Category: Election 2022

Kansas political figures, advocacy groups weigh in on U.S. Supreme Court carbon emissions ruling

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday limiting how the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants is putting Kansas political leaders, candidates and advocacy groups’ stances on environmental policy in the spotlight.

The 6-3 vote, with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting, stripped the EPA of broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The ruling could complicate federal efforts by the Biden administration to regulate and cut power plant emissions.

In Kansas, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican candidate for Governor, celebrated the decision in West Virginia v. EPA as necessary to stop the advancement of policies in the “Green New Deal without approval from the people’s elected representatives.”

“Today’s ruling confirms that unelected Washington bureaucrats cannot write federal law to fit their preferences for energy production and the American economy without congressional authority,” Schmidt said. “More broadly, this ruling is a victory for basic principles of democratic self-government and may one day be seen as a turning point in the decades-long fight to regain control over the ever-expanding federal bureaucracy.”

Chief Justice John Roberts referred sparingly to the harms of climate change in the majority decision, stating Congress did not give the agency authority to regulate the energy industry. Justice Elena Kagan detailed in her dissent the devastation the planet faces should it continue to ignore the damage greenhouse gasses can create.

In response to the decision, the Sierra Club, one of three litigants in the case, said the court was cowing to coal executives and eliminating the EPA’s most effective tool for reducing climate pollution. Andres Restrepo, senior attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, said this was an authority the EPA has had for years.

“Today’s decision accommodates the powerful instead of the people by seriously narrowing that authority,” Restrepo said. “Now, EPA must forge ahead and issue new standards that require each of the nation’s remaining coal and gas plants to minimize their pollution to the greatest extent possible.”

Mark Holland, a Kansas Democrat running for U.S. Senate, echoed concerns this would seriously curtail efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.

“The Koch bought court sides with fossil-fuel companies in blocking enforcement of the Clean Air Act,” Holland, the former mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, said on Twitter. “Vote Aug 2nd.”

Brooke Chong, a Democrat running for election to the Kansas State 91st House District, lamented recent actions by the nation’s highest court.

“In just the last few weeks the Supreme Court has: Curtailed the EPA’s ability to regulate emissions, expanded state power over Native American Tribes, loosened gun laws after mass shootings, restricted women’s right to healthcare…,” Chong said via her Twitter account.

The ruling could also endanger regulations to keep workers safe, and ensure clean water and safe food, said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. He said the decision was a victory for big energy companies but a “lethal blow to everyone else.”

He called on Biden and Congress to act immediately with major investments in clean energy.

“Millions of regular people whose ability to work and take care of their families will suffer as a result,” Mitchell said.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/07/01/kansas-political-figures-advocacy-groups-weigh-in-on-u-s-supreme-court-carbon-emissions-ruling/

Schmidt, Kelly campaigns at odds on approach to Medicaid expansion in Kansas

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Katie Sawyer, Republican gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt’s running mate, said neither she nor the attorney general would support Medicaid expansion in its current proposed form.

Sawyer made the remarks at a candidate forum in Salina over the weekend in response to a question from an audience member who asked if Schmidt would support a plan to expand KanCare, the state-run Medicaid program. The audience member also questioned former Gov. Sam Brownback’s stance against expansion, arguing the state lost billions of dollars by not expanding.

“I can’t speak to what Gov. Brownback did,” Sawyer said. “What I will say pretty clearly is, as it stands right now in its current proposed form, Derek Schmidt would not be supportive of expanding Medicaid.”

C.J. Grover, campaign manager for Schmidt, said the attorney general could not support current proposals because they would assist able-bodied Kansans without children without a work requirement. No matter who is governor, Grover said he did not believe the Legislature was likely to pass Medicaid expansion.

Overall, he said Schmidt considers himself a “open-minded skeptic” on the issue.

“Should the Legislature one day reconsider and decide to advance a proposal, there are requirements AG Schmidt believes must be met,” Grover said. “First, the state share of the expansion cost must be honestly paid for, second there must be a work or job training requirement to ensure expansion is not a welfare program but instead a way to help able-bodied Kansans who are working to support themselves, and third there must be a clear and enforceable prohibition of any taxpayer funding for abortion coverage.

According to the most recent Kansas Health Institute estimates, expansion in January 2023 would lead to 148,000 newly enrolled Kansans. Nearly 88,000 adults who currently fall in the “Medicaid coverage gap” would gain coverage if Medicaid were to expand.

The April estimates indicate an increase of 36% from the pre-pandemic monthly average KanCare enrollment, but only a 1.4% increase in spending. In addition, KHI estimated that the American Rescue Plan Act would create $418 million in savings for Kansas over two years if KanCare were expanded to low-income adults.

“None of the non-expansion states have adopted expansion since ARPA was enacted,” the brief notes in conclusion. “In the meantime, Kansans who remain in the coverage gap have few alternatives for comprehensive affordable health insurance.”

KHI estimates include indirect effects of expansion enrollment for children and currently eligible adults.

Alliance for a Healthy Kansas estimates the state has lost out on over $5.6 billion without expansion and 150,000 Kansans fall in the Medicaid gap.

Proponents of expansion also highlight concerns with rural hospital closures. Since 2005, nine rural hospitals in the state have closed, and of the 105 rural hospitals in Kansas 75 are currently running at a loss and are vulnerable to closure, according to a Center for Health Care Quality and Payment Reform study.

Madison Andrus, a campaign spokeswoman for Gov. Laura Kelly, said the governor would continue to strongly support expansion.

“It will expand quality health care for 150,000 hardworking Kansans and create 23,000 jobs,” Andrus said. “That’s good for rural Kansas, good for the Kansas economy, and good for Kansas health care workers — and it will remain a top priority in her second term.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/28/schmidt-kelly-campaigns-at-odds-on-approach-to-medicaid-expansion-in-kansas/

Kansas GOP governor candidate arrested on felony charge plunges ahead with campaign

Candidate Arlyn Briggs confident criminal threat case will be dropped

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republican gubernatorial candidate Arlyn Briggs recorded a campaign commercial outlining his vision of conservative government in Kansas only to find out a prominent Christian radio network had no intention of airing the advertisement.

He said an employee at Bott Radio Network in Overland Park explained the campaign spot couldn’t be used on the network after learning of Briggs’ arrest on a charge of criminal threat against a law enforcement officer. The arrest in Allen County was a misunderstanding that ought to be resolved in his favor, Briggs said, but the radio network’s rebuff was a setback in his primary campaign against GOP frontrunner Derek Schmidt, who is the state’s attorney general.

“I’m a strong Christian,” Briggs said. “My job is to be a strong reflection of Jesus Christ.”

Briggs, 64, of rural Kincaid, said the legal trouble stemmed from allowing a man being sought by law enforcement for an alleged stalking offense to stay with him in early June. Briggs noticed a sheriff’s department vehicle driving slowly past his home, so he called the department to remind authorities of the “castle doctrine,” the stand-your-ground right of individuals in Kansas to take reasonable action, including deadly force, in defense of a home.

He warned law enforcement officers not to try anything, he said, and pointedly added “I may shoot you.” He said he wouldn’t have actually fired on deputies, and nothing happened. But officers later served an Anderson County warrant on him for criminal threat. He was released June 15 from Allen County Jail.

If successful in the Aug. 2 primary against Schmidt, Briggs would likely face Democratic frontrunner Gov. Laura Kelly as well as independent candidate Dennis Pyle and Libertarian Seth Cordell in November. If victorious in the general election, Briggs said he would donate his state government salary to charity.

“I feel the primary is where the contest is this year. Kelly is so liberal,” Briggs said. “I say vote for the person. Not what they said, but what they do.”

Briggs said he was disappointed with Schmidt as a political leader, and asserted the attorney general was too focused on getting on U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s “good list” in anticipation of eventually running for Moran’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Briggs said he’d challenged Schmidt to five debates, but hadn’t received a response.

“I think there’s growing concern among conservatives across the United States and Kansas with what’s happening with government and our leaders,” Briggs said.

On social media last year, Briggs was critical of state legislators who he claimed talked about the value of local government control and then passed bills stripping local elected officials of influence. He said they all should be taught a lesson by being voted out of office.

Briggs ran for the Kansas House in 2012 and 2020, but lost both contests. He was soundly defeated in the most recent campaign, falling to state Rep. Trevor Jacobs, with Jacobs securing 83% of the vote in a GOP primary.

He said he lived in Johnson County for about 30 years. He worked for a Kansas City bank and at Hallmark and has been employed as a trucker and farmer. He performed mission work in more than a dozen countries, he said.

Briggs’ lieutenant governor running mate is Abilene resident Lance Berland, who Briggs said recently performed community service in Colorado to deal with his own legal challenges.

On social media, Berland said “we the people” were engaged in a fight against Republican and Democrat “warmongers,” the “most bloated, wasteful bureaucracy in human history” and “corrupt crony capitalists.” He claimed businessman George Soros, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett were involved in demise of U.S. freedom.

“We have been played, and Americans killed, by our own government and the ultra-wealthy non-citizens who dominate our nation from Davos, Geneva, and Brussels,” he said. “These people have perpetuated and delivered the world only racism, eugenics, war, toxicity, disease and unnecessary deaths by the hundreds of millions. These people serve only themselves and the devil.”

He also expressed disappointment Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden were convinced by the “global health mafia” to recommend Americans be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/27/kansas-gop-governor-candidate-arrested-on-felony-charge-plunges-ahead-with-campaign/