons of toxic coal ash waste. The ash has leached a host of toxins — including arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, radium and other pollutants — into ground and surface water.

“Today is the culmination of years of advocacy for common-sense safeguards that will have a direct impact on communities long forced to suffer in the shadow of the dirtiest power plants in the country,” said Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, one of the nation’s oldest and largest environmental organizations. “It is also a major step forward in our movement’s fight to decarbonize the electric sector and help avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”

But some electric industry and pro-coal organizations blasted the rules as a threat to jobs and electric reliability at a time when power demands are surging. They also criticized the rule’s reliance on largely unproven carbon capture technologies.

America’s Power, a trade organization for the nation’s fleet of about 400 coal power plants across 42 states, called the number of new rules “unprecedented,” singling out the new emissions standards that will force existing coal plants to cut their carbon emissions by 90% by the 2032 if they intend to keep running past 2039.? Michelle Bloodworth, the group’s president and CEO, called the rule “an extreme and unlawful overreach that endangers America’s supply of dependable and affordable electricity.”

‘This forces that’

Many experts expect the regulations to be litigated, particularly the carbon rule, since the last time the EPA tried to restrict carbon emissions from power plants, a group of states led by West Virginia mounted a successful legal challenge that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Julie McNamara, deputy policy director with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the agency took great pains to conform the rule to the legal constraints outlined by the court.

“This rule is specifically responsive to that Supreme Court decision,” she said. “Which doesn’t mean that it won’t go to the courts but this is so carefully hewn to that decision that it should be robust.”

The four rules EPA released Thursday mainly target coal-fired power plants.

“By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said.

In some ways, they attach a framework to a sea change in electric generation that is already well under way, McNamara said.

Coal accounted for just 16% of U.S. electric generation in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 1990, by comparison, it comprised more than 54% of power generation. However, some states are more reliant on coal power than others.

In 2021, the most coal-dependent states were West Virginia, Missouri, Wyoming and Kentucky, per a 2022 report by? the EIA.

“This rulemaking adds structure to that transition,” McNamara said. “For those who have chosen not to assess the future use of their coal plants, this forces that.”

Heather O’Neill, president and CEO of the clean energy trade group Advanced Energy United, said the new regulations are a chance for utilities to embrace cheaper, cleaner and more reliable options for the electric grid.

“Instead of looking to build new gas plants or prolong the life of old coal plants, utilities should be taking advantage of the cheaper, cleaner, and more trusty tools in the toolbox,” she said.

The carbon rule

In 2009, the EPA concluded that greenhouse gas emissions “endanger our nation’s public health and welfare,” the agency wrote, adding that since that time, “the evidence of the harms posed by GHG emissions has only grown and Americans experience the destructive and worsening effects of climate change every day.”

The new carbon emissions regulation will apply to existing coal plants and new natural gas plants. Coal plants that plan to operate beyond 2039 will have to capture 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032. New gas plants are split into three categories based on their capacity factor, a measure of how much electricity is generated over a period of time relative to the maximum amount it could have produced. The plants that run the most (more than 40% capacity factor) will have to capture 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032. Existing gas plants will be regulated under a forthcoming rule that “more comprehensively addresses GHG emissions from this portion of the fleet,” the agency said.

Michelle Solomon, a senior policy analyst for Energy Innovation, an energy and climate policy think tank, predicts that most coal plants will close rather than install the costly technology to capture carbon emissions.

“Climate goals aside, the public health impacts of the rules in securing the retirement of coal fired power plants is so important,” she said. Coal power in the U.S. has been increasingly pressured by cheaper gas and renewable generation and mounting environmental restrictions, but some grid operators have still been caught flat-footed by the pace of coal plant closures.

“I think the role of this rule, to provide that certainty about where we’re going, is so crucial to get the entities that have control over the rate of the transition to start to take action here,” she said. But the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s CEO, Jim Matheson, called the rules “unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable” noting that it relies on technology “that is not ready for prime time.”

And Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, a trade group for competitive power suppliers, called the rule “a painful example of aspirational policy outpacing physical and operational realities” because of its reliance on unproven carbon capture and hydrogen blending technologies to cut emissions.

A beefed up Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule

The EPA called the revision to the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards “the most significant update since MATS was first issued in February 2012.” It predicted the rule would cut emissions of mercury and other air pollutants like nickel, arsenic, lead, soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and others. It cuts the mercury limit by 70% for power plants fired by lignite coal, which is the lowest grade of coal and one of the dirtiest to burn for power generation.

For all coal plants, the emissions limit for toxic metals is reduced by 67%. The EPA says the rule will result in major cuts in releases of mercury and other hazardous metals, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide.? The agency projects “$300 million in health benefits,” including reducing risks of heart attacks, cancer and developmental delays in children and $130 million in climate benefits.

Stronger wastewater discharge limits for power plants

Coal fired power plants use huge volumes of water, and when the wastewater is returned to lakes, rivers and streams it can be laden with mercury, arsenic and other metals as well as bromide, chloride and other pollution and contaminate drinking water and harm aquatic life.

The new rule is projected to cut about 670 million pounds of pollutants discharged in wastewater from coal plants per year. Plants that will cease coal combustion over the next decade can abide by less stringent rules.

“Power plants for far too long have been able to get away with treating our waterways like an open sewer,” said Thomas Cmar, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, during a briefing on the new rules earlier this week.

Closing a coal ash loophole?

Coal ash, what’s left after coal has been burned for power generation, is one the nation’s largest waste streams. The 2015 EPA Coal Combustion Residuals rule were the first federal regulations for coal ash. But that rule left about half of the ash sitting at power plant sites and other locations — much of it in unlined disposal pits — unregulated because it did not apply to so-called “legacy impoundments” that were not being used to accept new ash.

“We’re going to see a long-awaited crackdown on coal ash pollution from America’s coal plants, and it’ll be a huge win for America’s health and water resources,” said Lisa Evans, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. “They are all likely leaking toxic chemicals like arsenic into groundwater and most contain levels of radioactivity that can be dangerous to human health.”

Groundwater monitoring data shows that the vast majority of ash ponds at coal plants are contaminating groundwater, said Abel Russ, a senior attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project. But under the old rule, Russ said, facilities could dodge cleanup requirements by blaming contamination on older ash dumps not covered by the regulation.

“This is a huge loophole,” Russ said. “You can’t restore groundwater quality if you’re only addressing half of the coal ash sources on site.”

However, several attorneys on the Earthjustice briefing said the new rules, which will require monitoring at clean up and hundreds of more ash sites, will only be as good as the enforcement.

“It’s meaningful only if these utilities obey the law. Unfortunately to date, many of them have not,” said Frank Holleman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Natural Bridge State Park in the Red River Gorge Wilderness Area in Slade, Kentucky. (Photo by ehrlif/iStock images/Getty Images

Over the past three decades, a state-managed fund has been a financial force behind the creation and expansion of parks, nature preserves and hunting grounds across Kentucky.?

The Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund, established in 1990 to provide a consistent source of funding for local governments, state agencies, nonprofits and universities to protect land for recreation and preserving wildlife, has put into conservation more than 95,000 acres across the state.?

The fund helped add 118 acres to a local park in Lincoln and Garrard counties. It helped conserve threatened and endangered species of plants on state-owned nature preserves, including the white fringeless orchid in Southeastern Kentucky. And it helped Western Kentucky University purchase and protect the entrance to a cave featuring Native American drawings dating back to 80 B.C.?

Zeb Weese, the former executive director of the Kentucky Office of Nature Preserves and a consultant for the Kentucky Lands Trusts Coalition, said funding from the conservation fund has also significantly grown the size of Natural Bridge State Resort Park.?

“When you go to Natural Bridge, you hike around, you think that it’s forest as far as the eye can see, and it is. But a lot of that was private land that came up for sale.” Weese said. “Folks enjoy the parks in their area, but they don’t necessarily know (the) heritage land fund was part of it.”

But in the past 15 years, the funding sources for the conservation fund dwindled for a number of reasons. Revenue the fund receives from an unmined mineral tax on coal has cratered with the decline of the coal industry. Monies received from fines levied by state environmental regulators are inconsistent, and funding collected from the sale of certain vanity license plates has also declined.?

Weese said at least $15.5 million of revenue had also been swept from the fund in past state budgets, zapping it of the annual revenue that it is supposed to statutorily receive. Weese said the fund went from conserving thousands of acres each year in the early 2010s to just conserving a little over one acre of Wolfe County land in fiscal year 2023.?

Those sitting on the board overseeing the conservation fund say they’ve seen fewer applications to fund land conservation in recent years, and some past projects have had to be put on hold to wait for funding to become available.?

Weese said the budget sweeps from the fund have stopped the past couple of years, and environmental advocacy groups such as the Kentucky Conservation Committee wanted this year’s state budget to replenish the more than $15 million swept from the fund in the past by tapping into billions of dollars in the state’s rainy day fund.?

Lawmakers ultimately allocated two million dollars to the fund, which while less than what advocates wanted, could still provide more opportunities for conservation projects.?

“It’s a new lease on life,” said Hugh Archer, the vice-chair of the conservation fund’s board and past commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources. “It’s really important that we fund these things today while they’re available and are affordable to the citizenry, and what we’re preserving is things like biological diversity.”?

Archer, who has served on the board under various governors, said it can take a while to develop and build trust with landowners, which makes having funds available important for when a land deal finally does go through. Funding can also be used to match federal grants toward conservation projects, making the fund’s dollars go even further.?

Sen. Matthew Deneen, R-Elizabethtown, who advocates point to as instrumental in getting the $2 million allocated to the fund, told the Lantern he views the money as a boon for economic development and the health of Kentuckians by creating greenspaces, parks and trails that can benefit growing Kentucky communities.?

“The heritage land trust fund is just a piece of that puzzle that has been missing, and we need to fill that void and make sure that it’s there and secure as we grow the state,” Deneen said. “When you have these amenities, it helps attract people here. What’s the closest park?”?

Deneen said he realizes $2 million is not much funding, but he believes it’s a start. He’s hopeful that local governments in particular that lack local funds can take advantage again of the conservation fund to expand and create new parks.?

“You don’t have to be some extreme environmentalist to appreciate what these amenities can bring to a community,” Deneen said.?

As for addressing how to tackle diminished revenue sources from coal mineral taxes in the future, those who work for the conservation fund say it’s an ongoing conversation that Kentucky lawmakers would need to change.?

Zach Couch, the current executive director of the Kentucky Office of Nature Preserves who sits on the conservation fund board, said those on the board plan to put the funding to “good use,” something that can be an asset for his office in protecting species that are declining but not federally listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.?

He said much of Kentucky’s land is still privately owned and will likely remain that way; 88% of Kentucky’s forests are privately owned, according to the Kentucky Division of Forestry. Couch said the fund provides investments toward preserving natural spaces for land owners willing to sell.?

“The best way to prevent the need for listing those species is to manage them now, and a big part of that is through land acquisition, protecting their habitat, protecting the actual population,” Couch said. “By doing this work, it’s a small investment that pays off dividends that allows for continued development and economic development of the state.”

For residential ratepayers, the PSC decision means a 9% increase in monthly service fees for water meters — $15 to $16.40 — and about an 11% increase in water consumption charges. The company had sought more. (Getty Images)

FRANKFORT —? Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a Louisville Republican, says he wants to be on the right side of history when it comes to the man-made “forever chemicals” that are in Kentucky’s waterways, fish and some Kentuckians’ drinking water.

He likens the widespread presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, to lead poisoning. “How many years did it take before folks and the industry got their arms around that, killing so many people? I don’t want to look back and say, ‘You didn’t do anything for this,’ when it was obvious that some things are happening and there’s a lot of smart people concerned.”?

Over the past three years, Bratcher has co-sponsored legislation filed by his Democratic colleague Rep. Nima Kulkarni, also of Louisville, aiming to raise awareness of and prevent exposure to the chemicals long used in products ranging from nonstick cooking ware to firefighting foam to food packaging. Those bills haven’t received committee hearings.?

It’s been an uphill battle in the Kentucky legislature, where Bratcher says much of the challenge is getting his fellow lawmakers to understand the issue in the first place. Exposure to the? toxic chemicals has a broad range of potential harmful health impacts: hormonal changes, increased cholesterol levels, decreased vaccine responses in children, increased risk of some cancers and more.?

In 2019, the legislature did ban the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam for training purposes. And this year, lawmakers approved a resolution directing the Energy and Environment Cabinet to provide guidance about PFAS handling to entities discharging into wastewater treatment plants.

The federal government recently took steps that are expected to spur more state and local action.? The Environmental Protection Agency finalized limits on the amount of PFAS allowed in drinking water. Environmentalists hailed the move, though some utility groups worry about the costs of removing contaminants being monitored at incredibly small levels. The EPA last week? announced another new rule to hold industries discharging two types of PFAS legally and financially responsible for their cleanup.??

Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesperson John Mura in a statement on the finalized drinking water rule said the cabinet has been working with public water systems on “sampling, treatment options, community outreach and training to ensure safe drinking water.”?

Mura said fewer than 10% of more than 400 water utilities tested in Kentucky had PFAS at levels above the maximum limits set in the new federal rule.

Kulkarni says Kentucky’s legislature should do more. And while she believes the federal regulations are a positive development, she pointed out that they set the maximum limits for PFAS in drinking water higher by multitudes than the lifetime health advisory limits released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022.?

“I don’t hail it as any kind of a huge step, but I mean it’s something,” Kulkarni said in reference to drinking water regulations for PFAS. “Ideally, we come up with, obviously, technological devices or processes to test for PFAS at lower concentrations because there is no safe amount.”?

Kulkarni was one of two Kentucky lawmakers, along with Rep. Al Gentry, D-Louisville, to sign onto a letter from 278 state lawmakers across the country supporting the federal drinking water regulations.?

For one type of “forever chemical,” PFOA, the maximum exposure before a person might experience “adverse health effects” is .004 parts per trillion (ppt), according to the 2022 interim health advisories. The maximum limit allowed in drinking water for PFOA under new federal regulations is 4.0pt. For reference, 1 ppt is equivalent to one drop of water in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.?

Kulkarni argued state government could do more to identify the sources of PFAS in the state, tying PFAS regulations to health outcomes in communities instead of waiting for slower action from federal regulators tied to an arbitrary testing limit.?

“Because people are exposed to PFAS, there’s a duty that we have to be as proactive as possible,” Kulkarni said. “If there isn’t a good solution out there, we should be looking for the best solution and not waiting for someone else to come up with it somewhere else. This is going to be addressed locally in any given state regardless of EPA levels.”?

Testing and exposure

The commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection Tony Hatton addressed lawmakers in a committee hearing in July 2023 about the PFAS testing his agency has done since 2019, saying the “investigative work” was done in part to prepare for the drinking water standards established by the EPA.?

The state found all 98 fish samples collected from Kentucky lakes and rivers tested positive for PFAS. One or more PFAS were detected in 83 of 194 water treatment plants; 36 of 40 monitoring stations testing surface waters detected PFAS.

The Somerset city council last year voted to stop accepting landfill leachate — liquid created when rainwater filters through landfills containing chemicals and residuals from the waste — to be treated at its local wastewater treatment plant because of citizen concerns about PFAS in the landfill leachate. Republican Rep. Tom Smith asked Hatton in last year’s committee hearing about the Somerset situation before the committee.?

Hatton responded the cabinet was focused on potential PFAS exposure in drinking water and that the “other parts of it are so complex they’re not going to be resolved very quickly.”?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing new guidelines and standards for landfill leachate after a study found PFAS in 95% of leachate in surveyed landfills.?

Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, also asked Hatton about other potential ways children can be exposed to PFAS, such as through waterproof clothing, and if there was a federal or state standard requiring consumers to be notified of PFAS in products. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PFAS exposure is possible through a number of ways from consumer products, food and more.?

Hatton said at the time the sources of PFAS into the environment would “probably be more heavily addressed” once “the regulatory basis” for PFAS is established.?

Similar to other states, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has sued the chemical company DuPont de Nemours, consumer products company 3M and other companies over alleged PFAS pollution, alleging the companies are knowingly contaminating Kentucky’s natural resources.?

Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, who brought Hatton before lawmakers last year and sponsored the resolution passed on PFAS this year, told the Lantern criticism from advocates that the state hasn’t done enough to address PFAS is fair. He hopes the issue “will have a lot of energy” in next year’s legislative session because it’s “going to absolutely have to be addressed.”

“More people than me will be talking about it, and people that know a lot more about it than me will be talking about it,” Smith said.

PFAS protection — at a cost

State environmental protection officials have worked with at least two utilities — the North Marshall Water District and the Ohio River-bound city of Lewisport — on reducing high levels of PFAS found in their water systems.?

PFAS contamination forced the shutdown of a water treatment plant supplying Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park last October. Roger Colburn, the general manager for the North Marshall Water District in Marshall County, told the Lantern he shut down a plant that had been treating groundwater after state testing found one of the operating water wells had nine types of “forever chemicals” present at nearly three times the federal maximum limit now established in drinking water.?

Colburn said the chemicals are “probably the largest problem the drinking water industries had to address over the course of the last 30 or 40 years.”

Under the new regulations, drinking water utilities would have to notify their customers when PFAS levels exceeded the maximum limits and work to remove the chemicals through processes like reverse osmosis or granular activated carbon.

In a mid-November post on Facebook, the Marshall County water utility notified residents that it had taken the contaminated water well offline. Colburn said he thankfully hasn’t needed the water well yet to meet his utility’s water demand without a costly alternative. Other utilities haven’t been as lucky.?

Public notification of PFAS contamination of drinking water became an issue in one northeastern Kentucky community. As reported by Louisville Public Media, residents of the Greenup County city of South Shore weren’t notified by local officials about PFAS contamination in the city’s drinking water, the highest level of PFAS contamination found by state officials out of all systems tested in Kentucky. The city received a more than $8 million loan last year to build a water line to the city of Portsmouth, Ohio, across the Ohio River to replace the PFAS-contaminated water supply.

But the costs of removing PFAS contamination to below incredibly small limits worries groups including the Kentucky Rural Water Association, representing drinking water utilities across the state. Utility groups are concerned about the financial burden testing and treating PFAS will have on smaller utilities in particular. The Biden administration is touting billions of dollars available to help utilities with PFAS treatment, though KRWA leadership believe the long-term costs of the regulations, including ongoing testing, could still fall on Kentucky ratepayers.??

But Teena Halbig, a retired microbiologist and community activist from Fern Creek who urged her state representative Bratcher to focus on PFAS, says the health costs created by PFAS ultimately will outweigh the cleanup costs.?

“It’s hard for people to believe things that they really cannot see, and I can understand that,” Halbig said.? “It’s going to cost everyone, but what is it costing you to go to the doctor for health appointments, for the quality of life that you have?”

Pushback from industries that profit from PFAS may also be a barrier to getting significant PFAS legislation passed, according to a lobbyist representing unionized firefighters.?

Bratcher told the Lantern he was “visited by some companies” that had concerns when House Bill 116 was introduced this year. It was another bill sponsored by Kulkarni and Bratcher that would have, among other things, created created a public inventory of PFAS-containing products made in Kentucky. Industry representatives for the paint and coatings industry and the car manufacturer General Motors had lobbied on the bill along with groups representing environmentalists and scientists.?

Jeff Taylor, the legislative director for Kentucky Professional Firefighters representing firefighter and EMS unions across Kentucky, told the Lantern he supports Kulkarni’s efforts because “anything that raises awareness, with respect to how dangerous this product is, is good for us.”?

Taylor said firefighters’ main focus with PFAS is removing the substances from firefighting protective gear that can break down in the heat, exposing firefighters? to the man-made chemicals. He said he knew firefighters who had served for decades, only to die from cancer connected to their line of work.?

“You can understand why we’re passionate about these issues,” Taylor said.

But the challenge with making legislative change on PFAS, he said, comes down to facing off against corporate interests that have a stake in using PFAS and profiting from? it.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask the politicians that are making laws that you provide some type of consumer awareness as to what this product is and what it’s in,” Taylor said.?

This story was updated with additional information about House Bill 116.

The EPA says Kentucky will use the $62 million to “expand access to low-income solar through financial assistance models and workforce development programming.” (Getty Images)

The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding a more than $62 million grant to Kentucky’s state government to help expand residential solar energy to low-income households, one of dozens of awards given across the country as a part of a federal grant competition.?

The “Solar for All” competition, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, is allocating $7 billion through 60 grants to state governments, tribes and nonprofits that an EPA release estimates will be able “to deliver residential solar projects to over 900,000 households nationwide.”

Kentucky could win ‘massive’ solar investment in federal competition. Here’s what’s possible.

According to the EPA, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet will use its $62,450,000 award to “expand access to low-income solar through financial assistance models and workforce development programming.”

The Kentucky Lantern previously reported the state’s application for the competition, which originally asked for $100 million, proposed to add residential solar and electricity storage systems to hundreds of “disaster recovery” homes across the state, increase access to community solar projects for low-income Kentuckians and create community college scholarships to build a workforce to deploy residential solar installations.?

An Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the award announcement.

Steve Ricketts, the board chair for the advocacy group Kentucky Solar Energy Society, told the Lantern that utility-scale solar installations are increasingly setting up shop in Kentucky and there’s growing interest from some cities in promoting solar energy.?

But low-income Kentuckians have been less able to access solar, he said, which he hopes this grant funding can help solve.

“Until we get clean energy that includes everybody, and nobody’s left behind, we’re not doing a good job,” Ricketts said. “This is the piece of the puzzle we desperately needed.”?

Ricketts said he hoped state officials would collaborate with “an extremely willing and motivated grassroots community who want them to succeed” with rolling out the grant funding.

Another “Solar for All” application, submitted as a collaboration between Louisville and some Eastern Kentucky counties, did not receive a grant. Louisville and Eastern Kentucky counties proposed to use $150 million to create a forgivable loan program for low-income households to add residential solar, create community centers powered by solar energy for use during natural disasters and also build the solar installation deployment workforce.?

Sumedha Rao, the executive director of Louisville Metro Government’s Office of Sustainability, said her office still plans to utilize newly-made connections with leaders in Eastern Kentucky counties to go after future funding opportunities for solar energy.

“There was a lot of good ideas, good reasons to collaborate and strengths that both regions brought together that just makes sense,” Rao said. “So, I’m really grateful to have built those connections.”

Rao said she’s eager to partner with the state government and “help them deploy the funds equitably across the state through all of our communities.”

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told reporters the Senate vetted appointees to be sure they weren't out to retaliate against Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Rich Storm. (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate confirmed nearly all of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s appointments to a board governing the state’s wildlife management department following pushback from sportsmen’s groups over the Senate failing to do so in past years.

Senators in the final hours of this year’s legislative session Monday confirmed four of the five appointments made by Beshear this year to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, a nine-member board made up of volunteer hunters and anglers overseeing the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR).?

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told reporters Monday evening the Senate decided to confirm the four appointments after “lots of discussion, lots of review, lots of research” — and that a priority for the Senate was protecting Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Rich Storm, the department’s chief executive.??

“There was a comfort level that this would not be some type of retaliatory appointment to get rid of commissioner Storm.”

“There’s been a lot of friction between the governor and the commissioner,” Stivers said. “We think the commissioner has done a really good job in fish and wildlife.”?

Gary Greene of Greenup was the only Beshear appointee not confirmed by the Senate.

Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, had sponsored a resolution to confirm Greene, which the Senate did not vote on.

Stivers said he believed Greene’s social media comments about “particular members of the state Senate” led to Greene not getting confirmed.?

Greene in a Lantern interview said he hadn’t made “any political posts” on social media since he was appointed by Beshear in January. But he said he was active on social media last year supporting Beshear’s reelection, which he believed shouldn’t be a consideration of whether to confirm his appointment.?

“The bottom line is: what’s that got to do with my ability to sit there and make a rational decision to run fish and wildlife? Just because I don’t bow and kiss the ring of the Republican Party,” Greene said.

Greene said he spoke with Beshear for “about 20 minutes” in his office when he was appointed, and Storm never came up in that discussion. Greene was also appointed by former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to the commission in 2015, only to also not be confirmed by the Senate then.

The commission, by state law, is supposed to be bipartisan with “not more than five of the same political party” sitting on the nine-member board.?

Greene said he was disappointed with not being confirmed and that he had wanted to help protect and promote small game in Kentucky, particularly the ruffed grouse.?

“I feel like I’ve let a lot of people down who supported me,” Greene said.

The commission, by state law, is supposed to be bipartisan with “not more than five of the same political party” sitting on the nine-member board.?

Edwin Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen representing thousands of hunters across the state, has been one of several critics of the Senate not confirming past commission appointments. Nighbert told the Lantern he was glad the Senate decided to confirm most of Beshear’s appointments.?

“That’s what the sportsmen wanted,” Nighbert said. “We can get back to doing the business and the commission do what the commission’s mission is, and that is to make the department accountable across the board.”?

Senate refusals to confirm appointments had left the nine-member board with three vacancies, which will now be down to one vacancy after Monday’s confirmation votes.

The process for appointing commission members begins in district nominating meetings of Kentuckians who hold a hunting or fishing license. The governor then appoints a commission member from the top-five vote getters at the district meetings. Finally, the Senate has to confirm that appointment.

Leadership of groups representing sportsmen and wildlife conservationists have previously accused senators of weaponizing the Senate confirmation process against the voices and votes of sportsmen, saying they have refused to confirm commission appointments for partisan political reasons, including the Senate’s desire to protect Storm who has clashed with the Beshear administration over a number of issues. The board has the power to hire, and potentially fire, a KDFWR commissioner.?

Politics swirl around who will oversee Kentucky Fish and Wildlife

Beshear’s administration and the KDFWR have fought over the length of Storm’s contract as commissioner — at one point stopping Storm’s paychecks due to the dispute? —? and over executive branch oversight of how the KDFWR implements procurement and conservation easements.???

Beshear in March urged the Senate to confirm his commission appointments, urging the Senate? to “stop protecting leadership of what I think is the most corrupt part of state government.” When asked what he thought was corrupt about the KDFWR, Beshear during a press conference that same month pointed to a special examination of the department by a former Republican state auditor in late 2018 criticizing practices and spending at the department, along with how Storm was controversially hired as commissioner in early 2019.

“If leadership in an organization only answers to you on a board, you’ve got to be an active board. You got to make sure things are running right,” Beshear said in the press conference.?

A review by the Lantern of Greene’s public Facebook posts shows he had asked? people to call senators in support of his appointment to make sure the 8th commission district isn’t left vacant, leaving hunters and anglers “without their rightful representation.” Greene also wrote posts in the past three years, before he was appointed by Beshear, criticizing the Senate for refusing to confirm past commission appointments.

Webb, the senator who sponsored Greene’s confirmation resolution, in an interview said she was “aggrieved” Greene wasn’t confirmed believing he didn’t get a chance to talk about his social media use with senators, ideally in a public committee hearing. In past years, senators have brought forth some, but not all, commission appointments to a committee hearing to ask questions of appointments before a potential confirmation vote.?

Webb said she had a floor speech ready in case the Senate again rejected most of Beshear’s commission appointments. She said she plans to work on improving the confirmation process in an effort to avoid vacancies on the KDFWR board.?

Webb said she was relieved the Senate confirmed most of the the appointments.??

“If we would have left that much of Kentucky’s population of sportsmen go without representation, I was to going to go a little nuts,” Webb said. “I want the sportsmen to maintain a vote, maintain a voice in this, but I want everybody to do their due diligence that’s involved in the process and do it in a timely fashion to prevent vacancies.”?

Webb was a vocal opponent against a Senate bill that didn’t become law which would have stripped Beshear of his power to appoint commission members and given it to Republican Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell.?

The Kentucky Senate, Feb. 27, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — A bill that open government advocates warn would introduce loopholes into Kentucky’s open records law could make its way to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk when lawmakers return to Frankfort later this week.?

The final two days of the 60-day regular session — Friday and Monday — are set aside to consider gubernatorial vetoes of bills that both chambers have passed. The Republican supermajority can easily reach the simple majority of votes needed to override ?vetoes.

Legislation that has yet to make it through both chambers also could come up in the final two days, including a bill to end the certificate of need requirement for freestanding birth centers and a maternal health bill that ran aground in the Senate after a late amendment was added in committee.

The Senate is expected to consider confirming Robbie Fletcher as the state education commissioner, along with appointments to other positions. Thanks to a law enacted last year, it will be the first time the education commissioner has required Senate confirmation.

Any bill that lawmakers pass would be subject to a successful veto by Beshear because the legislature would have no chance to override it.

‘Bad actors’

Beshear has voiced support for the controversial changes to the open records law proposed in House Bill 509. During his weekly news conference last week he said he needs to see the bill’s final form before deciding what action to take on the bill. “We’ll review it when it gets to me.”

The House passed the bill, but the Senate did not give it a floor vote ahead of the veto period. The Senate could give final passage to the bill when both chambers reconvene Friday and Monday.

HB 509 would require state and local government agencies to provide email accounts to public officials on which to conduct official business. However, the bill doesn’t address what happens to public records created on private devices.?

Beshear told reporters he thinks the bill would be more effective than current law in deterring officials from conducting public business on their personal devices or email accounts. He traced the controversy to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), which has waged a so far unsuccessful court fight to block release of commissioners’ text messages. The challenge is now before the state Supreme Court.

“Fish and Wildlife hadn’t issued state email addresses to their commissioners and they insisted on texting each other on their own devices,” Beshear said. “That’s wrong. So, right now, what the law says is if you do that, that is an open record. But all we can do in terms of enforcement is ask that person ‘would you please look through your phone and take snapshots of anything that we’re asking for and send them to us now?’ Do you think a bad actor who’s trying to get around the open records request is going to do that and send them to you?”

HB 509 would destroy Kentucky’s long tradition of openness. And Beshear knows it.

Beshear said HB 509’s mandate that official business be conducted on government email accounts could aid transparency by making government agencies responsible for the records. “What it does is take whether you get a record away from a potential bad actor and put it with the agency that can secure those records.”

Agencies could discipline employees who violate HB 509’s mandates — by using a personal cell phone or email account for official communications, for example — but it’s unclear if and how those records could be publicly disclosed. The bill includes no penalties for violations by elected officials. The bill also does not require agencies to search for public records on personal devices.?

When asked if he thought Beshear would veto the bill, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers told reporters as the veto period began: “You’d have to ask the governor on that. I do not know. I don’t know what he would do.”?

The open records challenge against the KDFWR was spurred by a former member of the KDFWR’s governing board requesting text messages among Fish and Wildlife officials and lawmakers. The governor and Republican legislature have also clashed over the Kentucky Senate not confirming gubernatorial appointments to the KDFWR’s governing board. Five appointments are? awaiting confirmation this session.?

Here’s a look at where some other high-profile legislation stands:?

Momnibus?

After picking up some controversial baggage in the last leg of the legislative session, the maternal health bill called “Momnibus” failed to get final passage.?

The bill would incentivize Kentuckians to get prenatal care by adding pregnancy to the list of qualifying life events for health insurance coverage, among other things. It had bipartisan support.

But a late amendment borrowed language from a bill filed by an anti-abortion lawmaker that requires hospitals and midwives to refer patients who have nonviable pregnancies or whose fetuses have been diagnosed with fatal conditions to perinatal palliative care services. Abortion rights advocates say the requirement could become coercive.

The bill awaits Senate passage and Beshear’s action.?

Meanwhile, Democrats in the Senate have filed amendments

Democrats in the Senate have filed amendments to loosen the state’s near-total ban on abortion by adding exceptions for rape, incest and lethal fetal anomalies ?and changing the word “baby” to “fetus.”?

It could still pass in the final two days but would have to be a version that meets Beshear’s approval because lawmakers would be unable to override a veto.??

Freestanding birth centers?

A bill to remove the certificate of need requirement for freestanding birth centers that meet a set of criteria was approved by the House. It has had two readings in the Senate but still needs to pass a Senate committee.?

A Senate Resolution to reestablish a task force to study certificate of need in Kentucky has also not passed.?

Crime bill awaits action by Beshear

A sweeping crime bill backed by Jefferson County House Republicans has been awaiting action by the governor for about a week. House Bill 5 has been hotly debated, with House Democrats futilely arguing on the last day before the veto period against the measure.??

The bill includes new or increased criminal penalties, bans street camping and imposes a three strikes rule on violent offenders. It requires prisoners convicted of violent offenses to serve 85% of their sentences instead of the current 20% before becoming eligible for parole, and classifies more crimes as violent.

HB 5 has gained opposition from across the political spectrum, as both progressive and conservative groups have argued that a more in-depth fiscal analysis is needed before implementing the legislation. However, the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police and some families of deceased crime victims have expressed support for the bill.?

Beshear told reporters Thursday that he was still reviewing the bill and was supportive of parts of it but concerned about other sections. He added that he supported the carjacking provision but had reservations about provisions that could criminalize homelessness by creating the crime of illegal street camping.?

He said a part of the bill that would “allow for the destruction of a weapon used in a murder” is close to him a year after the Old National Bank shooting in Louisville. The bill would allow someone to purchase such a weapon at auction and ask Kentucky State Police to destroy it. The funds are used for local government and law enforcement grants.?

Local officials highlighted the issue of the auctions after the shooting last year. One of the victims, Tommy Elliot, was a close friend of Beshear’s.?

“Thankfully, the ATF seized that weapon, and it was destroyed,” Beshear said of the weapon used in the bank shooting. “Otherwise, I was going to have to watch a weapon that murdered my friend be auctioned to the highest bidder.”?

Beshear also added that he wished legislation like this would be broken up into separate bills. He can only issue line-item vetoes on budget bills.?

Changes to horse racing and gambling oversight

Beshear can also take action on another bill that was passed by the General Assembly just before the veto period began that would dissolve the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and Department of Charitable Gaming.?

Senate Bill 299 would form a new government corporation to oversee the duties of the commission and department. Both of those are currently under the Public Protection Cabinet. The House and Senate have both given approval on the measure.

The bill has been backed by the legislature’s Republican leadership. In a joint meeting of the Senate and House economic development committees, Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer and House Speaker David Osborne presented the bill.?

Beshear told reporters that it does not impact gubernatorial appointment powers but would create an independent corporation that could “take regulatory action and punish different groups,” such as trainers. That raises a question about the constitutionality of the bill, he said, as an executive branch officer will not be over the corporation.

“So, how are you independent but have full regulatory and enforcement authority? I think that’s the thing to work through there,” Beshear said. “We’ve never seen it before. We don’t know of another group that acts that way, so a little complex legally.”?

New hurdles for fossil fuel-fired power plant retirements

Beshear has yet to act on Senate Bill 349, a Senate president-backed bill that would add new bureaucratic hurdles to slow the retirement of fossil fuel-fired power plants. Before utilities could retire a fossil fuel-fired plant, they would have to notify a newly created board, whose membership would be dominated by fossil fuel industries.

Investor-owned utilities and environmental advocacy groups have decried the bill, saying it could keep aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the grid and burden ratepayers with the costs of their maintenance. Advocates for the bill, including coal industry interests, have argued SB 349 is needed to ensure the reliability of the state’s energy grid, an assertion rebuffed by the leader of Kentucky’s largest utility.

Beshear last month criticized the bill, saying it was going to “take authority” from the state’s utility regulator, the Kentucky Public Service Commission, which makes decisions on power plant retirement requests. He said he’s been in the “same place” as some of the people who have pushed for SB 349, but that the proposed board is “not the way” to address the issue.

Limiting power of Louisville’s air pollution regulator

Beshear on Monday vetoed House Bill 136, sponsored by Rep. Jared Bauman, R-Louisville. The bill would prevent the Louisville Air Pollution Control District from issuing fines against industries that self-disclose violations of federal pollution regulations. Critics, including the environmental law group Kentucky Resources Council, say it could give industry in Jefferson County a “free pass” from penalties when a self-disclosure of a violation happens by ending the air pollution regulator’s ability to issue penalties in such cases.

Bauman and other Republicans have argued HB 136 is needed to align air pollution regulations in Jefferson County with the rest of the state. Most Democrats have opposed the bill, worried the bill could create less accountability over air pollution in Jefferson County.?

Criminalizing documentation of meatpacking plants, ag operations without consent?

Senate Bill 16, sponsored by Sen. John Schickel, R-Union and backed by Tyson Foods and Kentucky’s poultry industry, would criminalize using recording equipment or drones at concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and commercial food processing and manufacturing plants without the permission of the operation’s owner or manager. It would also criminalize distributing the footage.

Group alleges ‘hidden-camera’ video reveals ‘cruelty’ in chicken production in Kentucky?

Critics, including animal welfare groups, have said the bill is a so-called “ag gag” bill meant to hide from the public and prevent whistleblowers from exposing the conduct and practices of large-scale, corporate agricultural operations. An animal protection advocacy group released a video from a “hidden-camera” investigation of alleged “cruelty” within Kentucky poultry production, an investigation the group argues would be criminalized under SB 16.?

Schickel and other SB 16 supporters have said the bill is needed to prevent harassment of employees and agricultural operations that provide jobs to Kentucky communities. The bill passed through the legislature largely on party lines.?

Bills that are in the legislative graveyard or near

Anti-DEI bills: Republican efforts to limit or end diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public universities and colleges died when the Senate declined to consider changes made in its bill by the House. Any effort to revive anti-DEI legislation would almost certain be vetoed by Beshear.

Drag bill: After several edits to soften the legislation, a bill to place restrictions on adult-oriented businesses with “sexually explicit” performances sputtered on the House side despite passing a committee.??

Vaccine bill: A bill to bar employers and educational institutions from requiring the COVID-19 vaccination for treatment, employment or school, passed in the Senate but failed to advance on the House side.?

Though it could still pass in the final days of the session, Beshear, an outspoken supporter of the vaccines, would likely veto it.?

Abortion bills: None of the bills seeking to loosen Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban were assigned committees, making them effectively dead on arrival.?Those include:?

• A Republican bill to add rape and incest exceptions and clarify doctors can treat ectopic pregnancies?
• A Democratic bill to add rape and incest exceptions.?
• A Democratic bill to roll back all abortion restrictions.?

Loosening state child labor law: A bill that would allow some teenagers to work longer and later hours, voted down and then revived by a Senate committee, still needs final passage through the Senate to get to Beshear’s desk.?

Lawmakers wouldn’t have the chance to override a veto of House Bill 255 from Beshear, who in past comments panned the legislation saying child labor protections are there “for a reason.”?

Education and Labor Cabinet officials have said HB 255 also deletes language in state law that mirrors federal prohibitions on employing 14- and 15-year olds in hazardous occupations, such as jobs involving railroad cars and conveyors, loading and unloading goods from motor vehicles and requiring the use of ladders. State labor officials said they wouldn’t be able to enforce those hazardous occupation standards even if still federally prohibited.?

Bill sponsor Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, who owns a lawn and landscaping company, said his legislation would help minors “gain valuable experience in the workplace.”

Weakening a mine safety protection: House Bill 85, sponsored by Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, would weaken a key workplace protection for coal miners, according to a long-time coal miner safety advocate. Wesley has argued HB 85 is needed to help smaller coal mines continue operating.?The bill would need approval from the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee and three required readings before being sent to the governor, who could veto it without the legislature overriding it.?

The path of totality and partial contours crossing the U.S. for the 2024 total solar eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024. (NASA photo)

LOUISVILLE — As millions gear up for the total solar eclipse on Monday, Kentuckians are being cautioned to protect their eyes from sun damage and prepare for traffic delays.?

The 2024 total solar eclipse — the last one for at least two decades — will happen Monday, April 8.?

The time of the eclipse varies by location. The totality phase will enter Kentucky around 2 p.m., CDT, in parts of Fulton and Hickman counties before reaching Ballard, McCracken, Livingston, Crittenden, Union and Henderson counties along the Ohio River. It will also clip Carlisle, Graves, Webster and Daviess counties.

?The full darkening will be visible in Louisville at 3:07 p.m., EST.

To search for eclipse times by ZIP code and find other information, visit https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when.?

A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, blocking the sun and causing momentary darkness, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). There was a total solar eclipse in 2017, as well, but NASA says the Monday eclipse is “even more exciting” because it has a wider path.?

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet estimates the eclipse will attract 150,000 visitors to Western Kentucky, where a dozen counties are in or near the path of totality.? This will lead to “major” traffic delays. For more information on traffic delays, visit https://2024-solar-eclipse-kytc.hub.arcgis.com/.?

“You want to make sure that you see this once in a lifetime event — for some, twice in a lifetime event — but that you do it safely,” Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.?

“We want people to take in this incredible event, but we also want them to be prepared for potential heavy traffic as everyone heads to and from the main eclipse corridor,” Transportation Secretary Jim Gray said. “We have some simple suggestions for visitors: Arrive early and pack the essentials such as water, eclipse glasses and plenty of patience for navigating crowded highways.”

Protect your eyes?

Dr. Patrick Scott, an optometrist with UofL Health, said looking at the eclipse — even for a few seconds — can cause damage to the eyes.?

“We don’t typically look at the sun on a day to day basis because … it can be damaging, it’s too much light,” he said.?

During an eclipse, people are “tempted to look up,” he said, but should resist the urge because it can “cause permanent damage to the receptive cells of the retina.”?

Children are most at risk of damage, he said, as well as people who take medication like tetracycline or amiodarone, which can make them more vulnerable to sun damage.?

Sunglasses are a definite no-go for eclipse viewing, Scott said. They do not filter out the sun’s rays enough to avoid damage.?

“Eclipse glasses should be the only type of viewing glasses that you would use to look at the eclipse,” he said. When buying eclipse glasses, he added, be sure to check for the label that says “ISO 12312-2.”?

People who are looking to reuse eclipse glasses from the 2017 eclipse should make sure the lenses are scratch-free, said Scott.?

“If there are scratches or any type of blemish that can allow the sun’s rays to get through,” he said, “I would not use them.”??

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegeig said the rule would provide a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution” and provide states “flexibility to set their own climate targets.”?(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A federal judge has sided with Kentucky’s Republican attorney general in ruling that the Biden administration overstepped by requiring states to set goals for reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from vehicle tailpipes and other sources on federal highways.?

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton, of Kentucky’s Western District, in a Monday order said the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) lacked legal authority to issue the “arbitrary and capricious” rule. Reuters reported the judge stopped short of enjoining the regulation’s enforcement or vacating it, noting a federal judge in Texas had already struck it down nationwide before Beaton could finish considering the case.

Beaton was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2020.

The FHWA’s rule would require state transportation departments to establish two-year and four-year emissions reduction targets beginning in 2024. The rule granted states “flexibility” to set goals that “are appropriate for their communities and that work for their respective climate change and other policy priorities.”?

At the time the rule was finalized, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegeig said? in a statement that it would provide a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution” and provide states “flexibility to set their own climate targets.”?

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, transportation contributed 29% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, fueling the increasing effects of human-driven climate change.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman along with 20 other Republican attorneys general sued the Biden administration to stop the rule from going into effect.?

Coleman in a statement said Biden’s “radical environmental agenda” is costing “Kentucky families, farmers and workers.”?

?“Like all Americans, Kentuckians love our trucks, cars and vans. With this victory in court, we’re slamming the brakes on the Biden Administration’s politics that make no sense in the Commonwealth,” Coleman said.?

A FHWA spokesperson said in an email the agency was reviewing the court decision and remained committed to the administration’s goal of “cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”?

Lawmakers questioned a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet official about the FHWA rule and the lawsuit during a February legislative committee meeting.

Mike Hancock, deputy secretary for the cabinet, told lawmakers the cabinet had a “great relationship” with the FHWA and that the cabinet was “in the habit of meeting federal requirements” to not endanger hundreds of millions of dollars in federal transportation funding given to the state.?

Sam Satterly investigated a hazardous waste dump known as the “Gully of the Drums” in Jefferson Memorial Forest, a Louisville public park, while she was a graduate student at the University of Louisville. (Photo courtesy of Sam Satterly)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.?

LOUISVILLE —When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency responded to a “surface water pollution emergency” on farmland 17 miles south of downtown in 1979, federal officials joined state regulators in removing 17,000 barrels of hazardous waste from an illegal dump site. It would become notorious nationally as the “Valley of the Drums.”

But the EPA didn’t do anything about dozens of other hazardous waste containers strewn in a nearby forested hollow, about 700 feet away, in what eventually became dubbed the “Gully of the Drums,” even though a local court had ordered a cleanup.

At least twice since then — after EPA had declared the Valley of the Drums cleanup a success — Kentucky environmental regulators and EPA officials investigated the Gully of the Drums. They found pollutants lingering in the soil above health and safety levels that would normally spur a remediation.?

But again, nothing was done, leaving what is now a public park preserved as a tribute to area veterans, the Jefferson Memorial Forest, unremediated to this day. Forty to 45 barrels remain in the woods, leeching what’s left of their toxic contents into the soil.?

These are the conclusions of new research by Sam Satterly, a 35-year-old Iraq War veteran who found records about the Valley of the Drums, and its country cousin, in a nearby public library and spent the past two years digging into them.?

In December, Satterly completed her research on both dump sites as part of a master’s degree she earned in sustainability from the University of Louisville and has summed up her findings on a website she created. Her thesis has revealed previously untold stories about the origins of the Gully of the Drums — and how it shares some connections to Valley of the Drums.

Satterly has also documented how local, state and federal agencies dropped ball after ball after ball, allowing chemicals to seep into the ground at the Gully of the Drums and raising concerns about pollutants that may spread through a nearby waterway. The Jefferson Memorial Forest is a 6,600-acre sylvan landscape known for its steep hills and hardwood canopy of beech, maple and oak trees, and an understory of flowering dogwood and redbud trees.

“This forest holds a special place in my heart,” Satterly said in an interview at a coffee shop, as she sifted through documents she had obtained via the Kentucky open records law, the federal Freedom of Information Act and court files. “It has offered me sanctuary in times of anguish, and peace in times of sorrow.”

The forest has served as a memorial to veterans since 1948, and, she said, “sadly, we have treated it, in many ways, like a forgotten military veteran.”

An ‘imminent threat’?

The story of the Valley of the Drums is well known. Images of the massive stockpile of drums scattered on 23 acres of farmland in Bullitt County, along with the frightening revelation of chemical plant dumping in Love Canal, near Niagara Falls, led Congress in 1980 to pass the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund.?

The law taxed chemical and petroleum industries to pay for the program and EPA got authority to directly respond to toxic dumps that threatened the public or environment, then assess cleanup costs on the “responsible parties.”

The Gully of the Drums, however, remains largely unknown, even to people who live nearby and are in positions of authority.?

It’s a lot smaller, to be sure; official estimates have pegged the number of visible waste barrels at 40 to 45. Consultants working for the state, Shield Environmental Associates Inc., in 2011 found the drums and other containers strewn along swaths of the forest for about 300 feet, just across the county line in Jefferson County, which includes the city of Louisville. Other, buried metal and potential waste was strewn along another 100-foot stretch.

From what they could determine, there was evidence of elevated levels of heavy metals and pesticides. And, as recently as 2016, state environmental regulators had described Gully of the Drums as “an imminent threat to human health and the environment.”

Still, the Louisville Metro Councilman whose district includes Jefferson Memorial Forest, Dan Seum Jr., was unfamiliar with an old hazardous waste dump there, a spokeswoman said recently, declining further comment.

“I had no knowledge of the issue,” said Cindi Fowler, a lifelong resident of the nearby community of Valley Station, when shown a summary of Satterly’s research and conclusions. Fowler has served 12 years on the Louisville Metro Council and chairs the council’s Parks and Sustainability Committee. “This should have been addressed way before now.”

She said she wants more information from the administration of Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a businessman-turned-politician who has promised to make Louisville’s government more transparent.

Greenberg’s media team declined to make any city officials available for interviews on the Gully of the Drums situation, or to release a new report on the dump site that a state official had told Satterly about.

A written statement from Greenberg’s spokesman, Kevin Trager, downplayed any threats to the public from the contamination and said the city’s parks department “continues to collaborate” with the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection “and is committed to being proactive if further action is needed.”

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, which includes the state’s Department for Environmental Protection, also declined to answer specific questions about its management of issues related to the Gully of the Drums. But the state cabinet’s statement said it was working toward a cleanup.

The agency “is committed to a safe and clean environment for all Kentucky families and is working with Louisville Parks and Recreation, owner of forest, to clean up the site,” the statement said, while acknowledging the contamination reported in the 2011 report. The statement said that as of that year, there was no impact on “ground or surface water.”

‘Gray’ and ‘green’ liquid waste

Satterley’s interest in the Jefferson Memorial Forest goes beyond her love for it as a place of personal refuge and renewal. She also works for Louisville Metro Parks as the forest’s guest services supervisor.?

She wants to make sure that everyone, including her employer, understands she is speaking out as a recent graduate researcher and private citizen about her research and conclusion that the Louisville Metro Government has an obligation to clean up Gully of the Drums. The city of Louisville merged with Jefferson County in 2003.

“My belief in doing the right thing is supposed to be hard,” Satterly said. “I understand that this can has been kicked down the road for decades. But knowing that something is wrong, and looking the other way, makes you guilty, too.”

Satterly found records show the same person who had created the Valley of the Drums in the 1960s, the late A.L. Taylor, was also dumping waste at about the same time on the neighboring property that would become Gully of the Drums.

By the end of the 1960s, Jefferson County had agreed to clean up the mess following a legal dispute over the property’s ownership and claims that county officials had allowed the dumping. But there’s no evidence any cleanup ever happened.

One of the key questions, Satterly said, is why EPA left the “Gully” waste in place when it was taking action on the larger problem so close by. Any check of local court cases would have revealed the Gully of the Drums dumping by Taylor and the court-ordered cleanup.

Regional EPA officials in Atlanta declined to comment for this story and specifically answer a question about why the Gully site wasn’t part of the Valley of the Drums remediation.

Records unearthed by Satterly indicate state and EPA officials discovered the Gully of the Drums in the early 1990s, and that after an assessment of the site, EPA passed responsibility for its cleanup to the state.

At the time, officials described drums or containers with “gray” or “green” liquids, and testing found toxic compounds typical of petroleum distillates including toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, as well as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are considered to be probable human carcinogens that were banned from commercial production in the United States in 1979.

A followup inspection by the state in 2006 identified toxic heavy metals, in the soil at elevated levels, including cadmium and lead.

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal published a story in 2008 about “discovery” of an estimated 40 rusting drums inside Jefferson Memorial Forest, and a push by state and federal regulators to get the extent of any pollution there evaluated and remediated.

That’s when Shield’s consultants were hired by the state to assess the risks and potential costs of cleanup. In their 2011 report, they noted drums and other containers scattered along 300 feet of the forest floor. By then, the liquid wastes were gone, but testing of the soil near the drums found pesticides, PCBs and a mix of heavy metals at levels in excess of what would normally require agency action.

The Shields consultants recommended excavation and disposal of the contaminated material and said some of it would likely require disposal in a hazardous waste landfill. They offered a cost estimate of about $900,000, but said it could be more once buried wastes at the site are tested.?

Satterly also uncovered a 2016 letter from state officials to the Michigan chemical company Dow Corning, telling the company they had found containers with their company’s logo on them. The letter declared that the site was an “imminent threat to human health and the environment,” and told Dow Corning it needed to clean up the dump site.

Dow Corning, which was split up in 2016 and partially absorbed by Dow, the Michigan chemical company, replied that it had worked with state officials in 2012 and 2013 to address their concerns and had “submitted a proposal, with the agency’s knowledge, to the (city parks department) for participation in a possible response action. Your letter is the first communication we have received since then; it suggests that you are unaware of or indifferent to those discussions,” the company said.?

Dow Corning further said at the time that it did not believe it had any legal liability with regard to the forest dump site and would not commit to participating in a remediation. The company argued that the forest dump site “may properly be considered” part of the Valley of the Drums federal Superfund site, the company wrote.

State officials declined to answer questions about what happened to the cleanup talks they had with Dow Corning.

Federal cleanup money may be available

At the University of Louisville, Satterly’s graduate studies work earned high praise from her advisor, Lauren Heberle, an associate professor in sociology. Heberle directs the university’s Center for Environmental Policy and Management and is a lead investigator with the university’s Superfund Research Center, which is part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Superfund Research Program. The NIEHS program is designed to learn more about how exposure to hazardous substances found in contaminated water, soil and air affect people.

Heberle described Satterly’s research as “important” and gives her credit for taking on a thorny topic that reveals a problem that still needs to be resolved.?

“The significance of her work is that it is drawing attention to unfinished business that our local and state government agencies need to take responsibility for,” Heberle said.?

And, she added, her former student’s research is well timed and may qualify for federal grants. “The federal government is putting a ton of money into all sorts of federal programs,” she said, including some that fund cleaning up legacy pollution. She also said cleanup funds for the forest might qualify for Justice40 initiative spending by the Biden administration.?

Justice40 directs federal agencies to align their funding related to environmental cleanup, clean energy and climate mitigation so that at least 40 percent of the overall benefits go to disadvantaged communities.?

Heberle also urged transparency.

“Whatever site characterization happens, and water cleanup plans happen, the public should be brought in,” she said. “People think having information will scare the public unnecessarily. I think the opposite will happen.”

For her part, Satterly said she continues to be concerned about contamination getting into the stream, where children might wade or play, as she did in other local waterways when she was growing up in the Louisville area. She said she is also uncertain what will come of the site. On Friday, she will present her findings on the University of Louisville campus, and she’s making plans for at least one other public talk. She’s also pondering her next career steps and wondering if law school might be in the cards.

As for the Gully of the Drums, she said she remains hopeful.

“I can honestly say that for the first time in two years, I believe that the Gully will finally be cleaned up,” Satterly said. “I cannot put into words how that makes me feel, but it certainly makes my heart swell.”

After his appointment to the Fish and Wildlife Commission was derailed, Tom Ballinger decided to challenge Sen. Stephen Meredith for his Senate seat. They are both Republicans. Ballinger, framed by deer antlers, was photographed on his farm in Butler County , March 24, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

FRANKFORT — Thomas Ballinger, an Army veteran and Butler County beekeeper, wanted to make sure veterans have a voice on the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, so he threw his hat in the ring for one of the nine seats.

Anyone who holds a hunting or fishing license is eligible to vote at meetings in their commission district. Ballinger finished in his district’s top five top-vote getters, putting him on the list sent to Gov. Andy Beshear, who then recommended Ballinger to the Senate for confirmation.?

Then things took an unexpected turn.

In the final days of last year’s legislative session, Ballinger’s senator, Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, who was working to get Ballinger confirmed, texted him that the confirmation wasn’t going to happen — but not because of anything Ballinger had done.?

Meredith said it was because Beshear, a Democrat, had vetoed a bill supported by the Republican-dominated Senate. The measure greenlighted the purchase by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources of 54,000 acres of conservation easements in Southeastern Kentucky for $3.8 million. The governor said the bill lacked adequate oversight and cited “past procurement abuses” by the KDFWR. Beshear also cited a 2018 special examination from then-Auditor Mike Harmon, a Republican, who called for a “change in culture” at the agency.

“I had this thing queued up and then the Governor vetoed SB 241 and pissed my leadership off. So, this is a pissing contest,” Meredith said in a March 29, 2023 text message to Ballinger. “They are trying to send him a message and I don’t know if I can turn the tide.”?

“Leadership will not yield,” Meredith texted Ballinger the evening of March 29. “It is not you. It’s the governor.”?

“If it’s any consolation, there are two others in the same boat,” Meredith texted the next day, referring to two other Beshear appointees who weren’t confirmed, Mark Nethery and Jerry Ravenscraft.?

The Senate confirmed only one of Beshear’s four appointments to the commission last year, Gregory Cecil, who filled a vacancy. Commission members whose terms have expired may continue to serve for a year before their seat becomes vacant. Nonetheless, Senate inaction has resulted in three of the nine seats now being empty. A 2022 law mandated that gubernatorial appointees cannot begin serving until confirmed by the Senate.

Ballinger responded to Meredith, saying he felt misled and that the Senate should have been “up front” if it didn’t want to confirm the appointments. He said it was a “sad day” that sportsmen from more than a dozen counties he was set to represent wouldn’t get representation, and that it was “sad that senators let the leadership dictate who represents their district and county.”?

Meredith responded: “I can’t disagree with you.”?

That was the catalyst for Ballinger deciding to throw his hat into a bigger ring. He’s running for the state Senate, challenging Meredith in the Republican primary in May.

“He represented Senate leadership. He did not represent me,” Ballinger said, referring to Meredith. “The Senate has taken the sportsmen’s choice and the sportsmen’s voice away from them.”

The Senate’s refusal to confirm Ballinger and other Beshear nominees has raised concerns among some sportspeople that the commission is being hijacked by politics, particularly focused on protecting the KDFWR’s chief executive, Rich Storm.

While made up of volunteers, the Fish and Wildlife Commission has far-reaching responsibilities. It oversees the KDFWR’s budget, made up of tens of millions of dollars in hunting and fishing license fees, boat registration fees, and federal grants. It issues wildlife management regulations and hires (or fires) the department’s chief executive. State law directs the commission to keep a “watchful eye” over the department.?

The conflict over commission appointments recently flared into wider view when the state Senate narrowly voted to attach the KDFWR to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture headed by Republican Jonathan Shell, moving it outside the Beshear administration.?

Under Senate Bill 3, the agriculture commissioner, not the governor, would appoint commission members. The bill awaits consideration in the House.

Beshear has called it a “power grab” and criticized Senate Republicans for refusing to confirm his appointees to oversee KDFWR. “It’s time for them to stop protecting leadership of what I think is the most corrupt part of state government,” the governor told reporters on March 18.?

Sportspeople supported a 2010 law requiring Senate confirmation of a governor’s appointees to the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The law also limited commissioners to two four-year terms. Sportsmen say Senate confirmation worked as intended under Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat and the current governor’s father as the Senate rejected appointments opposed by sportsmen. Appointment confirmations under Republican Gov. Matt Bevin also sailed through the Senate.

But now some of the law’s supporters fear it’s been “weaponized” and twisted against the votes and voices of hunters, anglers and wildlife conservationists.?

“That bill was meant for the sportsmen to be able to reject appointees from the governor that we didn’t like,” said Jim Strader, host of a radio show about hunting and fishing. “It was supposed to be a safety net for the sportsmen, and they’ve turned it into a political football,” Strader told the Lantern.

Rick Allen, a past president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, said that with three vacancies on the Fish and Wildlife Commission, there’s “nobody to voice” the opinions of hunters and anglers in those districts.?

“It’s supposed to be nine commission members making a decision, one for each of the wildlife districts, and if you’ve got holes there, I mean, people are not being represented properly,” Allen said.?

Some Republican senators have bristled at the complaints. Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, recently said the Senate is not a “rubber stamp” for gubernatorial appointments that should have Senate vetting.

A focus on Rich Storm

The KDFWR, under commissioner Rich Storm, and the Beshear administration have clashed numerous times, including over the length of Storm’s contract to executive branch oversight of procurement and conservation easements.???

In addition to rejecting Beshear appointees perceived as unfriendly to Storm, the GOP Senate’s support for Storm and the Fish and Wildlife Commission also has included passing laws over Beshear vetoes that give the department independent control over procurements and conservation easements.

In one instance, Senate President Robert Stivers shot down Beshear’s appointment of Hardin County farmer and sportsman Brian Mackey in 2022, suggesting he was a disruptive force on the commission. Before Mackey was appointed, he used the

open records act to request text messages among commission members, lawmakers and Storm seeking information about Storm’s 2020 contract renewal.

Stivers told the Senate that Mackey had appeared on a segment of Strader’s radio show that “insinuated a lot of bad things.” Strader had criticized the commission’s chairman at the time for downplaying its violation of the open meetings law in a case unrelated to Mackey’s request.

“My understanding from my members on the commission, there is such disruption and consternation that I felt it was appropriate to put this up for a vote now,” Stivers said. He recommended the Senate reject Mackey’s confirmation, which it did, 21-10.

A spokesperson for Stivers declined an interview request about his Senate floor comments and the Senate confirmation process for commission appointments.

Democratic Sen. Robin Webb defended Mackey at the time, saying he was “willing to stand up and ask the questions and not just follow along in line like everybody else.” Webb said that didn’t mean she doesn’t support Storm and the commission.

An analysis by the Lantern found that since Beshear took office, six of his 10 past appointments have not been confirmed by the Senate.

Beshear has five appointments awaiting confirmation in this year’s session, though they would be rendered moot if the House follows the Senate’s lead on moving KDFWR to the agriculture department and giving Shell the appointment power. SB 3 would let Shell make new appointments for commission seats awaiting confirmation this session.?

Among the minority of Beshear appointments to the commission that were confirmed, some appointees told the Lantern they weren’t asked about Rich Storm by senators or the governor’s office. But Storm’s job security did come up in 2023 during Senate committee consideration of Mark Nethery, a three-term past president of the Kentucky League of Sportsmen who had been nominated by sportspeople in his district then appointed by Beshear.

The morning before his committee confirmation hearing, Nethery got a call from a fellow sportsman who said lawmakers would question him about his thoughts on Storm.?

At the committee meeting, the chair, Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, asked Nethery if the governor’s office, as rumored, was asking him and other appointees whether they would remove Storm.

“The honest, unequivocal answer on that — no,” Nethery said in response. “That conversation is not taking place with me, between the governor, between boards and commissions or anybody else for that matter.”?

Nethery and other sportsmen said it appeared during the committee hearing he was being wrongly blamed for critical social media posts that he did not make. A Senate resolution to confirm Nethery’s appointment never got a vote by the full Senate.?

Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, who sponsored the confirmation resolution for Nethery, told the Lantern she was “super supportive” of Nethery but “there was some concern that the governor was appointing people to get rid of the commissioner.”?

“He would have been excellent on the commission,” Raque Adams said. “There was some politics going on with the way the governor put forward those nominees. It was just a big hurdle to get over, but I had full confidence in him.”

Meredith also asked Ballinger about Storm in March 2023 text messages, asking if he had “issues” with Storm and saying that his confirmation resolution was being handled by Sen. Brandon Smith, who was “big friends” with the KDFWR commissioner.?

Meredith told Ballinger he shouldn’t be worried about the confirmation “unless the Governor has an expectation you will actively work to remove Commissioner Storm from his position.”

“Commissioner Storm is strongly supported by our Republican Caucus; including Senator Smith,” Meredith texted. “Governor Beshear has been trying to remove the Commissioner from office since his election and take personal control of Fish and Wildlife so he can sweep funds from Fish and Wildlife for his personal projects.”?

Meredith in a Lantern interview said he was glad in retrospect Ballinger wasn’t confirmed. He revised what he had told Ballinger about Beshear’s veto being the primary reason he wasn’t confirmed. He told the Lantern Ballinger’s antagonistic social media posts — saying he was going to “straighten out” the KDFWR —? were the primary reason, something Ballinger said he only posted after he learned he wasn’t going to be confirmed.?

In a May 2023 email to Jimmy Cantrell — a past president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, a field director for the Sportsmen’s Alliance and founder of the Appalachian Outdoorsmen Association — Meredith was still in tune with what he had told Ballinger. He hated “the political games,” he told Cantrell, and had been “outright lied to” about Ballinger’s confirmation.?

Meredith in his email to Cantrell traced Senate leadership’s refusal to confirm Beshear appointees to Beshear’s turning over the entire Kentucky Board of Education, which put in a new state commissioner of education, as soon as he became governor.?

“Once he set that precedent, leadership is not going to give him an inch of latitude. I don’t offer it as an excuse as there is no excuse,” Meredith said.?

Party politics

The commission, by state law, is supposed to be bipartisan with “not more than five of the same political party” sitting on the commission. Concerned sportsmen say the KDFWR’s mission should be apolitical, focused on preserving and managing wildlife throughout Kentucky.?

But the partisan makeup of the board has come under scrutiny in the recent past. Beshear unsuccessfully tried to remove two Bevin appointees, arguing the commission was stacked with Republicans. At least one senator has also suggested that one’s political party allegiance did matter in commission appointment confirmations.?

Mackey told the Lantern he changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat before running for the commission to increase his chances of an appointment, given that the commission is required to have a balanced partisan makeup and that Beshear was a Democrat.?

Mackey, whose confirmation was supported by sportsmen’s groups, told the Lantern he originally ran for the commission because he cared deeply about the department’s welfare and its “good work,” having decades of knowledge about the department and friends working there.

Mackey said Matt Osborne, the executive director of boards and commissions in the governor’s office, didn’t ask him about Rich Storm when he got interviewed for the appointment.?

“I felt like there were some issues that needed to be dealt with, you know, controversy, conflicts, potential corruption,” Mackey said, mentioning he had concerns about how Storm was originally hired. “That’s why I thought I’d be a good commissioner.”?

The Fish and Wildlife Commission controversially hired Storm as commissioner in 2019, when he was serving as chair of the commission, after the commission had already interviewed eight candidates for the top post, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Storm asked to be considered for the job after the commission named three finalists and recused himself as chair. Storm wasn’t on the search committee seeking a commissioner, according to the department’s human resources director at the time.?

Mackey said he didn’t agree with Beshear on much of his policies when he was appointed and spoke out against the governor for an attempted sweep of KDFWR funds in 2020, something a governor’s spokesperson had denied at the time. Republicans have used that incident as a reason for pushing SB 3, the bill giving appointment power to the GOP agriculture commissioner.

Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, had suspicions about Mackey’s party loyalty nonetheless.?

In a Feb. 2022 Facebook message to Jimmy Cantrell, Wheeler said the Republican Senate caucus had heard Mackey was a “Democratic operative” and that “sportsmen need (to be) a bit more careful about who they are sending over for the Governor to pick from.”?

Also, Wheeler said another Beshear appointee, Robert Lear, who wasn’t confirmed, was “supposed to be a Republican but was actually a closet Democrat whose wife had called Beshear a ‘sex symbol.’”?

That appears to be a reference to a Wall Street Journal article in 2020 headlined “New Cocktail Hour: Your Governor’s Daily Coronavirus Briefing. Live state updates on the pandemic become must-see TV and make unlikely stars of local officials.” The article began with an anecdote of Lear’s wife pouring a glass of wine for her “date” with Beshear, referring to his daily televised appearances during the pandemic.

The article said Beshear had been called a sex symbol, though that description was not attributed to Lear or his wife.?

Lear in an interview said he was disappointed he wasn’t confirmed but declined to speculate on the reasons.

Wheeler walked away from a Lantern reporter when asked about the Facebook message and his concerns about Lear’s wife’s thoughts on Beshear.?

A national advocacy group says a bill approved by the Kentucky legislature will criminalize investigations of industrial agriculture abuses. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

After rejecting protections for whistleblowers and accidental violations, the House on Tuesday approved Senate Bill 16 restricting drone photography of food production plants and animal feeding operations.

Democratic Rep. Al Gentry of Louisville offered an amendment protecting whistleblowers who film violations of safety or health laws.?

Overbroad bill risks turning food plant workers, government inspectors, neighbors into criminals

Rep. Chad Aull, D-Lexington, offered an amendment to clarify that unintentionally leaving on a phone camera or recorder would not constitute a violation.

Both amendments were defeated on party line votes after Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, told his colleagues that the bill’s sponsor and the lobbyist for Tyson Foods considered both proposals unfriendly amendments. Sen. John Schickel, R- Union, is the bill’s sponsor.

The House voted 72-25 in favor of the measure sought by the poultry industry.

Opponents have warned that imprecise language in what they call an “ag-gag” bill could be used to punish citizens and even government inspectors trying to document hazardous conditions, including pollution and food safety violations.?

The bill will now go to Gov. Andy Beshear.

A graphic of the proposed Bell County storage facility. (Gov. Andy Beshear/Youtube)

FRANKFORT — An Eastern Kentucky coal mining site set to become a giant hydropower battery is getting a significant boost from the federal government.?

Florida-based Rye Development is in line for an $81 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for its Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage Project.?

The funding is provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.?

A release from the company says it’s one of the first hydropower pumped storage facilities built in more than 30 years and the first ever built on former coal mine land.?

The utility-scale battery would be able to provide up to eight hours of on-demand, consistent power.

Hydropower pumped storage facilities work by having two water reservoirs at different elevations. Water is released when demand for electricity is high; it flows downhill through a turbine to generate power. The water is pumped back uphill when demand for power is low.

At a Thursday news conference with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and legislative leaders, Rye Development chief executive officer Paul Jacob said the Bell County project was unlike any “that’s been built around the world.”?

“This is a mountain that has on it five different coal seams and countless mines,” Jacob said. “We’re building on the top of that mountain basically a 60-acre pool. That itself is an engineering challenge. But the federal grant that we’ve received is going to help de-risk that and help us accelerate the project.”?

Rye Development plans to invest $1.3 billion in the 287-megawatt project, estimated to create about 1,500 construction jobs, 30 “operation” jobs and generate enough energy to power almost 67,000 homes, according to a press release from Beshear’s office. Jacob said the project could take seven to 10 years to construct, with the project’s longevity lasting up to a century.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, called the project regionally “transformational,” saying it would have a huge impact on a region that was previously a “rich energy production area.”?

“This is a perfect example: how when people come together in a region, the impact that you can have, no longer just a county, a city — but six, eight, 10, 12 counties. And I have to say this: maybe even a little bit into Tennessee,” Stivers said.?

Beshear hailed the project, saying state officials believed the project was the “largest investment ever in Eastern Kentucky.”?

“We have a lot of sites like this that could be a part of a clean energy future on top of an abandoned coal mine,” Beshear said.?

There are dozens of utility-scale hydropower pumped storage facilities across the country, according to the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Rye Development also has such storage facilities in the Pacific Northwest.?

Sen. Johnnie Turner, R-Harlan, who represents Bell County, said the “mountains was coal first” and ?“hydro first now.”?

“We’re moving on,” Turner said.?

About 900 companies, trade associations and other groups registered to lobby during the 2024 session of the Kentucky legislature held at the Capitol in Frankfort. Their combined spending was roughly $1 million higher than the previous record set the year before. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — With eight days left in this session and a slew of decisions pending, the Kentucky House and Senate reconvene Thursday afternoon after a three-day break.

High on lawmakers’ to-do list will be finalizing the next two-year state budget.

The Senate also must consider changes to the tax code approved with little public notice by the House last week after Rep. Jason Petrie, chairman of the House budget committee, converted House Bill 8, an 11-page “shell bill,” into 124 pages of wide-ranging provisions affecting state revenue.

One of the provisions would pave the way for income tax cuts in future sessions by changing the 2022 law that created a process for determining when the state can afford additional reductions. Republicans lowered the rate in 2022 and 2023 in hopes of eventually eliminating the state income tax.

The 2022 law prevented another cut this year because one of its two fiscal metrics was not satisfied. Petrie’s tweaks would make it easier to trigger consideration of reductions in the income tax rate by the legislature in the future.

League of Women Voters asks that public have 24 hours to review budget

Study: Kentuckians increasingly excluded from lawmaking process by fast-track maneuvers

Leaders from both chambers met in a budget conference committee earlier this week to begin hashing out differences in the two spending plans.

Among other sticking points, negotiators must agree on the level of state support to help Kentucky’s beleaguered child care providers survive the end of federal pandemic aid. The Senate also has proposed spending more of the state’s record surplus on projects than has the House.

On Wednesday, the League of Women Voters of Kentucky called on the legislature to “ensure the public has at least 24 hours to review” the negotiated budget bills before the House and Senate vote on them. The League last year released a study showing the ?General Assembly in the 21st century has increasingly fast-tracked bills, using maneuvers that shut out citizens from participating in the process.

Lawmakers also must decide which constitutional amendments to put to voters in November. Four amendments are allowed on the ballot every two years. Two amendments already have been approved by both chambers: One would allow the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools with public dollars. The other would preempt those who aren’t U.S. citizens from voting in Kentucky elections.?

Still up in the air is a Senate bill that would tie Kentucky to coal-generated power over the objections of environmentalists and the state’s investor-owned utilities. It’s awaiting action in the House.

A House bill that critics say would put a gaping loophole in the state’s open records law is awaiting action in the Senate.

Both chambers have voted to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Kentucky’s public universities and colleges. The House version went further than what was passed by the Senate, which now must consider the House overhaul of its bill.

Plus, for the first time, under a law enacted last year, the Senate must confirm an education commissioner, which it is expected to do before the session ends. The state Board of Education began contract negotiations with its choice for the post on Monday without saying which of three finalists it is.

What’s moving, what’s not

So far, both the House and Senate have approved a sweeping crime bill that will mean much longer sentences before Kentuckians convicted of violent crimes can be considered for parole, as well as create new crimes including “unlawful camping” which critics say will criminalize homelessness.

Proposals that have yet to make it out of the starting gate include adding exceptions in cases of rape and incest to Kentucky’s abortion ban, establishing protections for in vitro fertilization, making substantial changes in certificate of need laws and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s requests for an 11% raise for public school employees and funding universal pre-kindergarten.?

Beshear has vetoed one bill that preempted local governments from outlawing housing discrimination based on a renter’s source of income. The Republican-controlled legislature quickly overrode Beshear’s veto.??

Here is a rundown of where some bills stand as the session nears an end:

Child care?

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have filed bills aimed at addressing Kentucky’s child care crisis.?

The largest of those proposals, Sen. Danny Carroll’s Horizons Act, has passed a Senate committee but has not yet been considered on the floor.?

Another bill, which originated in the House and encourages local governments to examine available zoning for child care centers, is much closer to getting through the legislative process. House Bill 561 has passed the House and a Senate Committee, and can proceed to the Senate floor.?

The House and Senate are in talks over a compromise budget, so the final investment into child care is not clear.?

Abortion?

Democrat and Republican bills seeking to reform Kentucky’s strict abortion bans — including adding exceptions for rape and incest — have failed to advance.?

Senate Bill 99, filed by Democrat Sen. David Yates to add rape and incest exceptions to the ban, hasn’t received a committee assignment. Likewise, Democrat Rep. Lindsey Burke’s House Bill 428 to restore abortion access did not get a committee assignment.?

On the Republican side, Rep. Ken Fleming filed House Bill 711 to both add rape and incest exceptions as well as clarify that physicians could treat ectopic pregnancies, incomplete miscarriages and lethal fetal anomalies. His bill has not received a committee assignment.?

IVF?

Two Democrats and a Republican filed bills seeking to protect access to in vitro fertilization following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children.?

Those bills have stayed stagnant, though. Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong’s Senate Bill 301 was sent to the Judiciary Committee on February 29, but has not received a hearing. Sen. Whitney Westerfield’s Senate Bill 373 was sent to the Health Services Committee on March 1 but has not moved further. Louisville Democrat Rep. Daniel Grossberg’s House Bill 757 has not been assigned to a committee.?

Certificate of Need?

As of March 12, none of the bills seeking to reform Kentucky’s certificate of need laws (CON) have received a floor vote.?

In the House, these bills have not moved:?

• HB202 – Stuck in Committee on Committees since Jan. 9.?
• HB203 – Stuck in Committee on Committees since Jan. 9.?
• HB204 – Was sent to Health Services, where it failed to pass on March 21.?
• HB199 passed a committee, and is awaiting floor vote while the sponsor works with the Kentucky Hospital Association to address its concerns.?

In the Senate, these bills have not moved:?

• SB137 was sent to Health Services but has been stagnant since Jan. 29.?
• SB305 was sent to Health Services and has been stagnant since Feb. 29.?
• SB103 was sent to Health Services but has been stagnant since Jan. 12.??

A resolution seeking to reestablish the Certificate of Need Taskforce, which in 2023 studied the issue but concluded that it needed to study it further, was filed on Jan. 4. It was immediately sent to Health Services, where it has stayed since.

Education

Many education bills are awaiting action in the legislature.

In the Senate, these bills have not had committee hearings:?

• SB 205, a bill that would give Kentucky public school teachers up to 20 days of maternity leave.?

In the House, these bills have not had committee hearings:?

• SB 1, which sets up an endowed fund for collaborative research between public universities?
• SB 2, a continuation of a 2019 school safety act that aims to provide more access to mental health resources while also allowing schools to hire “guardians” to fill vacant school resource officer positions, has not received a committee hearing
• SB 8, which would create partisan elections for the Kentucky Board of Education
• SB 4, which changes how teachers would be paid for sick days upon retirement.?

Government

Lawmakers have proposed several changes to state and local government processes. A House bill filed after U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced his plans to step down from the role passed out of the Senate State and Local Government Committee Wednesday. The legislation, HB 622, would allow winners of special elections to fill U.S. Senate vacancies to fill unexpired terms.?

That same committee also forwarded HB 513, a bill that gives the General Assembly oversight over permanent displays in the Capitol Rotunda, including statues.?

In the House, these bills have not had a committee hearing:?

• SB 10, which would propose a constitutional amendment to move Kentucky’s statewide elections to coincide with presidential elections.
• SB 80, which would remove university-issued ID cards as a primary form of voter identification.?
• SB 126, which proposes a constitutional amendment to limit governors’ pardon and sentence commutation powers around elections
• HB 4, another constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly the power to call itself into a special session?

In the Senate, these bills have not had a committee hearing so far:?

• HB 509, a bill that advocates warn could add loopholes to state open records laws, has not had a committee hearing
• HB 626, which would make interrupting legislative proceedings a crime.?

Energy, environment

Having already been passed by the Senate and under consideration in the House, SB 349, backed by Senate President Robert Stivers, would create new barriers to utilities retiring fossil fuel-fired power plants, something environmentalists and utilities alike say could burden ratepayers with the cost of keeping open aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants. Stivers, R-Manchester, and bill sponsor Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, have argued the bill is needed to protect the reliability of the electricity supply, an assertion rebuffed by utilities.?

Another coal-related bill, under consideration in the Senate after having passed the House, would weaken a key workplace protection for miners, according to a coal mining safety advocate. HB 85 needs a favorable vote from the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee and by the full Senate before reaching Beshear’s desk to be signed or vetoed. Sponsor Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, has argued the legislation is needed to help smaller mines operate consistently.?

In the House, these bills or resolutions need a committee hearing or a vote by the full House:?

• HJR 121, which would declare Kentucky “a sanctuary state from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s overreaching regulatory actions on fossil fuel-fired power plants,” still needs a committee hearing.
• HB 141, which would allow water utilities to opt out of a long-standing mandate of drinking water fluoridation, hasn’t had a full vote by the House.?
• SB 16, characterized by critics as “ag-gag” legislation that would criminalize the operation of a drone with recording equipment over meatpacking plants without the consent of the plant’s owner, needs a full vote by the House.?
• SB 198, which would create a new research authority dedicated to advancing nuclear energy in Kentucky, still needs a vote by the full House.?
• SB 215, which would prohibit any Kentucky agency from enforcing or adopting emissions standards “that are identical to the standards established by the State of California pursuant to the Clean Air Act,” still needs a vote by the full House.?
• SJR 149, which would direct the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet to “provide guidance and consultation on best management practices” with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” for “entities that discharge directly or indirectly into Kentucky’s waterways,” still needs a vote by the full House.?

In the Senate, these bills or resolutions need a committee hearing or a vote by the full Senate:

• HB 136, which would curb the power of Louisville’s air pollution regulatory agency to issue fines, could be voted on by the full Senate this week and sent to the governor’s desk.?
• HB 583, which would require more local governments to receive a notification of “environmental emergencies” in their jurisdiction, hasn’t been assigned to a Senate committee.
• HB 40, which would create a new board focused on the certification of water and wastewater system operators, needs a vote by a Senate committee.?
• HB 563, which would create a new funding source for economically challenged water districts, needs a vote by a Senate committee.?

A number of bills filed by Republicans and Democrats alike regarding energy and environmental policy haven’t seen any movement.?

HB 180, a bill with bipartisan sponsorship that would create limitations on when utilities could disconnect customers, hasn’t been assigned to a committee.?

HB 398, a bill with bipartisan sponsorship that would exempt small electric vehicle chargers from an existing tax on chargers, hasn’t had a committee hearing.?

HB 445, a Republican-backed bill that would create additional barriers before the state’s utility regulator could retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant, hasn’t been assigned to a committee.?

Economy and Labor

Having been revived by a Senate committee after previously stalling, a bill that would loosen state child labor laws by allowing teenagers to work longer and later hours, HB 255, still needs a vote by the full Senate. The bill sponsor, Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, has argued it will give minors the opportunity to work more, while critics have lambasted the bill as opening the door for more teenagers to be exploited by employers.?

Diaper tax?

Senate Bill 97, which was filed by Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, would exempt diapers from the sales tax. The bill has bipartisan support, including from Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown.?

It was sent to Appropriations and Revenue on Jan. 10, where it has stayed. It could still be included in the revenue bill, which Chambers Armstrong is hoping for.?

Electric transmission lines near Clark, South Dakota. A trade group representing clean energy businesses is grading how well seven regional transmission organizations are doing at getting new projects approved to connect to their grids. (Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

Across the country, electric demand is growing and could explode if green goals like electrifying home heating, industry and transportation come to fruition. At the same time, many states, utilities and businesses have pledged to decarbonize, helping push older coal and gas power plants that have struggled to stay economically competitive into retirement.

Yet in the queues run by the organizations that manage the electric grid in much of the nation, more than two million megawatts of potential new power sources, chiefly solar, wind and batteries, are languishing awaiting interconnection studies.

That dynamic prompted Advanced Energy United, a trade group representing clean energy businesses, to publish a first-of-its-kind scorecard grading how well the seven regional transmission organizations, which coordinate the flow of electricity for roughly two thirds of American electric customers, are doing at getting new projects approved to connect to their grids.

The short answer? Not so great. But some regions have been better than others, according to Caitlin Marquis, managing director at AEU. Both the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the California Independent System Operator, organizations that manage the grid in most of their respective states, got Bs. The other five organizations got grades of C-? or lower.

“Grid managers have moved too slowly to adapt to changing market conditions, allowing the process of connecting new electricity to the transmission grid to become dysfunctional,” she said in a statement. “Without urgent improvement, the U.S. grid may struggle to keep up with growing energy demands, threatening our ability to keep the lights on and reach our climate goals.”

Grid operators push back on ratings

In many regions, interconnection – the usually multi-year process to connect new power generators to the transmission system, including studies of any upgrades needed to ensure reliability – has been a well-known problem for years.

Last summer, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued new rules intended to help clear the backlogs. And indeed, some grid operators questioned the point of the scorecard, which uses data that in some cases is several years old. They said the problems have long been acknowledged and that they’ve been working to overhaul their interconnection processes.

“The report is an assessment of conditions and practices that no longer exist,” said Jeff Shields, a spokesperson for PJM, the nation’s largest grid operator with a service area that includes 65 million people. “PJM and its stakeholders acknowledged those issues over three years ago and reformed our interconnection process.” PJM got a D- on the scorecard.

Mary Cate Colapietro, a spokesperson for ISO New England, which got a D+ from AEU, also questioned the merits of the exercise.

“It is not clear what the value of such a report is given that ISO New England and other regional system operators are in the process of developing significant changes to the interconnection process,” she said.

Both PJM and MISO, the grid operator for a large swathe of the central U.S., pointed out in their responses that thousands of megawatts’ worth of new energy projects have made it through their queues but haven’t been built because of financing, siting and supply chain problems.

“This is the challenge we need to confront as an industry rather than looking back on problems that have been largely addressed,” Shields said.

Brandon Morris, a MISO spokesperson, said more than 50 GW of new generation facilities have? been approved by MISO, “but many are not going into service on schedule due to supply chain issues and permitting delays that are beyond MISO’s control.”

Nonetheless, AEU says the report is an important baseline that will help gauge how well the grid operators implement the fixes federal regulators have mandated.

“This report reflects the challenges that project developers and engineers are dealing with not just a few years ago, but right now,” Marquis told States Newsroom. “While reforms are being planned, and in some cases implemented, they don’t address all the concerns outlined in the report, and they aren’t yet fully in effect. One thing the report demonstrates is that even when procedures work on paper, they don’t always work so well in practice.”

Rob Gramlich, an electric grid expert and president of Grid Strategies, a consulting firm that helped prepare the scorecard, pointed out that the 12 interviews conducted with generation developers and engineering firms are all people who are going through the interconnection process now. The grades were determined by considering six factors, two of which were customer perspectives on timeline and costs. The others are speed and certainty, number of interconnection agreements signed, average costs and cost certainty.

“We would expect all of them to improve somewhat if we did it in a year or two,” Gramlich said. “We were just looking at a snapshot today.”

MISO

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator manages a portion of the North American electric grid stretching from Manitoba, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. In that territory are all or parts of 15 states and 45 million people.

MISO’s interconnection study process is “unreliable and slow,” the report says.

“MISO’s timeliness challenges have become particularly evident recently, as queue sizes have increased,” the scorecard says. “ While MISO used to share details with interconnection customers on the reasons for delays, over the past two years these updates have become less dependable.”

Brandon Morris, a spokesperson for MISO, said the organization’s approach to bringing new power resources into the system “continues to be one of the most efficient in the electric industry” and that its process was highlighted by FERC as a “positive example” for other organizations.

“We have implemented reforms over the past few years to ensure our interconnection process is not an impediment to having the necessary generator resources available when needed,” Morris said.

However, developers working with MISO aren’t so sure things will get much better, the scorecard says.

“Although MISO’s recent study enhancements to limit system impact study duration are intended to reduce queue processing to 373 days, interconnection customers still anticipate that most projects will take three or more years to complete, especially in MISO-West,” according to the report.

PJM

The nation’s largest grid operator, PJM’s service area includes 65 million people in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. It has long been the poster-child for interconnection queue reform, according to critics, and it got the worst grade from AEU, a D-.

“The most frustrated interconnection customers note that PJM’s interconnection study process for new projects has come to a full stop, with the hope that projects from 2019 may complete the process six years later in 2025,” the report says. “One interconnection customer has ceased developing projects in PJM, and other interconnection customers are uncertain whether their projects are getting studied or not.”

It added that some customers report that the organization has “no regard for reasonableness and decorum when it comes to communicating deadlines.”

Shields, the PJM spokesperson, said the grid operator implemented new rules last year that are speeding up processing, specifically moving from a first-come, first-served process to a “first-ready, first-served” approach. By mid-2025, PJM expects to process about 72,000 MW in projects and 230,000 MW over the next three years, Shields said. Nearly all of those are? renewable or storage.

“That is real progress,” he said. “PJM realizes that further reforms will likely be needed to meet the needs of the energy transition, and we will consider additional potential interconnection policy reforms with PJM members.”

Kentucky Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Senate narrowly advanced a controversial change for Kentucky’s wildlife management agency Friday while also voting to administratively attach the racing commission to the state agriculture department as well.?

Sportsmen’s and wildlife conservation groups have strongly opposed the proposal, and lawmakers echoed their concerns during Friday’s debate.?

Senate Bill 3, primarily sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, was approved 20-16, with nine Republicans joining the minority of Democrats in opposition. The bill is now under the Kentucky House of Representatives’ consideration.

SB 3 would move the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) from the tourism cabinet, a part of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration, and attach it to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture overseen by Republican Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, a former House leader elected to the statewide position last November.?

The bill would also end Beshear’s power to appoint members to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, the governing board for the KDFWR, and give the power to Shell.?

In addition, Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, successfully sponsored a floor amendment that would also move the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from the Public Protection Cabinet and attach it to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Thayer’s amendment also adds a requirement for Senate confirmation of gubernatorial appointments to the commission that regulates racing in Kentucky.

On the Senate floor, Howell, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, reiterated his reasoning for the bill, acknowledging opposition from hunters and anglers that agriculture interests are antithetical to wildlife management’s mission and interests. Sportsmen testified in committee that Kentucky Farm Bureau, a powerful lobbying presence in the state, advocates for reducing wildlife as a policy.

“While there is some grounds for natural friction between the two, I see a natural alignment coming between the two agencies,” Howell said. “Shell has been out in front pushing rural economic development as part of his platform.”?

Howell again referenced past conflicts between the KDFWR and Beshear’s administration as a driving reason to remove KDFWR from the state executive branch.

“Stability is our main goal,” Howell said, mentioning that lawmakers were tired of the “trauma” with past governors “attacking Fish and Wildlife operational independence.”?

Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, a long-time advocate for the KDFWR who strongly opposes the bill, withdrew her floor amendments, saying offering them would most likely be an “exercise in futility.” She said she hopes the amendments would give the House of Representatives ideas for improving the bill.

One of her floor amendments would have struck the language of SB 3 and instead created a working group on how the KDFWR could “maintain autonomy” in its operations “while retaining the oversight and accountability required of a public agency charged with the expenditure of public funds.”?

Webb lambasted the bill while waving an orange National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses hat, arguing agriculture interests don’t always follow the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, a standard-bearing system of policies and laws designed to safeguard wildlife through “sound science and active management.”?

“We talk about making money? That is a secondary benefit of management. Fish and Wildlife is not about making money or economic development. It’s about preservation and opportunity for cultural heritage,” Webb said.?

Webb also said no other state wildlife management agency is coupled to their state agriculture agency, something that would make Kentucky a “laughing stock” if implemented.?

John Culclasure, a director with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, told the Lantern he wasn’t aware of any state agriculture agency attached to a state wildlife management agency, nor was he aware of any state that allows a state agriculture official to have power over the entire membership of a wildlife management agency board.?

Other Republicans who voted for the bill didn’t see a problem with coupling the two agencies. Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, said? her family has land used for both farming and hunting creating “a great marriage” between the two land uses.?

Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, in voting against the bill pushed back on the idea that the executive branch was solely causing issues with the KDFWR, mentioning that her constituents have asked her in recent years to support the Senate confirmation of appointments to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, the governing board for the KDFWR.?

The nine-member commission represents hunters and anglers across Kentucky, and sportspeople nominate commissioners through a direct vote at a scheduled meeting. A list of the top five vote-getters from that meeting are then sent to the governor, who can then appoint a member to the commission or reject the list, restarting the nomination process. But any appointments made by the governor must be confirmed by the Kentucky Senate.?

In committee testimony against SB 3, Edwin Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, said sportsmen had nominated “very good people” for the commission, only for the Senate confirmation process to be “weaponized” against sportsmen.?

According to a Lantern analysis of appointments made to the commission over the course of Beshear’s tenure, the Senate has failed to confirm a majority of his appointments. One of Beshear’s past commission appointments was voted down on the Senate floor.?

Southworth said that during her earlier work in the state executive branch she worked to solve “disconnected issues” between agencies. She said in this case, the “disconnect” with the Fish and Wildlife Commission was being created by the Senate itself.?

“My recollection is constituents asking me the last multiple years to please support this or that confirmation, and it’s this body — and I’d like to lay it right on our feet — this body is the one that’s created the disconnect,” Southworth said.

One of the floor amendments that Webb withdrew would have required the governor to pick a new appointment for a Fish and Wildlife Commission seat if the Senate didn’t act to confirm the appointment by Feb. 15 during a legislative session.?

Five appointments by Beshear are still awaiting confirmation by the Senate this session; three of his nominees would fill current vacancies on the Fish and Wildlife Commission.?

When SB 3 passed the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this week, Howell had said the KDFWR Commissioner Rich Storm — who runs the daily operations of the department and is hired by the Fish and Wildlife Commission — had supported the bill.?

In a Lantern interview at the state Capitol complex on Thursday, Storm told the Lantern the department didn’t have a position on the bill but believed the KDFWR could still operate independently while attached to the Department of Agriculture. Storm said the KDFWR had been attached to a number of agencies over the course of its history.

“As long as we have that independency, if it’s the General Assembly’s desire we’ll comply with whatever that may be,” Storm said.?

Under SB 3, the KDFWR would be attached to the Department of Agriculture only for “limited functions and purposes expressly requested” by KDFWR to be performed by the Department of Agriculture.?

Storm, who also serves as a director for the Nicholas County Farm Bureau, said there have always “been people with ag interest” serving on the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

“We’ve had the requirement that they have the fishing and hunting license experience,” Storm said, referencing state requirements to serve on the commission. “I think that’s a protective mechanism.”

In an interview with the Lantern, Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, agreed that past members of the Fish and Wildlife Commission have had interests in farming.

But the concern among sportsmen, he said, is that an agriculture commissioner could choose nominees more heavily invested in agriculture, thereby conflicting with the interests and mission of wildlife conservation and management.?

“That’s the fear of giving all these appointments to the ag commissioner is that they will put full agricultural guys on there,” Nighbert said.

Edwin Nighbert (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT —Wildlife conservation and sportsmen groups on Tuesday voiced strong opposition to a bill that would put wildlife management under the purview of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and its Republican commissioner.?

Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, would move the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) from the tourism cabinet, overseen by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, and attach it to the agriculture department overseen by Republican Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, a former House leader who was elected to the statewide post last November.?

The bill also would transfer authority for appointing Fish and Wildlife Commission members from the governor to the agriculture commissioner.

Howell told the Senate Agriculture Committee, which he chairs, that the bill is needed because of years-long conflicts between Beshear’s administration and the KDFWR. He said Beshear had tried to sweep funding from KDFWR — which is primarily funded through revenue generated by fishing and hunting license fees and doesn’t receive General Fund monies? — in 2020, something a Beshear spokesperson had denied at the time.?

The committee passed the bill on a near party line vote with one Republican joining Democrats in opposition.?

“There’s been a problem back and forth with Fish and Wildlife and various governors for a long time,” Howell said. “There’s going to be inherent conflicts with any governor that we have for things that they want to do, or not do, and what Fish and Wildlife’s true mission is.”

Howell said he saw a lot of “synergies” from coupling wildlife management with agriculture, focusing on rural economic development. He said he had spoken to Shell and KDFWR Commissioner Rich Storm, who oversees the daily operations of the department, and that both were in favor of the bill.?

But a number of Kentucky organizations representing hunters, fishers and wildlife conservationists thought much differently. Several representatives of those groups were present in the committee room wearing orange hunter vests.

Larry Richards, the legislative affairs committee chairman for the Kentuckiana Chapter of Safari Club International, said the “political outcome” of this bill would be the “immediate overhaul of this commission favoring agriculture interests.”?

“The department of ag is diametrically anathema to the Fish and Wildlife department, to the biologists and the staff that work at that department, so much so as to be antithetical to the proven, science-based methodologies that have been used by the department for years,” Richards said. “This mix is oil and water, folks.”?

Richards pointed out that the Kentucky Farm Bureau, a powerful lobbying presence in the state, continues to advocate for reduced wildlife populations to lessen impacts on crops and livestock.?

Richards also criticized Howell over what he described as lack of transparency surrounding SB 3, saying sportsmen’s groups were not contacted at all before the bill was filed. He noted that SB 3 was filed on the very last day for filing bills in the Kentucky Senate — leaving? stakeholders less time to respond than if the bill had been filed earlier in the session which began in January.?

No representatives from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture or the KDFWR spoke at the committee meeting. A call to a Kentucky Department of Agriculture spokesperson was not returned.?

Lisa Jackson, a KDFWR spokesperson, in a statement said Storm wanted a change in SB 3 to maintain “the agency’s operational independence.”

“Commissioner Storm appreciates any opportunities to engage in conversations with bill sponsors and works to maintain positive relationships with all members of the Legislative and Executive branches,” Jackson said in her statement.?

KDFWR is administratively attached to the state executive branch through the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. But the department does manage much of its duties independently, including issuing and enforcing a number of hunting and fishing regulations; managing wildlife through maintaining a mussel nursery and controlling a number of wildlife management areas; and maintaining a mussel nursery; and overseeing hunting seasons for deer, elk, turkey, bears and other wildlife.?

SB 3 would also strip the power of the governor to appoint commissioners to the nine-member Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, a volunteer board of hunters and anglers who oversee the department and tens of millions of dollars of revenue received from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.?

“This is going to set our agency back 40 years, at a minimum, and we’re going to be the laughingstock of the nation. It means a lot to me, this agency does, and it’s bigger than any commissioner, it’s bigger than any political party.” – Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson

The commission is made up of representatives of nine districts representing hunters and anglers around the state, and these sportspeople nominate a commissioner through a vote at a meeting in their district. A list of the top five vote-getters from that meeting are then sent to the governor, who can then appoint a member to the commission or reject the list, restarting the nomination process. Any appointments made by the governor must be confirmed by the Kentucky Senate.

SB 3 would instead give Republican Agriculture Commissioner Shell the power to choose from the nomination lists, including nominating candidates for five Fish and Wildlife Commission appointments made by Beshear that are currently awaiting Kentucky Senate confirmation. Three of those pending appointments are to fill current vacancies on the Fish and Wildlife Commission.?

Edwin Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen representing thousands of hunters across the state, said the voices of sportsmen in the Fish and Wildlife Commission appointment and confirmation process had been “slowly eroded.”?

“We have sent up names to the governor. The governor sends the Senate five nominees,” Nighbert said, referring to the five Fish and Wildlife Commission appointments made by the governor awaiting Senate confirmation this legislative session. “We expect those nominees to be confirmed as long as they are vetted, and the governor has vetted them.”?

“You’re interrupting the process in my opinion right now, and quite frankly, have been. We have sent up very, very good people in the past for that commission, and the Senate has weaponized their confirmation process against the sportsmen,” Nighbert said.?

The Kentucky Senate, which the GOP took control of in 2000, has had the power to confirm the governor’s appointments to the commission since the legislature passed a 2010 law, which also implemented term limits for members of the Fish and Wildlife Commission.?

The majority of Beshear’s appointments to the commission haven’t been confirmed, according to an analysis of past appointments and confirmations by the Lantern. One of the appointments was voted down on the Senate floor.?

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, responded to the criticism from sportsmen by saying the Kentucky Senate was not a “rubber stamp” for the governor’s nominees to the commission.?

“We have the right to not confirm or to confirm. We have not confirmed in the past, and trust me when I tell you that possibility is out there again this session,” Thayer said. “Please, don’t ever come up here and just say that we should confirm all five appointees.”

Thayer said the five appointees this session awaiting confirmation would be vetted by the Senate staff before a decision is made on whether to confirm them.?

Sen. Jared Carpenter, R-Berea, also took issue with sportsmens’ assertions that agriculture interests can’t coincide with wildlife management interests.?

“I don’t think that there’s any way that you can say that farmers are wanting to decimate a population of wildlife,” Carpenter said. “You shake your head all you want, but I just don’t feel like that’s the truth.”?

James Hatchett, a spokesperson for Gov. Andy Beshear, in a statement said the Senate was “thwarting the legal process and disrespecting the sportsmen and women” and their elections by not confirming the appointments sent by the governor.?

“These actions have resulted in nearly all the major organizations representing sportsmen and women opposing the current bill and opposing the current leadership of Fish and Wildlife,” Hatchett said.?

Hatchett didn’t address Howell’s reference to a past budget sweep, saying the governor “has no interest in and would not move any fish and wildlife funds.”

Before the bill passed out of committee, Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, gave emotional testimony against the bill, referencing her father’s long-time role serving on the Fish and Wildlife Commission.?

“I’ve lost sleep over this,” Webb said, saying she was moved “to tears because of the priority of the bill number.”

Webb said the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, a system of policies and laws designed to safeguard wildlife through “sound science and active management,” embraces priorities that are distinctly different from those of agricultural interests. She said she was involved in an effort to kill a similar bill in the past.?

“This is going to set our agency back 40 years, at a minimum, and we’re going to be the laughingstock of the nation,” Webb said. “It means a lot to me, this agency does, and it’s bigger than any commissioner, it’s bigger than any political party.”

Webb said she would try to be the “voice of those species” that the state manages for the benefit of wildlife, hunters and anglers.?

Would ratepayers get handed the bill for expanding electricity generation and transmission to accommodate energy-hungry data centers? (Getty Images)

Republicans in the GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate advanced a bill Tuesday largely on a party line vote to create new hurdles before utilities can retire fossil fuel-fired power plants in the state, touting the legislation as a way to keep the state’s electricity supply reliable and available.?

Senate Bill 349, backed by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and primarily sponsored by Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, would create a new review commission that utilities would have to provide notice to before filing requests to the state’s utility regulator to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant.?

“Senate Bill 349 simply requires due diligence and a thorough review to ensure existing capacity is not retired too quickly and that any new or replacement generation is ready to meet Kentucky’s energy needs,” Mills said on the Senate floor.?

Investor-owned utilities, such as Duke Energy and Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) and environmental groups have previously decried the bill as creating unnecessary bureaucracy to impede retirement requests and keep aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the grid. Ratepayers, critics warn, could be burdened with the costs of unnecessarily extending the life of coal-fired power plants. Critics have also honed in on what they see is the problematic makeup of the commission, which would include industry representatives from a number of energy sources but favor the? fossil fuels —? coal and natural gas.?

Lane Boldman, the executive director of the environmental advocacy group Kentucky Conservation Committee, said she doesn’t understand the need to create an “additional layer” of regulation when the Public Service Commission could have its resources boosted to handle broader responsibilities.?

“It just doesn’t make sense to hang on to infrastructure that’s even near its lifecycle,” Boldman said. “I know there were comments made that these plants aren’t done yet, but they’re clearly past their prime.”

SB 349 passed the Kentucky Senate on a party line vote of 28-9, with a handful of Republicans from Northern Kentucky and the Louisville area joining nearly all Democrats in voting against the bill. The bill heads to the House for its consideration.?

This proposed 18-member commission, dubbed the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) under SB 349, would be charged with creating a report for each retirement request analyzing the impacts of and alternatives to the request, including how it would impact electricity supply and whether the retirement would create a “loss of revenue” for local and state government.?