| Candidates Forum set for Oct. 14 |
| With about a month to go before the November general election, voters will have several opportunities to become acquainted with local candidates seeking office. The Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter will sponsor a candidates’ forum at 7 p.m. Oct. 14 in the community room of the Ellsworth Golf Course. Candidates and races will include the 35th Senate District, where Republican Jay Emler of Lindsborg is facing Cynthia Nelson of Lincoln. (Read the news story...) |
| Debris removal ahead of schedule; SBA assistance on way |
| Taking out the trash has reached new meaning in Chapman as debris clean-up continues after the June 11 tornado. County administrator Brad Homman said Monday that clearing debris from the storm is going faster than he expected. |
| Chapman schools pick up $15,000 in contributions |
| Fund-raising has begun in earnest for helping to re-establish Chapman’s public schools. Several entities made contributions on Monday afternoon at Astra Bank in downtown Chapman. The tornado on June 11 destroyed the schools in the community. The three contributions totaled $15,000. “Chapman has overcome other natural disasters during its long history and will do so again,” said state Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg. “The city is blessed with great citizenry, outstanding schools and is served by merchants and businesses, such as AT&T, that are determined to make it happen. Chapman is demonstrating a spirit of team work and, most of all, its residents have demonstrated that they want to help themselves.” |
| State has $58 billion roadmap |
| Improving existing roads and bridges, decreasing congestion and fostering economic growth are among the state's top priorities in a long-range transportation plan that has a $58 billion price tag over two decades. Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, who worked on the department's plan, expects the package lawmakers eventually approve to be smaller than the two previous comprehensive transportation plans because of declining revenue. |
| Secondary coal bill seeks to change minds |
| Supporters of a coal-fueled power plant have crafted a measure aimed at encouraging some House members opposed to the plant to switch their votes. The new bill pushed out of a negotiating committee this morning would allow Kansas to keep an additional 200 megawatts of energy. “It looks to me like (this bill) could be for Wyandotte,” said Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg. |
| Another coal bill passes Senate committee |
| The Senate Utilities Committee today passed out a bill allowing expansion of a coal-fired power plant in western Kansas. “It just gives us one more option,” said Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg. The proposal is essentially the same as one passed out last month by the House Energy and Utilities Committee. |
| Donations don't equal votes for Sunflower |
| Evidence that a campaign donation isn't the equivalent of an assured vote surfaced during the coal energy debate this year in Topeka.
About one out of five members of the Kansas House of Representatives who voted in early March against legislation backed by Sunflower Electric Power Corp. had received a prior campaign contribution from the utility. Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, and Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, preside over their chambers' respective utilities committees. Neither received a donation from Sunflower in 2007... |
| Next up: the Senate |
| The Kansas House passed a conference committee's bill Wednesday to allow construction of new coal-fired power plants. But the chamber's nearly party-line vote of 75-47 wasn't the two-thirds majority that GOP leadership will need to override a certain veto by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius later this session. Senate Utilities Chairman Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, after agreeing to sign the conference committee's final bill, said "I'm sure it'll be vetoed, but at least we're at the next step." |
| House to vote on final coal bill |
| The Kansas House plans to vote later today on a conference committee's bill to prevent a state regulator from nixing new coal-fired power plants that emit greenhouse gases. "Hallelujah," said the Senate's lead negotiator, Senate Utilities Chairman Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, after agreeing to the conference committee's final bill. |
| Kansas attorney general stands by office's C02 opinion |
| New Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six stands by a controversial advisory opinion issued by his predecessor on regulation of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. Senate Utilities Chairman Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, said he wasn't surprised at Six's position because the opinion was written by an assistant attorney who worked under Morrison and now works under Six... |
| Lawmakers worry about existing coal-fired plants |
| Legislators who support two proposed coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas argue that a regulator’s decision to block their construction also endangers existing plants that supply most of the state’s electricity. They’re using that argument to justify seeking limits on the secretary of health and environment’s power to impose new pollution standards. “The people who have the permits that are going to be considered want to know what the rules are going into it,” Senate Utilities Committee Chairman Jay Emler, a Lindsborg Republican, said. |
| Energy bill agreement on horizon |
| The highly anticipated meeting Monday of a House-Senate conference committee appointed to draft a compromise energy bill had all the intensity of an unlit pilot light. Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, said he expected the three representatives and three senators on the panel to eventually generate a bill that satisfies advocates of the $3.5 billion Holcomb coal plant expansion and creates a delicate political balance necessary for the Legislature to override likely veto of the bill by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, said the bottom line was a bill that restored Sunflower Electric Power Corp.'s opportunity to obtain state approval of its project in southwest Kansas. |
| It's all about the Power |
| State Sen. Jay Emler and Rep. Josh Svaty spent the better part of an hour talking about a decision this past fall by Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby to deny an air quality permit for two new coal-fired units in southwest Kansas. Both local lawmakers were passionate in their views on the issue, a reflection of the mood that has dominated this session of the Kansas Legislature. “For me, the real issue is the rule of law,” said Emler, a Lindsborg Republican who serves as chairman of the Senate Utilities Committee. |
| Complaint on coal-plant meetings dismissed |
| Attorney General Stephen Six’s office has ruled it was legal for lawmakers to meet privately — with input from an electric company — to write legislation allowing that company to build two coal-burning plants. State Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, and state Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, said they worked on the bills in private meetings with state Sen. Janis Lee, D-Kensington, and state Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka. |
| Coal plant bills head to conference committee |
| A six-member House-Senate conference committee could start work Friday on a final bill to facilitate a permit for Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build twin coal-fired electricity plants. Senate leaders appointed Sens. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, Pat Apple, R-Louisburg, and Janis Lee, D-Kensington, to the negotiating team. |