Tell BPU: There’s a way to make Kansas City air cleaner and electrical bills lower | Opinion
As a health care worker, I care for people who have problems getting air into their lungs. Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, long COVID-19 and others impact many residents of the Kansas City area. More than 200,000 adults here have asthma, along with nearly 50,000 children. That's just a small snapshot of our neighbors who struggle to breathe.
People with respiratory illness already have a hard enough time breathing right — they don't need anything to make that job harder. Unfortunately, pollution is one of the key factors that exacerbate respiratory problems , and the Kansas City metropolitan area is in the top 20 cities for particulate pollution. There are many pollution culprits in the city, but I want to talk about one pollution source that our city could eliminate right away: the coal-fired Nearman Creek Power Plant, located near the Missouri River in Wyandotte County.
The Nearman coal plant causes three deaths per year according to the Sierra Club, as well as 39 asthma attacks and almost 180 work loss days. The impacts are felt throughout the metropolitan area: Soot pollution from the smokestacks of coal plants can travel and make people sick, even far away from the coal plant itself. Pollution makes people ill, and many respiratory illnesses are directly linked to pollution. Those medical bills add up, for families and for Kansas City taxpayers. According to the American Lung Association , Wyandotte County gets a D for particulate pollution.
Kansas City, Kansas' Board of Public Utilities could change that. And pollution is not the only reason that the BPU should move quickly to retire the Nearman Creek plant. Keeping Nearman operational is costing Kansas City residents way too much money. Every Kansas City household is paying approximately an extra $500 a year just to keep this old power plant afloat — all while its pollution is making us sick.
That extra $500 a year is a lot, and for someone relying on medical devices powered by electricity, being able to afford an electric bill can literally be a matter of life and death. If someone can't afford their utility bill, they can't use their life-preserving medical equipment. Many medical devices like ventilators, oxygen concentrators, and dialysis machines rely entirely on electricity to function, meaning a power disruption can have severe consequences for the user's health.
There is no policy that protects individuals with unpaid bills from a shutoff, even if it might mean no access to medical devices. The only policy the BPU currently has in place is for power restoration after power outages. And even then, it can't guarantee power will be restored any faster. The BPU advises individuals with medical needs to have backup generators (more money) or completely relocate until power is restored. Neither option is a good one, and it places the burden solely on individuals to figure it out.
Fortunately for Kansas Citians, BPU has a solution available to help alleviate pollution and lessen the burden of electric bills immediately: Shut down Nearman, immediately lower electric bills, and immediately make our air cleaner. We have enough electricity sources available to power Kansas City without needing to resort to an aging, dirty coal plant.
The BPU can also create a better lifesaving policy for people with medical devices. Its first priority should be to eliminate shutoffs for lack of payment if a medical device is needed.
We've seen the BPU moving in the right direction in recent months. The BPU loses public comment on its proposed plan to produce electricity on Nov. 6. Now, we urge it to seize this opportunity to step up and be bold leaders who prioritize the well-being of the people it serves.
Stefon King is a respiratory therapist in the Kansas City area.
