Energy siting bill would give KCC power to override local governments

TOPEKA — A sweeping energy facility siting bill introduced Thursday in the Kansas House would grant the Kansas Corporation Commission authority to set uniform, statewide siting and permitting standards for energy facilities — effectively limiting local governments' ability to block or delay projects.

HB 2728, referred to the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications, would establish requirements and timelines for local government action on energy facility applications, require developers to file decommissioning plans and maintain financial assurance, and prohibit local requirements that impose an "undue burden" on construction. The bill also sets up judicial review of agency and local government decisions and bars the commission from engaging in ex parte communications with energy facility applicants or opponents.

The measure lands squarely in the ongoing fight between rural communities that have resisted wind and solar development and the energy industry seeking regulatory certainty. By centralizing siting authority at the state level, Republicans on the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee are signaling that local opposition alone should not be enough to kill projects — a position that could draw pushback from GOP colleagues in rural districts who have sided with landowner groups skeptical of renewable energy expansion.

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