(Will be updated as warranted)
Former state Rep. Annie Kuether on Wednesday walked a narrow line on the major issues facing state utility regulators, not betraying her position on whether Evergy should be approved for a rate increase and how transmission lines should be sited.
The interim Senate confirmation committee recommended the confirmation of Kuether’s appointment to the Kansas Corporation Commission.
It now goes to the full Senate next year, although her appointment takes effect immediately. She will replace Commissioner Susan Duffy.
The commission didn’t act on the governor’s reappointment of Andrew French to the KCC since his appointment doesn’t lapse until next March.
Members for the Senate confirmation committee questioned the timing of Kuether’s appointment, which comes amid public debate over Evergy’s request for a rate increase and an investigation into siting transmission lines.
Kuether, a former longtime lawmaker who served on the House utilities committee, avoided those questions, noting they are issues now pending before the commission where many millions of dollars are on the line.
The commission is expected to decide the Evergy rate request before the end of the year.
“One of the issues that I have with this whole confirmation today is the timing,” said Rick Billinger, a member of the oversight committee from Goodland.
“I think the timing is very strange,” Billinger said. “The replacement should have been done back in March when we had a full utility committee here to confirm.”
“I think the governor’s put you in kind of a tough spot here because you’re going to be asked to jump in here,” he said.
“It seems like it’s going to put you in a really tough position because there have already been meetings and different determinations made.
“I just think the average Kansan is going to wonder why this confirmation didn’t wait for a full Senate confirmation,” Billinger said.
Republican Sen. Rick Wilborn of McPherson asked Kuether about the “war on oil and gas” that he said was carried by out by President Joe Biden’s administration.
“We need to do what’s right for Kansas and let the federal government do what it wants to do,” Kuether said. “This is Kansas. We need to do what’s right for Kansas.”
Kuether said the state can’t just “pull the rug out from underneath an industry that’s been putting forth good jobs” for Kansans.
“I’m an all-of-the-above kind of girl,” she said.
The governor’s office couldn’t immediately respond on Wednesday to Billinger’s concerns about timing of the nomination.
Kuether would replace Duffy, whose term expired on the commission last March. Kuether said she was contacted about serving on the KCC in April.
She signed the application on April 10, although lawmakers complained that there were two different effective dates listed, one for Jan. 1, 2024, and another for Oct. 3.
Kuether couldn’t explain the change in effective dates, saying she accepted the governor’s offer when contacted in the spring.
Senate Majority Leader Larry Alley asked Kuether whether she thought she would be sufficiently up to speed to decide on the rate case later this year.
“I absolutely do,” Kuether said.
Under questioning from Alley, the former Topeka House member said she didn’t attend the three public meetings where Evergy’s proposed rate increase was discussed.
She also said she had not read the voluminous filings in the rate case.
“If you are approved, there would be a lot of catching up to do, I believe,” Alley said.
Billinger also asked Kuether who should pay for building electric transmission lines to move power out of the state.
Kuether said the customer should pay for that construction, but added that not all transmission lines are constructed to move power out of Kansas.
Billinger passed voting on Kuether’s nomination because of the timing issues.
The governor’s decision to remake the KCC comes at time when Evergy is seeking a rate increase that has stirred opposition across the state.
Evergy is seeking its first electric rate increase in five years, asking state regulators to approve a $218 million rate hike that would cost residential customers a monthly average of $14.24 in central Kansas and $3.47 in the Kansas City area.
However, the KCC has resisted the idea, suggesting a much smaller rate increase in central Kansas and a rate cut in the Kansas City suburbs.
After auditing the company’s balance sheet, staff for the Kansas Corporation Commission concluded that an increase of $34.7 million was warranted for central Kansas, compared to the roughly $204 million that the utility first proposed.
Meanwhile, the staff recommended a rate cut for Evergy in the Kansas City metro area totaling about $54.2 million after the company first sought a rate hike.
The company first requested a 1.95% rate increase, or about $14 million, for its Kansas City area customers.
