green energy

Kansas City Manager Brian Platt has an ambitious goal to make the city a nationwide leader in sustainability, including an effort to build the largest municipally-owned solar farm in the country. "We've got too much to lose at this point with health and quality of life issues that we're seeing around here," Platt said.

The utility, which serves 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri, is drawing criticism from environmental groups for keeping open its oldest coal plant. Evergy also said that Kansas City's clean energy goals are “incredibly aggressive” and too expensive.

In February 2021, Texas and wide swaths of North America were shut down by Winter Storm Uri, which caused massive blackouts and left millions of people without power for days. The winter storms exposed vulnerabilities in our country’s electrical grid, and underlined the pressing need for a more reliable energy system. Is a recent breakthrough in nuclear fusion a possible path forward?

In February 2021, Texas and wide swaths of North America were shut down by Winter Storm Uri, which caused massive blackouts and left millions of people without power for days. The winter storms exposed vulnerabilities in our country’s electrical grid, and underlined the pressing need for a more reliable energy system. Is a recent breakthrough in nuclear fusion a possible path forward?

When an old chiller stopped working in 2016, the Parkway School district Decided to install a geothermal system that uses the Earth’s temperature to heat and cool the school. It also recently added solar panels to the building. Altogether, the district says Parkway South is saving more than $100,000 a year in energy costs.

Kansas City has seen a decline in recycling over the last few years, in part, due to confusion and frustration about how the process works. So just how much of what you sort out is actually recycled, and how much is just shipped off to a landfill?

Kansas City's lone furniture bank offers formerly homeless residents a free shopping spree to help make their new house into a home. Plus: Kansas is one of the biggest wind energy producers in the country, but the lights from thousands of turbines annoy some rural residents.

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.

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.

A proposed solar farm in eastern Kansas could be the largest in the state, but not everyone is excited about 2,000 acres of panels being built in their backyard. Plus: How some Midwestern states are getting creative in their attempts to attract tourists.

Johnson and Douglas counties approved regulations allowing the construction of what would be the largest utility-scale solar farm in Kansas. But while residents say they support green energy, there's a vocal contingent pushing back against building 2,000 acres of panels so close to their communities.

The Missouri General Assembly passed a law last year prohibiting cities and municipalities from adopting any policies that remove access to a utility service based on the type of energy it provides.