Support H.B. 2263 to Help Create
Wind Generated Electricity in Western Kansas

What you should do: Call you State Representative and say that you strongly support H.B. 2263. This will help unleash the potential for wind generated electricity in western Kansas. Do this ASAP since this will be voted on Thursday, February 24... maybe even Wednesday, February 23. FYI, western Kansas has more wind generating potential than anywhere in the U.S.

Who is your legislator?: Go to www.kslegislature.org/redistricting.html for an easy way to find out who your legislator is and how to call them. Call their Capitol Office phone. (The address version was easier for me than the map based version.)

Background: HB 2263 passed out of the House Utilities Committee on Friday, 2/18/05 and will be voted on by the full House the week of Feb. 21. The bill would create an Authority that would build large-scale electric transmission lines, with financing through the Kansas Development Finance Authority and the municipal bond market, with those using the lines paying off the bonds. Such an authority is one way to overcome the obstacle of lack of transmission infrastructure in western Kansas for generating wind-generated electricity. H.B. 2263 ensures that the transmission authority would act only as a last resort if a need for electrical transmission lines are identified and the public utilities, which normally build such lines, cannot or will not build the lines. The bill also ensures that any lines built by the transmission authority would have to fit into the regional transmission infrastructure.

The Kansas Chapter of the Sierra Club strongly supports this legislation as a way to unleash the potential for wind generated electricity in western Kansas. Contact your state representative (House member) now and ask them to vote in favor of H.B. 2263.