Energy

Scientists in the Midwest and Great Plains were poised to start research to cut U.S. reliance on fertilizer imports, keep biofuel farming cost-competitive and tackle a potent greenhouse gas.

The Labadie Energy Center and the Sioux Energy Center in Missouri will have two extra years to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.

About $378 million of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding remains to be distributed. Without federal staff, some experts and advocates worry that low-income customers won’t be able to pay for cooling as the months get hotter.

The new Missouri law allows utilities to charge customers for power plants as they are being built, rather than after they are complete. Consumer and environmental groups say it will make utilities significantly more expensive and worsen climate change.

The bill is made up of dozens of policy changes governing how utilities operate in Missouri. Utility companies say they need more power plants to meet expected demand, but critics say the bill will significantly increase costs for customers.

The bill has dozens of policy changes that affect how utility companies are allowed to operate and charge customers in Missouri.

Lee's Summit Republican Sen. Mike Cierpiot's bill would repeal a 1976 ban on charging customers for new power plants as they are built to meets future energy needs. Critics say it’s a cash grab by utilities who will undoubtedly raise rates.

The $7 billion clean-energy project would stretch from Kansas to Indiana, and is designed to bring wind and solar energy to communities across the region. It's scheduled to begin construction this year and be completed in 2028.

Both Evergy and Ameren Missouri asked a Missouri House committee to support legislation that would allow them to charge customers for natural, or methane, gas power plants even before they’re completed, saying the state needs more electrical power.

Kansas leaders from both sides of the aisle stepped inside the $4 billion plant in De Soto to celebrate its imminent opening.

City Manager Brian Platt first announced plans for a solar array at Kansas City International Airport, potentially the largest of its kind in the world, more than two years ago. But little has seemingly happened to move the progress forward.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates Rush Island released 275,000 tons of sulfur dioxide after it was updated without required pollution controls in 2007 and 2010.