Latest news with #KentuckyEnergyandEnvironmentCabinet
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KY Senate president praises Trump's pro-coal moves, questions fossil fuels' role in climate change
Republican Senate President Robert Stivers speaks to reporters about President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at averting the retirements of coal-fired power plants. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) FRANKFORT — Saying that fossil fuels' role in causing climate change is 'subject to debate,' Republican Senate President Robert Stivers touted President Donald Trump's recent executive orders aimed at boosting the coal industry as a 'step in the right direction' toward making the United States and Kentucky competitive in coal production again. Stivers, who was among Kentuckians present when Trump signed the executive orders last week, told reporters Tuesday morning Trump is offering a 'two-pronged approach' by first incentivizing coal mining and distribution and then expediting the process to get coal mining permits. Stivers said the policies put 'Kentucky in a good position' to be 'a low-cost energy producer.' Heavy reliance on coal has eroded a KY economic advantage. Can Trump reverse the trend? Stivers said producing more coal is also a national security issue, so the U.S. can control more of its own resources instead of relying on importing energy materials. The U.S. already has significantly decreased its dependence on energy from other countries. The U.S. has been a net exporter of energy since 2019, reports the U.S. Energy Information Agency, and a net coal exporter since at least 1949. In 2023, annual U.S. coal exports increased by about 15% and equaled about 8% of total energy exports, reports the agency. The U.S. is most dependent on other countries for crude oil which accounted for the largest share of U.S. energy imports in 2023. When Stivers was elected to the legislature in 1997, the state generated nearly $300 million annually in coal severance tax, he said. In the last few years, it's been close to $100 million, which is a 'a reflection of production,' which has declined steeply, Stivers added. The Trump administration policies are likely to be an economic booster in Kentucky, Stivers predicted. Coal production in Stivers' home of Clay County in Eastern Kentucky peaked at 2.5 million tons annually in 1980, according to the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Clay County now produces no coal. In recent years, Western Kentucky — led by an Alliance Resource Partners mine in Union County — has surpassed Eastern Kentucky in coal production. Alliance Partners CEO Joe Craft, a Republican megadonor, also was at the White House with Stivers last week to watch Trump vow to revive 'beautiful, clean coal,' a promise he also made in his first term. 'It won't just be miners going back to work,' Stivers said. 'It'll be all the peripheral jobs that will come back, that you'll see that used to be there … supply stores, lumber companies, little grocery stores, mom and pop operations. That's the hope.' Kentucky generated about 68% of its electricity from coal in 2023, the third-highest of all states. Over the last 25 years, Kentucky has fallen from producing the country's cheapest power to the 12th cheapest as natural gas, solar and wind have often become cheaper than maintaining aging coal-fired power plants. The last large coal-fired power plant built in the country was in 2013. During the press conference, Stivers pushed back on fossil fuels like coal contributing to climate change. He said 'the assumption that fossil fuels are a contributor to climate change is subject to debate.' Stivers' assertion contradicts scientific studies that consistently identify the heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — as by far the leading cause of climate change. 'If it is a factor in climate change, do you want us with some of the strongest regulatory processes doing more fossil fuels than shipping it and allowing our products to be produced in Russia, China and India that have limited or no environmental concerns and produce way more than what anybody in the United States does in the realm of fossil fuels contaminants?' Stivers said. 'I would rather do it here. We're more cognizant of potential impacts, or at least aware there is an argument of that.' China in 2023 released more heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions than any other country, followed by the U.S, India, the European Union and Russia, according to an independent tally. Historically, the U.S. is the world's No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases emissions, which accumulate in the atmosphere, because of the country's earlier and rapid industrialization dating back to the 1800s. During the Tuesday press conference, Stivers also was asked about the response to Kentucky's recent devastating floods, which have renewed conversations about the state's disaster funds. Before the legislature finished the 2025 legislative session, it passed a law to create a new state aid fund for communities affected by February floods. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said it would not be 'enough' to cover damage from those storms. Beshear also has warned that a spending cap imposed by the legislature will limit state resources available for flood recovery. When asked about Beshear's concern that the state could run out of funding if it faces another natural disaster this year, Stivers said he finds Beshear's 'lack of knowledge problematic' and that calling the legislature into a special legislative for one day would cost less than the governor traveling to Davos, Switzerland, for an economic forum, or paying the salary of Beshear's Senior Adviser Rocky Adkins, a former House speaker. 'He is creating a crisis without the crisis existing,' Stivers said. 'One day is all it takes.' In 2021, the Legislative Research Commission said a special session costs about $65,000 a day.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Significant rollback of Kentucky's regulation of water pollution becomes law
Opponents of Senate Bill 89 gather by the Kentucky River to voice their concerns, March 4, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer) A controversial bill that would significantly roll back Kentucky's ability to regulate water pollution will become law after the GOP-controlled legislature on Thursday overrode its veto by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Senate Bill 89, sponsored by Sen. Scott Madon, R-Pineville, would considerably narrow the definition of state waters that are regulated by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Madon, with the backing of the Kentucky Coal Association, has touted the bill as a move to relieve industries from housing construction to coal mining of bureaucratic barriers. Environmental groups have lambasted the bill as potentially opening the state's water resources to pollution, threatening the groundwater of hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians who rely on rural public water utilities and private wells. Rebecca Goodman, the secretary of the Energy and Environment Cabinet, had previously said she had 'grave concerns' with the bill. Beshear in his veto message wrote SB 89 by 'failing to protect all water sources' would result in 'pollution, sickness and more dangerous flooding.' Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, on the Senate floor said he believed changes to the bill made as it advanced through the legislature, after hearing concerns about groundwater pollution, helped improve the legislation. 'We protected our (coal) operators from overreach of the agency, and after listening to constituents, after listening to comments on this floor, provisions to protect groundwater were put back in,' West said. Environmental groups and the cabinet have said the changes made to SB 89 don't go nearly far enough to protect groundwater resources across the state. Democrats opposing the bill referenced a letter from Goodman, the cabinet secretary, who wrote Kentucky would be the only state in the country to cede its authority to regulate water to the federal government. Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, who voted against overriding the veto, said the 'compromise' made to change the bill did not 'go far enough.' 'The origination of this measure arose from agency overreach, but the pendulum now has swung far to the other end,' said Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, who voted. 'I have utilities in my district that rely on groundwater sources. I represent sportsmen and women across this country in the state that have reached out.' Kentucky Waterways Alliance executive director Michael Washburn — in a statement also representing leaders from the Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club, the Kentucky Resources Council and the Kentucky Conservation Committee — said the legislature sided 'with polluters over Kentucky's people and the industries that rely on clean, safe water.' 'This decision gives coal companies greater freedom to pollute our headwater streams, at the expense of the tens of thousands of homes, farms and businesses that depend on groundwater from private wells in rural Kentucky,' Washburn said. 'To the polluters who championed this bill: we are watching. We have built a resilient, determined coalition — and we are ready to act.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill weakening Kentucky groundwater and wetland protection passes, poised to become law
Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill expected to weaken the state's ability to protect groundwater, wetlands and some streams, lakes and springs from pollution, despite staunch opposition from Kentucky's environmental agency and scores of advocates. Sen. Scott Madon, R-Pineville, who sponsored Senate Bill 89, said the legislation would ease the burden of environmental regulations and permitting for coal mines and other industries and align with federal water definitions — which were weakened in 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the state's existing definition of "waters of the commonwealth," the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has broad jurisdiction to regulate and protect groundwater, springs, marshes and other important water resources. Madon's bill would instead defer to the less protective federal water definitions, narrowing state regulators' jurisdiction over Kentucky waters. Lawmakers said they were flooded with thousands of calls and emails about the bill from constituents, many concerned about threats to drinking water, particularly in communities dependent on wells. Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, said he "shared some of those concerns," and amended the bill in the House to restore some specific protections for sinkholes, wellhead protection areas and some springs. But Gooch's revisions still do not explicitly preserve the state's protections on groundwater and other key water resources around the commonwealth, according to regulatory officials. In a letter, cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman told lawmakers the amended bill "does not address groundwater aquifers and would provide no protection for the state's residents who have domestic use wells, including Kentucky's farmers, and those who rely on water systems whose source water comes from groundwater." Proponents framed the legislation as a means of curbing regulatory overreach and streamlining permitting. Supporters included prominent voices of industry, including the Kentucky Coal Association, the Home Builders Association of Kentucky, the American Petroleum Institute, the Kentucky Farm Bureau and the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, according to Gooch. The bill's consideration came after some Republicans scrutinized the state's permitting of coal mining operations, The Courier Journal previously reported, based on emails between senators and cabinet officials last year. The cabinet took a remarkably firm stance against SB 89, and, in a statement, agreed with environmental advocates in calling the legislation "an irresponsible, dangerous and deliberate choice to cater to a few at the expense of many" — a perspective Gooch dismissed as "hyperbole" during committee. The Republican-led bill passed mostly along party lines, and now heads to the desk of Gov. Andy Beshear, who may veto it. But the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly would still have time to override his veto and pass the legislation into law, and its emergency clause would allow it to go into effect immediately. Under the amended bill passed by the General Assembly, Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet said the following water resources would have inadequate protections: Groundwater aquifers; Lakes and reservoirs, including those used for drinking water and recreation, if they lack a "continuous surface connection" with protected waters Some springs, such as those not directly used as domestic drinking water sources. SB 89's passage would make Kentucky the only state "to cede its authority to define its waters to the federal government and jeopardize state regulatory primacy," the cabinet said. "This is not where Kentucky needs to be the exception." Impacts to groundwater were the chief concern expressed by the agency and environmental advocates. About 1.5 million Kentuckians rely on drinking water from private wells or public water systems drawing from groundwater, and opponents of the bill said water quality would be at risk under the narrowed protections. Groundwater and smaller, unassuming streams ultimately drain to or connect with major waterways. "Although groundwater and surface water are often thought of as two different things, groundwater is frequently the sustaining supply for surface water," according to the Kentucky Geological Survey. Kentuckians rely on the entire system for drinking water, agricultural use and more. "It's really frustrating for a scientist to work as a legislator," Rep. Al Gentry, a Louisville Democrat and geologist by trade, said on the House floor, "because I feel a lot of times we pass stuff without giving things a lot of thought." In the absence of regulatory oversight across Kentucky's sprawling hydrologic system, waters could be exposed to pollution from construction, unplugged oil and gas wells, septic systems, or other industrial contamination 'without recourse,' said Audrey Ernstberger, a Kentucky Resources Council attorney who advocated against SB 89. When the bill passed out of a House committee Wednesday, Eastern Kentucky Rep. Bobby McCool was the lone Republican vote in opposition. McCool, a former coal miner, represents Martin County, where a coal slurry spill in 2000 and years of mismanagement and system failures amounted to a crisis for drinking water quality. "I just cannot take a risk of hurting the water system, when I'm dealing already with public water, and we can't get that taken care of," McCool told the committee, "and we're talking about private wells ... I'm just not confident that has been taken care of." Many of Kentucky's small and rural water systems are already struggling to maintain reliable, affordable water services while managing underfunded and aging infrastructure, The Courier Journal previously reported. Diminished water quality could necessitate increased treatment costs for public water systems, in turn increasing costs for ratepayers, the cabinet and other opponents of SB 89 said. With the passage of SB 89, Kentucky opts to defer to federal definitions on waterway protections — even as protections at the federal level continue to shrink. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling on Sackett v. EPA, several state legislatures took on the issue of defining their own protected waters. Some, like Indiana, moved to loosen protections, while Illinois attempted to bolster them. Some opponents of Kentucky's SB 89 took issue with the idea of ceding definitions of Kentucky's waters to the federal government. Those definitions are once again facing uncertainty, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump recently announced it would revise the rules to "cut compliance costs" and "reduce cost of living." "I personally do not want somebody in Washington, D.C., making these decisions for me," said Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, on the House floor. "There's nobody there that knows Kentucky, knows our waterways, knows our environment the way that we do." Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter at The Courier Journal. Reach him directly at cgiffin@ or on X @byconnorgiffin. Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@ This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky General Assembly approves weaker water pollution rules
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
1% of Kentuckians carry flood insurance amid deadly disaster
(NewsNation) — Only about 1% of Kentucky residents carry flood insurance despite many parts of the state currently coping with what Gov. Andy Beshear calls 'one of the most significant natural disasters we've seen in our lifetime.' Recent flooding has claimed at least 14 lives this winter, coming less than three years after 44 people were killed in severe floods in 2022. At the time, however, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet estimated that 20% of claims were filed by people living outside the high-risk areas. Despite the deadly flooding, some Kentuckians may not be able to afford flood insurance. Meanwhile, others who live in high-risk areas or who have received assistance are required to pay for it. Federal workers sue Elon Musk over email ultimatum In many cases, yearly premiums that may seem manageable for middle-class homeowners have become 'almost impossible' to afford. The two deadly flooding events since 2022 have Kentuckians ready to change their thinking 'dramatically' about whether to pay for flood protection, Michael Weglarz, director of the Risk Management and Insurance program at Eastern Kentucky University, said. 'You don't think it's going to happen,' Weglarz told NewsNation. 'But when it does, you think, 'OK, do I have insurance coverage to provide the protection that we need?'' The Federal Reserve of Cleveland reported that 60% of homes damaged in 2022 were occupied by residents earning $30,000 or less yearly. After that event, flood insurance premiums doubled in some Kentucky counties following the 2022 storms, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. In Knott County, where 18 people died, FEMA insurance price projections indicated that premiums nearly doubled from $1,347 per year for a single-family home to $2,675. In Martin County, where about 40% of people live in poverty, annual premiums jumped by 290% to a price of $4,509, according to the Kentucky Lantern. Could DOGE layoffs at the IRS impact your tax return? Rising premiums have also become problematic in communities like Hazard, where 15% of the population live on less than $10,000 per year, and 40% live on less than $25,000, R. Scott McReynolds, the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance, said. 'That really makes it unaffordable,' McReynolds told NewsNation. 'It's a real dilemma.' Many of the people McReynolds works with struggle to make ends meet. After flood insurance rates grew substantially after flood events in 2021 and 2022, many people were forced to choose how to best stretch their dollar, he said. 'If it's not part of your mortgage, it's going to be easy to go without it,' McReynolds said. 'That's not a problem until it's a problem, and then, it becomes a big problem.' The average flood insurance premium in Kentucky was $1,287 per year in 2024, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The rate was more than $400 higher than the national average price for policies offered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Kentuckians who live in high-risk flooding zones that were mapped out by FEMA and who carry a mortgage through a traditional bank must carry flood insurance. Traditional homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage. Additionally, homeowners who have accepted federal assistance must carry flood insurance, even if a home that was damaged or destroyed by flooding was replaced by a new one, FEMA said. In 2023, FEMA changed its flood insurance pricing policy 'to deliver rates that are actuarially sound, equitable … and better reflect a property's flood risk.' For many, though, the insurance remains too costly as some policyholders will see their premiums double or triple, the Kentucky Lantern reported. 'The problem is, if it's not required, people typically won't buy it,' Weglarz said. Wildfires in California and hurricanes in other parts of the United States have led some insurance companies to pull out of states like Florida due to natural disasters. As of two years ago, in Louisiana, at least 12% of homeowners across the state didn't have any insurance at all. In Florida, homeowners' insurance costs have increased by 102% in the last three years, the Insurance Information Institute told NewsNation. Apple adding 20k jobs with $500 billion investment in US But Weglarz remains uncertain about the issue of how often deadly flooding hits Kentucky could change how insurers react. The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet considers flooding the most frequent and costliest natural disaster risk facing the state, which Weglarz said carries weight. Weglarz believes some insurers could rethink how much they charge in flood insurance premiums amid the latest flooding. He said for every $1 property insurers receive in premiums, they pay $1.60 in flood damage claims. To change who is required to carry flood insurance, FEMA would need to change its maps that designate high-risk flood areas. Whether this round of deadly flooding is enough to change FEMA's food zone maps that define insurance requirements remains to be determined. A FEMA spokesperson did not respond to questions from NewsNation related to remapping plans. 'These 100-year events are happening more on a regular basis,' Weglarz warns.' No one is immune to these catastrophic events, and you should be prudent in your decision-making.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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