Month: March 2022

Sections of I-435 to be fully closed March 18-21 in Johnson County

Part of I-435 will be closed for bridge work March 18-21 in Johnson County. The portions that are closed are in red. (KDOT map)
Part of I-435 will be closed for bridge work March 18-21 in Johnson County. The portions that are closed are in red. The detour route is in blue. (KDOT map)

Bridge demolition is scheduled for the Renner Road bridge over I-435 for March 18-21, weather permitting, and will require full closures of two sections of I-435 in the Kansas City metro area, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Southbound I-435 and associated ramps will be closed to traffic from Shawnee Mission Parkway to 87th Street in Johnson County. Northbound I-435 and associated ramps will be closed to traffic from K-10 to Midland Drive. I-435 lane reductions will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday, with the full closures in place at 10 p.m.

This demolition is part of a Kansas Department of Transportation project that includes bridge deck replacement, repainting bridge girders and enhancement of bridge lighting.

The closure schedule for bridge demolition:
Thursday, March 17
8 a.m. – Renner Road bridge closed to traffic

Friday, March 18
8 p.m. – I-435 lane closures
10 p.m. – northbound/southbound I-435 closed to traffic

Monday, March 21
5 a.m. – I-435 reopened

Detours will be marked and include the following:

Eastbound K-10: detour to northbound I-35 to northbound I-635 to westbound I-70 to I-435;
Westbound I-435: detour to westbound K-10 to northbound K-7 to eastbound I-70 to I-435;
Eastbound I-70: detour to southbound I-635 to southbound I-35 to I-435; and
Westbound I-70: detour to southbound K-7 to eastbound K-10 to I-435.

KDOT urges all motorists to be alert and obey the warning signs when approaching and driving through a highway work zone, a spokesman stated. To stay aware of all road construction projects across Kansas go to www.kandrive.org or call 5-1-1. Drive safely and always wear your seat belt, the spokesman stated.

Legislative hearing planned on Safe and Welcoming bill

A state legislative hearing is planned on a bill that would stop Kansas City, Kansas, from implementing a Safe and Welcoming ordinance that was passed earlier this year.

The hearing was scheduled at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 15, in the Federal and State Affairs Committee in the Kansas House, Topeka.

The bill was requested by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor. The bill would stop Kansas City, Kansas, from implementing parts of its Safe and Welcoming ordinance, which welcomes immigrants and provides an identification card for them, as well as states that no Unified Government personnel will be notifying immigration officials about their presence.

Two state legislators discussed this bill at an online legislative coffee held Feb. 26, sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library.

State Rep. Pam Curtis, D-32nd Dist., said at the coffee that this bill was just another example of the state encroaching on local control.

Rep. Curtis said first of all, the federal government should be dealing with the immigration issue, and then that would solve the problems at the local level.

But since the federal government hasn’t done that, the state and local communities are trying to find a way to make their communities safe, and have all residents engaged.

Rep. Curtis said she read a quote from Schmidt that likened those participating in the ID programs to drug cartel members.

However, at the UG meetings, the commission heard from undocumented workers who do not have criminal records, as well as from many social workers and educators. The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education has voted to support this bill, because the IDs will make identification easier for parents enrolling school children. It also would help in getting medical care for people living in the community who do not have identification cards, according to its supporters.

“We need to clearly demonstrate who we’re talking about and the people in our community, the benefits of them having an identification card, and the benefits of the community having members who live in the community having IDs,” Rep. Curtis said.

Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, D-36th Dist., said she agreed. There are 105 different counties in Kansas, and it doesn’t matter what side you’re on, what matters is that the community here had a vote, had a public hearing and decided to do this, she said.

Local control is so important because local officials know their communities much better than state officials, she said.

Rep. Wolfe Moore said she is concerned that this bill could pass on the House floor.

During discussion earlier this year at the UG Commission meetings, the police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, said they haven’t been notifying immigration authorities for several years, and the sheriff’s department said the department notifies immigration authorities if there is an outstanding warrant. The KCK ordinance applied only to KCK and not to the sheriff’s office.

Other cities with Safe and Welcoming ordinances include Roeland Park and Lawrence.

House Bill 2717 prohibits any municipality from preventing the enforcement of federal immigration laws, requiring local law enforcement agencies to provide written notice to each law enforcement officer of the officer’s duty to cooperate with state and federal agencies in the enforcement of immigration laws and requiring any municipal identification card to state on its face that it is not valid for state identification.

The Federal and State Affairs Committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 15, with the hearing scheduled for March 15 in Room 346-S.

Members of the Federal and State Committee include Rep. John Barker, chair; Rep. Tony Marie Arnberger, vice chair; Rep. Louis Ruiz, ranking minority member; Rep. Francis Awerkamp, Rep. Jesse Burris, Rep. Stephanie Clayton, Rep. John Eplee, Rep. Randy Garber, Rep. Christina Haswood, Rep. Broderick Henderson, Rep. Dennis “Boog” Highberger, Rep. Michael Houser, Rep. Steven K. Howe, Rep. Leah Howell, Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, Rep. Vic Miller, Rep. Lisa Moser, Rep. Patrick Penn, Rep. Samantha Poetter Parshall, Rep. John Resman, Rep. Eric L. Smith, Rep. Adam Thomas and Rep. Paul Waggoner.

To send emails to the committee members, find their email addresses at http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/chamber/house/roster/.

HB 2717 is online at http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/documents/hb2717_00_0000.pdf.

To see a video of the Wyandotte County legislative coffee from Feb. 25, visit either https://www.youtube.com/c/KCKPublicLibrary or https://www.youtube.com/c/LWVJOCOKS4VOTERS.

The next virtual Wyandotte County legislative coffee will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 26, sponsored by the Bonner Springs City Library, the League of Women Voters and the Bonner Springs NAACP. It will be a Zoom meeting. Legislators who have stated they will participate in this event include Rep. Tom Burroughs, Sen. Jeff Pittman and Sen. Pat Pettey. To register in advance for this Zoom meeting, visit https://www.lwvjoco.org/content.aspx?page_id=4002&club_id=768754&item_id=1590818 or [email protected],

Kansas oil companies scramble to increase production, but ‘there is no spigot’

Skyrocketing gas prices have everyone from independent truck drivers to the U.S. energy secretary demanding that oil companies ramp up production. They’d like to and they’re trying to, but it’s just not that easy.

by Frank Morris, KCUR and Kansas News Service

To understand why oil prices are high today, you have to go back two years, to the early days of the pandemic.

Oil prices hit the floor in April 2020. In fact, they fell right through the floor. For a while, oil producers had to pay companies to take oil off their hands. One day, the price in Kansas even hit a negative $47 a barrel.

Some small oil companies went under. In Kansas alone, companies took almost 5,000 wells off-line and production plummeted.

But between then and now, the price of oil has increased about $160 a barrel.

“It’s probably the most dramatic price swing in the history of the oil business,” said Mickey Thompson, past president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association. “And that’s not good for anybody.”

There is no spigot

With the ban on Russian oil imports, domestic crude is now selling for about $110 a barrel. That, of course, isn’t good for consumers, who’ve seen gasoline prices break records.

The pain falls especially hard on lower-income workers, who often drive older cars miles to work each day and spend more of their paychecks filling their tanks. It’s sparked demands from fossil fuel users and politicians to get more domestic oil to consumers — as if oil companies can just turn the flow back on.

“There is no spigot,” Thompson said. “Wells capable of producing crude oil and natural gas in this country are producing at close to maximum capacity.”

But oil companies, especially smaller ones, are having a tough time expanding production.

“They’re having trouble getting pipe. They’re having trouble with transportation. They’re having trouble finding crews,” said Dan Naatz, executive vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Oil companies have been trying to scale up for months now, and that’s made basic supplies of the trade, like piping, both scarce and expensive. And pandemic-related shipping problems have made just getting supplies from factories to the oil fields a major obstacle. On top of that, there’s a labor shortage.

“Labor challenges are at the top of the list,” said Ed Cross, president of the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association.

Small oil Kansas companies cut as much as a quarter of their employees in the lean days of 2020, Cross said. Those are skilled, technical, often physically demanding jobs, so staffing up again is another major hurdle.

“It’s a busy time and we’re seeing production starting to recover, but we’re a long way from where we were before the COVID pandemic,” Cross said.

In Kansas, production is down almost 16% from 2019, when gas and oil prices were much lower. It’s hard to predict how long it will take just to get back to 2019 domestic oil production levels, but most of the experts say that won’t happen until next year, at best.

Meantime, Thompson said, consumers and politicians are going to have to show some patience as everyone tries to work through the next few months.

“You need to understand that nobody in this country, nobody — not the oil and gas industry, not the federal government, not the regulators, not the banks — nobody’s the enemy on this deal,” Thompson said.

“Putin is the enemy and he and his army and his military are creating the situation,” he added. “And we need to offer some grace to ourselves and our neighbors and people who are doing the best they can to alleviate the pain.”

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-03-13/kansas-oil-companies-scramble-to-increase-production-but-there-is-no-spigot.