CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan February 24,1984
Page 8
Wolfcreek continued from p.
Waldschmidt said the threat of doubled electricity bills could force other companies in KG&E's service area to consider generating electricity themselves instead of buying from KG&E.
"I don't think they can help but look at it," he said. "I think many electricity users will be looking at this very seriously."
Alternative energy sources
Residents of southeast Kansas and metropolitan Kansas City and Wichita soon may be facing the same kinds of decisions as Vulcan. In the end, many of those residents may entertain ideas of building solar panels on their homes or windmills in their backyards.
Those customers who fall within the service areas of Kansas Gas and Electric Co. of Wichita and Kansas City Power and Light Co. of Kansas City, Mo., the principal builders of Wolf Creek, forced to make that decision in less than a year, when the nuclear plant is supposed to go on line.
KG&E and KCP&E both have said they would ask the Kansas Corporation Commission for rate increases to pay for the $2.67 billion plant, whose cost has risen five-fold since its conception in 1983.
Last week, KG&E officials unveiled their plan to pass on the costs of building Wolf Creek to their customers. That plan would increase rates by 40%, and would also impact见后 Ebola. 15, 968 if approved by the KCC
KCP&L IS EXPECTED to present a similar proposal to the KCC this summer or fall. The KCC has estimated that KCP&L will request a 50 percent to 80 percent rate increase.
Kansas has the resources to accommodate almost all the main alternative energy resources, including solar power, windmills, geothermal power and energy conservation. Other states with better water resources are Texas, Louisiana and Florida, which electricity generated by waterfalls and rivers.
Joe King, a Lawrence architect, said he thought higher electricity bills would force some of the two companies' residential customers to move to their homes and their homes with solar power or a windmil
King is also vice president of Sunflower Power, a Lawrence company that specializes in developing large windmill power systems for cities and businesses.
**ANYTIME YOU have costs go up, it gives other technologies more of a competitive environment," he said. "I think you definitely are going to see an increased use of alternative energy sources if electricity rates increase substantially."
Phil Dubach, energy program supervisor for the KCC, said the U.S. government and some state governments had made alternative energy forms more attractive by allowing tax credits for
Tax credits allow taxpayers to deduct a percentage of the cost of installing alternative energy devices. For example, homeowners who install solar panels on their roofs can receive a 40 percent income tax credit for up to $4,000. Kansas law provides a 30 percent credit on state taxes.
FOR PEOPLE WHO make their homes more energy efficient, the federal energy conservation tax credit permits a 15 percent tax credit of up to $300.
Lyle Koehler, a spokesman for KG&E, said recently that higher rates might make alternative energy and conservation more attractive, but he doubted the alternatives would dry up in KG&E.
"We do not feel that there is going to be a major erosion of our demand base," he said.
SINCE LAST YEAR, KG&E has conducted seminars on energy efficiency and home insulation, he said. The company has encouraged its customers to conserve and to look into solar energy as a means by which to heat their water and homes.
KCP&L spokesman Turner White said his company had sponsored similar programs. White agreed that any switch by customers to alter the system was insignificant into KCP&L's customer base.
"Right now those emerging forms of energy don't offer any competition in cost with the ex-
Officials from KG&E and KCP&L have said that their companies would not be hurt if customers turned to alternative sources and conservation.
White said that increased use of alternative energy sources and conservation might actually benefit KCP&L. If some customers relied less on KCP&L, he said, the company could continue to produce electricity at current levels and save the excess for peak demand times in the summer.
"It would take the edge off those peaks," he said.
Controts and similarities can be seen between a modern windmill, right, and an old fashioned one. Both are south of Lawrence on Highway 59. Two years ago, Charles Perry, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey on West Campus, built the modern 80-foot, three-blade windmill
Jim McCrossen/KANSAN
New energy machine
Several self-sufficient energy sources are available, and among the newest is a machine called a wood-chip gasifier, which converts by-products of manufacturing such as wood chips, cornbread and hay into a gas that can be burned much like natural gas or propane.
Mostly, businesses are using the gasifier, which costs between $50,000 and $70,000.
Olathe Manufacturing in Olathe has been producing the machine for about $2\frac{1}{2}$ years, said
next to his home, 10 miles south of Lawrence. Perry said yesterday that the windmill hod saved him between $40 and $60 a month on his electricity bill. The windmill generates so much electricity that Perry sells some back to Kansas Power and Light Co.
"It's kind of staggering," he said. "The demand is much bigger than we can handle here.
Steve Rogers, president of the company, Rogers said interest has grown in recent years as the costs of traditional forms of energy have increased.
"The potential is hard to predict. Maybe you could sell as many as 100,000 if we had our whole team."
"When you start doubling electricity rates, that drives people out of the business of buying electricity."
Rates
continued from p. 1
Wolf Creek has excess generating capacity and how to phase in, or exclude from consumers' rates, the costs associated with it. Supporters of the legislation told theCACA that they worried about the ripple effects of Wolf Creek and the barge rate increases it would create.
They said that businesses would pass their increased costs on to their customers, thus increasing sales.
And, they said, consumers would react to increased electrical rates by cutting back on
Burr said that the plant's builders had tried to Kansans about the cost of Wolf Creek and used it as a landmark.
Consumers were misled about Wolf Creek when they were told that a nuclear power plant would be cheaper and cleaner than coal. But the plants are 'gross, gross misrepresentations.'
LANCE BURR, a lawrence attorney who ran for state attorney general in 1892 on an anti-Wolf Creep campaign, told the committee he said his group had won the hazardous waste it would produce.
Burr told the committee that he would file a class action suit alleging misrepresentation and consumer fraud if Wolf Creek went on line.
DOYLE TOLD THE committee that he agreed with a representative for Kansas Gas and Electric Co of Wichita, the other principal owner of the plant, who said he had been given GXGE as the one bill originally drafted by the KCC to monitor generating capacity at Wolf Creek.
Those changes would "strike a balance" between the interests of utility consumers and owners, Jim Haynes, an attorney for KGGE, said Wednesday.
In compiling the series of articles dealing with the financial problems at the Wolf Creek nuclear plant near Burlington, the Kansas analyzed financial reports from both Kansas Gas and Electric Co., Wichita, and Kansas City Power and Light Co., Kansas City, Mo. State and federal reports on the nuclear industry also were examined. The Kansas wishes to acknowledge Mike Kantsch, assistant professor of journalism, and Bill Smith, professor enervus of electrical engineering.
"IT'S ONLY BEER."
**NOT ONLY BREAD.**
Salt is not only bourbon, or vodka or gin. One beer or one glass of wine is about equal to one average "highball." The effect might be a little slower, but you'll just be drunk on beer or wine on "hard" liquor.
The Student Assistance Center
TOURING FOR FUN NON COMPETITIVE ORIENTED BI-WEEKLY RIDES
At your own PACE! Open to anyone; no obligations to join the club
Sign up at the SUA office before the meeting on:
Feb. 29
7 p.m.
International Room
Kansas Union
For more information: Gayle, 843-0524
The 3rd Annual Blue Revue in recognition of Black History Month
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
presents
Fri., Feb. 24
9 p.m.-1:45 a.m.
Big 8 Room, Kansas Union
Admission: $2.50
Z $ \Phi $ B also invites all interested young ladies to the
INFORMAL RUSH
Sun., Feb. 26
1-3 p.m.
Regionalist Room, Kansas Union
BLACK BY HERITAGE . . .
FREEDOM BY KNOWLEDGE.
Ellsworth Black Caucus 1984
Presents
The 7th Annual Soul Food
Dinner and Dance
Sat., Feb. 25, 1984
at 6 p.m.
Ellsworth Residents: Free Guests: $4.50
Other KU Hall Residents: Meal Transfer
Funded by the Student Senate Activity Fee
SATURDAY: LATE NIGHT HAPPY HOUR 11 P.M.-MIDNIGHT.
TONIGHT: 5-8 P.M. 2 FOR 1
DRINKS AND HALF PRICE FOOD.
SPRING POLKA
8-12 pm
TONIGHT
kansas union ballroom
featuring:
Old Time Hochzeit polka band
$4.50 in advance
$5.00 at door
(includes refreshments)
for tickets :
call 843-0357
come by 1631 Crescent Rd
CHI OMEGAS
We're not tadpoles anymore . . .
We're not guppies anymore . . .
We're lean, mean, fighting sardines!
Let's do it!