"Coal industry influence and climate change denial paved the state’s race to the clean energy bottom. As one lawmaker put it: “God created coal for people.”"
"LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Andy McDonald recalls a decade-old Kentucky legislative hearing on an energy diversification bill with the same sense of frustration that he felt back then, when he testified before a panel of lawmakers who were mostly coal industry loyalists.
McDonald, a clean energy advocate and energy policy consultant, was armed with a study by Synapse Energy Economics of Boston that made an economic case for requiring utilities to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Lawmakers opted to maintain the status quo.
“After testifying about this, the legislature went on a rant about how high energy bills were and why we can’t do anything about that,” said McDonald, founder and director of Apogee, a firm in Frankfort, Kentucky, that provides technical assistance, education and policy research toward advancing a renewable energy transition. “I was banging my head on the table, saying we just told you what you can do about that.”"
James Bruggers and Dan Gearino report for Inside Climate News March 31, 2023.
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