electric vehicles

The changing political landscape around clean energy makes for an uncertain future for Kansas students training for jobs at the multi-billion-dollar Panasonic Energy plant in De Soto, Kansas.

Sister Berta Sailer, one of Kansas City's greatest advocates for disadvantaged chidlren, died last week at 87. In the 1960s, she opened an at-home day care that eventually grew to become Operation Breakthrough. Plus: A rural Missouri school district is one of the first in the U.S. to receive electric buses from a new EPA program.

The Environmental Protection Agency is beginning to send nearly 5,000 electric buses to school districts around the country after a nearly two-year ramp-up. A few Midwestern districts weigh in on how the new buses are working so far.

Sustainability leaders are trying to make Kansas City the greenest place in the country. With an overall goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the KC Regional Climate Action Plan covers 80% of the region's population.

A climate action plan for the Kansas City region set a goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This Saturday, local leaders and community members will gather for a climate summit to celebrate what's already been achieved and identify goals for the future.

HiON, a local startup, is taking over Evergy's old fast-charging stations for electric vehicles in the Kansas City area after the power company shut them off more than a year ago.

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.

The CleanAirNow Coalition was one of many environmental groups that, along with 16 U.S. states, sued the U.S. Postal Service over their plan to purchase heavily-polluting gasoline trucks. Now the USPS will electrify its fleet of mail delivery vehicles.

Environmentalists are praising the news of an electric vehicles battery plant coming to Kansas, but this "green industry" comes with its own issues. Plus: An experimental farm in southern Missouri is trying to prove that grazing animals in forests is better for everyone, including the cows.

A federal climate bill aims to press carmakers to assemble cars in North America and to source or recycle certain components here. Panasonic Energy plans to build a $4 billion electric vehicle power plant on the edge of the Kansas City area.

The company said its Claycomo plant northeast of Kansas City will add a third shift producing its popular Transit and E-Transit delivery vans.

Missouri ranks seventh in the nation for electric vehicle use. But around Kansas City, public chargers are most often found west of Troost Avenue, which for decades has represented the city's economic and racial dividing line.