Advocating electric in the heartland
Kansas City EAA chapter members challenge government regulation as part of their efforts to support clean energy
Members of the Mid-America EAA show-off different types of EVs, including a lawn mower.
Members of Mid-America Electric Auto Association (MAEAA), straddling KansasCity and stretching into Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, have been active in challenging two pieces of legislation in the Kansas State Legislature, including a 2019 ordinance to level a demand charge on the state’s solar-powered homes.
“These homeowners generate their electricity and many of them put energy back into the grid, and they’ve still had to pay these ridiculous charges,” said MAEAA President Al Pugsley. “You buy your own solar panels, you power your house and your car, and the utility wants to get paid for your doing that.”
MAEAA chapter members wrote letters in protest of the ordinance to their legislators, and member Clyde Schwanke, who lives in Topeka, has attended a long succession of legislative hearings.
“I’m the unofficial guy keeping tabs on what happens legislatively in Kansas,” said Schwanke, noting that he has testified at hearings way more times than he can remember. This has been in addition to the time he spends generating publicity for the causes in question, successfully getting the demand fee issue in the local news on several occasions.
Clyde Schwanke’s backyard in Topeka, complete with his Nissan LEAF and Ford C=max Plugin
“The Topeka TV stations are always looking for someone to interview, and because I have a solar array in my backyard, I’m kind of the poster child for our cause,” he explained.
“The utilities see privately owned solar panels as competition, so they’re pulling any trick they can to discourage people from putting panels on their roofs,” Schwanke continued. “They’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for lobbyists. Their claim is that everyone in the state is somehow subsidizing the use of residential solar panels—that the utilities maintain power lines to our homes and that we’re not paying our fair share—when in reality the data shows they’re actually making money off of us.”
With the support of the Sierra Club and other organizations, the ordinance was challenged legally and eventually landed in the Kansas Supreme Court where it was ruled illegal last April.
“It was a great win, but 10 months later, we’re still paying the demand fees,” Schwanke said, explaining that he recently attended another round of hearings regarding the government’s Kansas Corporation Commission’s plans to make up for the lost ordinance revenue.
“The KCC has recommended a $35 per month minimum charge for all Evergy customers in Kansas, and now we’re waiting for the KCC to issue a ruling reflecting that,” Schwanke explained. “The $35 fee is fine for me, but it would mean a rise in utility fees for Kansans who have very low energy usage. There would be no incentive for them to use less electricity. T
Not always a win
On another front, the Mid-America chapter was on the losing side in a challenge to a tax leveled on electric and hybrid vehicle (EV) owners in Kansas.
“It’s theoretically supposed to make up for loss of gas tax revenue, but it’s just not fair,” said Schwanke. “I had to pay an extra $100 for registering my Nissan LEAF this year, but the car has never been out of Topeka. For hybrids, there’s a $50 charge.”
“If you own an EV with a limited range and you just drive it in town, there’s no reason you should have to pay the tax,” he continued. “Sure, if you have a Tesla with a 300-mile range and you’re using the highways, it’s a different story.”
“What’s so aggravating is that the tax was supported by the Koch brothers with the obvious intention of discouraging electric vehicles,” Schwanke continued.“They’re just putting up one more barrier to make sure people keep buying gas guzzlers.”
Schwanke found himself attending all of the hearings on this legislation. “I’m sure there’s a big red flag on my file,” he said. “If someone googled me, they’d think I was some kind of radical environmentalist.”
Connecting with the like-minded
Before the pandemic, Schwanke traveled the 150 mile round trip to Kansas City the second Sunday of every month for the MAEAA meetings in a public library in Overland Park, Kansas. More recently, the gatherings have been online.
“I’ve probably had the best attendance record of anyone in the chapter,” Schwanke boasts. “When the meetings are in person, it gives me an excuse to go to Kansas City.”
Like Schwanke, many of the chapter members have been around for years, some since the chapter’s founding in the 1990’s when activity centered around car conversions. Of late, vehicles owned by club members range from electric autos to trucks to motorcycles to tractors, some of the latter variety converted to snow plows in the winter.
Individual chapter members are active in climate and energy projects in both Kansas and Missouri, and many participate in National Drive Electric Week and other events, often under the auspices of the Metropolitan Energy Center. The chapter has hosted an annual Earth Day event at a local high school, and works with Johnson Community College with events held in the school’s quad.
“We give presentations about EVs at the Kiwanis Club, the Lion’s Club, the Rotary Club… We were promoting as much as we could before COVID, and we’ll get back to it as soon as we all get vaccinated,” Pugsley said. “We show a PowerPoint, and depending on the weather and the insurance situation, we take people for test rides.”
“I always tell them the same thing,” Pugsley continued about the passengers who ride in his Tesla. “Put your head against the headrest and get ready for take-off.”
Heartland road trips
Before the pandemic, chapter members traveled to Lexington, Missouri, 70 miles from Kansas City.
“We had a member move to Lexington who had worked diligently to get charging stations installed in town. We wanted to support him by showing up in our EVs and using the chargers,” Pugsley said “We had 10 members on the trip. We had lunch, went to a museum with displays on electric charging, and we showed our EVs to the community. “
Additionally, the chapter attends a yearly electric co-op meeting in a large warehouse in Liberty, Missouri. “We take four cars up there and we park inside the space. We pass out brochures and talk about EVs.”
As for the future, Pugsley said MAEAA is interested in advocating for charging installations in apartment and condominium buildings.
“The activity of our membership reflects the rising interest in EVs,” he concluded. “We’re all eager to leave fossil fuels behind.”