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Texas plan to redraw maps could protect GOP House majority; NYers protest federal budget bill's cuts, policy changes; Ohio Freedom Schools mobilize youth to speak out for public education; MSU studies fire-resistant structures, amid house fires uptick.

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Emil Bove's nomination advances in the Senate. The DOJ requests state voter data. And ICE plans to expand Colorado detention facilities.

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America's 'news deserts' could get worse with massive funding cuts to public broadcasting, federal cuts to AmeriCorps will eliminate volunteers in rural Oregon, and a 140-year-old South Dakota church thrives by welcoming all.

'One Big, Beautiful Bill Act' could hike KS energy bills, cost thousands of jobs

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Monday, June 16, 2025   

An analysis of President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" revealed the measure would increase energy costs, reduce jobs and harm the economies of Kansas and most other states.

The budget reconciliation bill, passed by a single vote in the House, is pending markups and approval in the Senate. The budget package would repeal multiple federal policies, funding programs and tax credits driving American energy manufacturing and deployment.

Daniel O'Brien, senior modeling analyst for the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation, said higher costs would hit the Kansas renewable energy economy hard.

"Kansas is another state that has really high wind penetration," O'Brien pointed out. "Close to 50% of their generation capacity is wind and it's a really cheap resource in Kansas because of the high-capacity factors."

O'Brien noted the bill could cost Kansas 97,000 jobs and shrink the Kansas economy by more than $1 billion by 2030. He added passing it could also slow or halt the state's recent gains in energy and manufacturing by eliminating billions in tax credits and delaying investments.

O'Brien explained the bill is designed to make room in the budget for billions of dollars in tax cuts for mostly wealthy Americans. The analysis estimates the bill's cuts to health care would increase the average American's energy bill by $200-$300 a year and by $900 in some states.

"These tax incentives were really driving development of manufacturing in the United States," O'Brien emphasized. "We see a loss of 840,000 jobs in the next five years if this bill is passed in the state that it exists in the House."

O'Brien stressed the bill would also dramatically slow the deployment of new power generation in Kansas at a time of rapidly growing electricity demand, and cut new electricity capacity by 4.8 gigawatts by 2030.

"Increasing the cost of development of wind in Kansas is something that's really going to harm the agricultural industry," O'Brien underscored. "Because they're losing that revenue that they'd otherwise be gaining by selling electricity back to the grid."

Disclosure: Energy Innovation contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, and Waste Reduction/Recycling. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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