THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

While Republican politicians are running around getting their panties in a twist about President Obama's Clean Air rules, the corporations generating the electricity have long seen the writing on the wall and are pushing forward with recyclable clean air projects.In Kansas, a state saddled with Republicans so stupid they will gleefully destroy their state to implement their heinous agenda, the electric companies are expanding wind power regardless of the outcome of the political court battles.

Kansas’ abundant wind power was poised to help the Sunflower State and several surrounding neighbors comply with new federal requirements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, however, those federal rules are on hold until the legal issues surrounding them are resolved. And the uncertainty following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has scrambled calculations on how the court would ultimately decide the case.

Kansas was at once suing the Obama administration over the rules and developing a plan to comply with them, and now some state lawmakers are pushing to freeze that work.

Meanwhile, utility companies and electric power grid operators serving the state continue to expand wind power, thanks to the extension of a federal tax credit, regardless of what happens to the rules.

Kansas has the second-biggest wind power potential in the country, behind Texas. It ranks sixth among states in wind-power capacity.

“Wind energy remains quite strong,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, an industry organization. “It makes sense for states to move forward.”

Kansas was among nearly 30 states that sued the Environmental Protection Agency to challenge the Clean Power Plan, which would require the states reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions one-third by 2030.

Although Kansas is one of only a few states to generate more than 20 percent of its electricity from wind, it remains a heavy user of coal, which generates about 60 percent of the state’s power. The state imports virtually all of that coal from Wyoming.

Kansas generates about a third of the wind power in the Southwest Power Pool, which oversees an electricity transmission grid that covers 14 states. And there’s room for more.

“Going forward, we expect to continue to see growth in wind resources,” said Lanny Nickell, vice president of engineering at Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization.

With an expanded network of transmission lines in the region, other states, including Missouri, can plug into Kansas’ wind energy resources to meet their own needs as well.

“We haven’t fully tapped into the potential that our region provides in terms of renewable energy,” Nickell said.

Politicians are usually a day late and a dollar short when it comes to what the people want.