Allison Kite

A Missouri House committee heard testimony on legislation that would require cities and counties to pay for electric vehicle chargers in order to mandate businesses install them. The proposal is backed by fossil fuel interests and groups like the Missouri Retailers Association.

NexGen has proposed mining silica sand in Ste. Genevieve County on about 250 acres near Hawn State Park. But Missouri didn’t conduct any sort of review of the potential environmental or public health impacts of the mine before issuing a land reclamation permit last year.

A group of volunteers hope to bring native wildlife back into abundance by reestablishing grasslands that were wiped out after the European settlement of Missouri. Now in its third year, they've created a seed bank that provides free seeds to landowners who want to establish a prairie.

Drone footage immediately following the spill showed the 588,000 gallons of oil turned Mill Creek black. Keystone pipeline owner TC Energy says the fly-zone is necessary for the "safety and security" of cleanup crews.

The Keystone pipeline failed again last week, dumping 14,000 barrels — or 588,000 gallons — of oil in northern Kansas. In the decade since it began operations, the crude oil pipeline’s Canadian owner, TC Energy, has paid just over $300,000 fines for the damages it's caused.

Spire's rate increase would come to about 12.7% for western Missouri customers, or about $11 a month. But state regulators and consumer advocates are skeptical the energy company needs to increase rates by so much.

The project is meant to prove that large transfers of water could be a tool to help save the disappearing Ogallala Aquifer, which provides irrigation and drinking water to western Kansas. But other groundwater management officials say it’s a distraction from the far more urgent task of conservation.

Kansas and Missouri — along with most of the U.S. — are plagued with a stubborn drought that the state’s two governors have declared to be an emergency. Most of southern Kansas is in extreme or exceptional drought.

Grain Belt Express’ developer announced its transmission line will now deliver 2,500 megawatts of clean energy to Missouri, up from 500. But that increase requires an extra 40-mile connector line, which Grain Belt asked state regulators to approve as an amendment to its original plan, instead of a new line that would be governed by higher land price for farmers.

The Democratic lawmaker visited the Olathe home of Jerry Land, whose lead service line was recently replaced by the city.