Mar 17 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jason Noble and David Klepper The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Kansas and Missouri lawmakers are trying to go green this year but, so far anyway, it looks to be a pretty pale shade.

In Missouri, lawmakers have introduced nearly 20 bills promoting energy-efficient technologies and encouraging environment-friendly development -- mostly through tax incentives aimed at consumers.

Similar proposals are under consideration in Kansas, although critics say they're little more than concessions to calm opponents of a controversial power plant expansion.

"We're pretty sensitive to the issue," said Missouri Senate Majority Leader Charlie Shields, a St. Joseph Republican.

"There's a lot of attention being paid to environmental, or green, initiatives and energy-saving initiatives."

Both states, though, are avoiding far-reaching legislation and generally shying away from mandates that would require action by businesses or consumers.

Show Me green

In Missouri, the bills showing movement this year rely on tax policy as a prod to change consumer habits and business operations.

The House last week gave first-round approval to a bill granting a $2,000 income tax deduction for the purchase of hybrid vehicles manufactured in the United States.

"Government should be in the forefront of change, but we have to have an incentive," said Rep. David Sater, a Cassville Republican and the bill's sponsor.

The tax break would be available for American-made cars such as the Ford Escape and Chevrolet Malibu hybrids -- both of which are produced at auto plants in the Kansas City area -- but would leave out the Japanese-made Toyota Prius, far and away the country's best-selling hybrid.

In the Senate, language recently added to a large agriculture bill also addresses alternative-fuel vehicles. The bill includes not only a tax deduction for hybrid purchases, but also incentives for consumers who purchase 85-percent ethanol gasoline and gas-station owners who install alternative fuel facilities.

A green omnibus bill encompassing several Democratic and Republican proposals is also in the works, said Sen. Kevin Engler, a Farmington Republican. That bill will include legislation, introduced by Sen. Jeff Smith, a St. Louis Democrat, aimed at encouraging environmentally-friendly development in the state.

Smith's legislation would create a "Show Me Green" sales tax holiday each April in which consumers could purchase Energy Star-certified energy-efficient appliances free of state and local sales tax.

Smith's bill would also create tax credits for constructing energy-efficient buildings, completing home-energy audits and buying Energy Star-certified appliances.

Such incentives could have far-ranging economic effects, he said.

"Encouraging green building can spawn more residential development at a time when the housing market is lagging," Smith said. "It can spawn the development of new industries that will be created to meet the demand for more of the products that go into green houses."

A few lawmakers have proposed bills demanding more forceful action against global warming, although it's unlikely they'll weather the legislative process.

A bill presented in a House committee last week by Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, a St. Louis Democrat, would go the furthest by requiring greenhouse-gas emissions in the state be reduced to 1990 levels by 2022.

Industry, manufacturing and energy lobbyists castigated the bill.

"We are not an island or a nation by ourselves. We have to compete with other states, with other nations and even our neighbors," said David Overfelt, a lobbyist for Associated Industries of Missouri. "We're afraid these types of regulations would make it virtually impossible to expand or even consider expanding in this state."

One exception to lawmakers' no-mandates mantra, however, is a Senate bill requiring all diesel fuel sold in the state to contain 5 percent biodiesel, an alternate fuel derived from vegetable oil or animal fat.

In Kansas

Kansas lawmakers have put forward several green bills, but all are overshadowed by the key issue of the year: a coal-burning power plant expansion in western Kansas.

Both the Senate and the House have passed legislation designed to clear the way for Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build two new coal plants at its existing Holcomb, Kan., plant.

The state's top regulator rejected the plans last year, citing the estimated 11 million tons of carbon dioxide the expanded plant would produce.

CO2 is currently unregulated by the state.

Lawmakers balked at the rejection, and created legislation to eliminate the regulator's power to reject the plant so long as it meets current state environmental rules.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has vowed to veto the bill, saying it doesn't do enough to encourage renewable energy or protect the environment.

To balance the coal plant bill, lawmakers inserted several provisions they hoped would curry favor with environmentalists.

They include:

--Standards to require most utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2012 and 20 percent by 2020.

--A proposal to allow those with solar panels on their homes to sell excess electricity back to their utilities.

--Incentives for landlords to invest in energy-efficient construction and air/heating systems.

--The creation of a new energy commission that will include both scientists and laypeople to study the state's future energy needs and the role global climate change may play.

"I thought it was one of the greenest bills in the country," said Rep. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican who serves as vice chairman of the House Energy and Utilities Committee. He said the Holcomb expansion will include the latest in pollution safeguards and that it's unrealistic to think Kansas can have a secure power supply without coal.

"What's enough?" he asked, noting the opposition from environmental groups. "Do the people of Kansas want blackouts?"

Environmental groups say the modest green initiatives don't come close to offsetting the backward step they think the coal plant bill to be.

The phrase "green lipstick on a pig" has been used more than once.

The environmentally friendly components "are an attempt to attract those legislators with environmental concerns," said Stephanie Cole, spokeswoman for the Kansas Sierra Club chapter. "There's no reason that Kansas shouldn't have those in place already."

To reach Jason Noble, call 573-634-3565 or send e-mail to jnoble@kcstar.com. To reach David Klepper, call 785-354-1388 or send e-mail to dklepper@kcstar.com.