August News and Events
Voter Registration Deadlines
While lawmakers have ramped up their election season activities such as the annual Fancy Farm picnic this past month, we will use this opportunity as a reminder to get your friends and neighbors to register to vote. The date of the 2024 General Election is November 5, 2024.
The registration deadline for the 2024 General Election is October 7, 2024 4:00 p.m. local time. So there is still time to get family and friends registered!
Registration is easy, and you can find all the information you need at this link!
Lawmaker updates and Legislative News
If you received your copy of our 2024 legislative summary, you may have read our information page on how crypto mining and data centers are presenting new challenges toward our climate goals. But this energy-hungry trend for more data centers is also being driven by the growth of artificial intelligence. For nearly a year, the Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT) has been working on the issue of artificial intelligence technology, and representatives from this office told the Kentucky legislature’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force what the agency has learned and how it’s being used by state government this past week. The focus of the conversation centered around managing information bias, data quality, and accuracy issues. The task force will ultimately provide recommendations on how Kentucky’s use of AI systems would benefit state agencies and the legislative initiatives needed to provide consumer protection in the private and public sectors.
But while this is all good, we need to encourage lawmakers to expand their conversation about the energy use of this technology. A.I. is already having a profound impact on energy demand around the world, it’s often leading to an uptick in planet-warming emissions. It is anticipated that the consumption of electricity for data centers could reach 1,000 terawatts by 2026.
Federal lawmakers such as Senator Markey have been looking at how to set criteria for more sustainable A.I., such as measuring for energy efficiency, water consumption, and materials used. But in the absence of such standards, the landscape is open on how tech companies choose to report on the impact of A.I. While we look forward to future federal proposals, we encourage you to start raising some of these same issues with your local lawmakers.
The next meeting of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force will be September 10th.
As for other legislative news, we also appreciated the article this month from Louisville Public Media’s Joe Sonka which is the latest detailing the lack of transparency in our legislative process. Unlike most states, Kentucky does not require filed or advancing bills to be accompanied by a financial analysis. Sometimes lawmakers ask for them, and sometimes they are “confidential.”
Upcoming Events- KCC Wild and Scenic Festival on August 30th
Order Tickets NOW for our screening of the national Wild and Scenic Film Festival which is a benefit for KCC. We have selected a dozen exciting short films for this year’s event to support of KCC, including films to excite hikers, birders, kayakers, cyclists and all types of outdoor enthusiasts. And of course, our advocacy work to protect the environment is front and center of this roster of films. Tickets are available through our website and must be purchased in advance. Our Foundation will be hosting a Silent Auction once again, which is already live. We are offering this year's screening as an in-person event at Lexington's Farish Theatre, and we are also offering the films virtually if you can't join us in person. Our thanks to our title sponsor this year, Republic Bank.
The Inaugural Kentucky Climate Symposium will be held on September 26, 2024, at the University of Kentucky Gatton Student Center in Lexington, Kentucky.
The day-long symposium brings together students and experts from higher education, government, industry, media, and communities to share information and resources on climate change. The Symposium features moderated panel conversations, networking opportunities, and a student art competition. Attendees will join a multisector, interdisciplinary, statewide community that emphasizes climate change solutions.
Latest Actions to Take
Energy Democracy: KCC is working with allies to get the public more engaged in providing public comments on important energy cases before the PSC. We are one of the many members of Kentuckians for Energy Democracy (K4ED) which is a network of organizations working to ensure equitable and resilient utility systems that protect our health, environment and climate. Right now we are soliciting comments on Kentucky Power’s Energy Efficiency Demand-Side Management case before the PSC. Learn more here.
Letcher County Prison Project: The Federal Bureau of Prisons is targeting a reclaimed mining site in Letcher County for further exploitation under an empty promise of economic development. Over 120 acres of forest habitat and two acres of wetlands will be destroyed, endangering watersheds and wildlife. We need you to tell the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that Kentuckians demand a better use of half a billion dollars in federal funding than an unnecessary prison in a county still recovering from the devastating 2022 floods. Continuing to build new prisons and funnel millions of dollars into mass incarceration is not a path forward for a greener Kentucky.
Help our partners at the Kentucky Sierra Club with this issue by using this link!
We need your KCC history stories!
Next year, the Kentucky Conservation Committee will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. We want to be able to celebrate not only the history of this organization, but all of YOU and our partner groups who contributed to our advocacy work during these past five decades.
The idea that became the Kentucky Conservation Committee was formed in 1975 following a panel discussion on the University of Kentucky campus, where the theme for the panel included the need for an organized lobbying presence in Frankfort FOR the environment - to try to offset or respond to the lobbyist against the environment.
We know there are many stories out there that will tell the history of how far we have come. We would love to hear your stories so that our history is complete for this anniversary! Please contact us so that we can collect your stories and pictures!
Transmission and our clean energy challenges
Wind and solar generated more power than coal through the first seven months of the year, federal data shows, in a first for renewable resources. The milestone had been long expected due to a steady stream of coal plant retirements and the rapid growth of wind and solar. Last year, wind and solar outpaced coal through May before the fossil fuel eventually overtook the pair when power demand surged in the summer.
So while this is good news, as we build out our clean energy economy, we inevitably will find new challenges to overcome. Electric transmission line mileage will need to triple by the middle of this century to make a net-zero carbon grid a reality, according to estimates cited by the U.S. Department of Energy.
That is why their Energy’s Grid Deployment office, for example, has been offering grants through the Inflation Reduction Act, designed to advance critical transmission projects to help make the grid more resilient and to prepare for the increase in clean energy. While there were no Kentucky projects in the first round of these grants, we are dealing with our own transmission challenges.
For example, we had been hearing about Eastern Kentucky Power Co-Operatives Big Hill Line transmission project for a while now..a project that would go through east-central Kentucky areas of the Pinnacles, Owsley Fork, Red Lick and Big Hill near Berea. East Kentucky Power Cooperative is proposing a substation and a new 8.5 mile, 100ft. wide easement for a power line that will cut through the Upper Red Lick and then Big Hill Valley.
And finally…The Art of Activism
Some days the work we do as environmental activists can be challenging, stressful and sometimes down right frustrating, especially during a summer of heat that reminds us how the planet is changing. But this month we found a bright spot of creativity in Lexington, as part of a series called the “Summer of Solarpunk” with exhibit called “All Power on Earth Comes from the Sun” at the Bolivar Gallery at the University of Kentucky. The exhibit runs through August 23rd, so check it out!