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Feb 25 - The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)
Great Plains Energy Inc. is one of a handful of U.S. electric utilities that have agreed to disclose what it could cost to meet environmental regulations in the future. The agreement comes after shareholder resolutions were filed with the companies seeking the disclosures, which are being pushed by the Investor Network on Climate Risk, an alliance of about 50 institutional investor groups organized by Ceres, a coalition of investment funds and public interest groups that pursue environmental and social issues. The shareholder resolutions were withdrawn after successful negotiations to disclose the possible costs from foreseeable regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide. New York City's pension plan for municipal workers, which collectively has $95 billion in assets, filed several of the shareholder resolutions with companies in which it is an investor, including Great Plains, the parent of Kansas City Power & Light. Kenneth Sylvester, assistant comptroller for pension policy for New York City, said climate change was one of the biggest issues of the day and from a fiduciary standpoint companies needed to disclose more about the effects of meeting regulations to cut pollution linked to global warming. Sylvester, who was involved in the negotiations, said Great Plains had been open to discussing the disclosures and had been "constructive" in reaching an agreement. "Quite frankly, I was very pleased in the manner in which Great Plains handled this," he said. Tom Robinson, a spokesman for Great Plains, said the company planned to have a report ready later this year and would work with Ceres in developing the disclosure. The shareholders resolution, which would have been voted on by all of the company's shareholders, was filed with Great Plains earlier this year because of its plans to build a coal-fired power plant near Weston. The other utilities that recently agreed to the disclosures also have plans to build coal-fired plants. Those utilities are Alliant Energy, WPS Resources and MGE Energy, which are based in Wisconsin. No agreement was reached with Dominion Resources in Richmond, Va., and Peabody Energy in St. Louis. The resolutions filed with those companies have not been withdrawn. Peyton Fleming, a spokesman for Ceres, said that in the past two years, about a dozen U.S. electric power companies have either published or agreed to publish climate risk reports. The Investor Network on Climate Risk has also filed resolutions with companies in other types of businesses, including auto and oil companies, to make similar disclosures. ------------ To reach Steve Everly, call (816) 234-4455 or send e-mail to severly@kcstar.com . ----- Copyright (c) 2006, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. |