Legislation Would Ensure Lowest Energy Cost Options
NFIB, or the National Federation of Independent Business, testified in support of legislation that would provide energy certainty and ensure lowest cost options for small business owners across Kansas. NFIB Kansas represents the consensus views of its over 4,000 members in Kansas.
Dan Murray, NFIB’s State Director for NFIB here in Kansas, testified in support of the bill for the House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee.
“Senate Bill 24 would create the Kansas Energy Choice Act. The Act would prohibit a municipality from taking any action that would limit a customer’s use of a service from a public utility based upon the source of the energy to be delivered to the customer. This bill would provide certainty to most small business owners who list energy costs as some of their top concerns,” said Murray.
In our most recent Small Business Problems and Priorities, NFIB found that energy costs continue to be a significant problem for small business owners. Out of 75 problems surveyed, small business owners ranked “Electricity Costs/Rates” as the 16th problem of importance and “Cost of Natural Gas, Propane, etc” as their 19th biggest concern. Additionally, according to a recent survey of our members in Kansas, when asked if Kansas municipalities should adopt ordinances that ban the use of types or sources of energy, a whopping 88% of Kansas small business owners replied “NO.”
Small business owners know that natural gas bans will eliminate choice and increase the cost of doing business. Working on slim margins, owners know that all-electric homes and buildings are more expensive to run than those that use natural gas. Small businesses depend on competitively priced energy supplies to operate and that the cost of energy is one of the biggest issues they face. Our members believe the legislature should adopt a statute which would prohibit municipalities from adopting energy restrictions to prevent a patchwork of ordinances and keep energy prices low.
