Brian Grimmett
Reporter, Kansas News ServiceI seek to find and tell interesting stories about how our environment shapes and impacts us. Climate change is a growing threat to all Kansans, both urban and rural, and I want to inform people about what they can expect, how it will change their daily lives and the ways in which people, corporations and governments are working to adapt. I also seek to hold utility companies accountable for their policy and ratemaking decisions. Email me at grimmett@kmuw.org.
I am a two-time Regional Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist covering energy and environment stories across the state of Kansas. I love to dive deep into complicated issues with the hope of making them easier to understand for general audiences, as with the award-winning hard news feature Westar Wants Kansans To Pay For Peak Power. What Could It Mean For Your Energy Bill?
Before coming to KMUW and the Kansas News Service, I worked at KUER 90.1-FM in Salt Lake City covering the Utah Legislature.
I earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from Brigham Young University.
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More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is changing how wild grasses grow in Kansas, and lowering their nutritional value to insects. That could upset the balance of life on the prairie.
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Lawmakers basically let utilities refinance the cost of their old power plants. And if they get the debt from those coal-fired facilities off the books, they can shut them down and switch faster to renewable energy sources.
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Proposed statewide rules come from groups that say neighbors need more power to push back on wind energy development, but the industry has grown steadily in recent years.
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Kansas has no state-sponsored energy plan, which leaves decisions on transforming from fossil fuels to renewable sources up to private businesses.
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The sub-zero cold snap that gripped the Midwest in early February led to a jaw-dropping rise in natural gas prices, the cost of which consumers will feel.
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Utilities struggled to keep pace with power demand set off by sub-freezing temperatures that gripped the Midwest.
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The western Kansas cities of Hays and Russell bought up a ranch so they could pump away water that belongs to the property. Farmers who live near that ranch see the practice as a threat to their irrigation.
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Kansas scores well for the number of charging stations it has in the eastern part of the state, but not so much when it comes to tax incentives and planning for a move away from the internal combustion engine.
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The earthquakes that have shaken south-central Kansas in recent years look to be natural, but a deeper dive is underway to see if they're related to oil and gas drilling in the region.
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Kansas trails the nation in reported per capita vaccinations for the novel coronavirus and its rollout of the shots has some local public health officials frustrated.