Alternative Energies
The real heroes of the Flint water crisis

On Sunday night, while smart people were probably doing anything other than watching the Democratic debate — good for you — I sat through two hours of the candidates praising themselves for not being Republican. It wasn’t until the very end that one of the current greatest environmental disasters in the U.S. was mentioned: the Flint water crisis. In case you’re Marco Rubio and haven’t heard about the crisis that has finally made its way onto every major news outlet: Flint’s water is poisoned. And it’s been poisoned for months — possibly for over a year. The city’s water supply has high levels of lead, caused by corrosive water from the Flint River deteriorating pipes. Children are showing high levels of lead exposure — which…

Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump, resurrects “drill, baby, drill” theme

In the immortal words of Charlie Brown: Good grief. Two of America’s biggest egos came together Tuesday when former vice presidential hopeful and current reality TV star Sarah Palin endorsed former reality TV star and current presidential hopeful Donald Trump at a campaign stop in Iowa. “Are you ready to make America great again?” Palin shouted to the rabidly white audience, sucking whatever little meaning was left from the word “great.” “Are you ready to stump for Trump?” she continued. “I’m here to support the next president of the United States: Donald Trump.” Hopefully Palin’s political predictions are as on point as her knowledge of geography, but one must wonder if this is only the beginning of…

Kansas Wind Project Property Tax: What Recent Changes Mean for Existing and Future Projects

On May 28, 2015, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed legislation that will have a significant impact on the future of wind generation in the state.  The history of the political struggle underlying this legislation is a topic worthy of its own post, but suffice it to say that SB 91 represents a compromise between the wind industry and a faction of legislators that have attempted to reduce the state’s support of wind energy over the course of the last several legislative sessions. On a political level, this deal largely revolved around the future of Kansas’ 20{f24b02adee2102ff0c5f5079c50862fc8ba5fa53f8615b567037555463da2377} by 2020 Renewable Portfolio Standard, which has been subjected to a number of attacks over the last few legislative sessions.  All of these previous efforts failed, but the political pressure to reduce or repeal the…