The end of daylight saving time is this weekend in the Midwest, which means clocks will “fall back” one hour. Most of the U.S. begins daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March ahead of spring and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November.
This year, daylight saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 3, at 2 a.m. Instead of seeing 2 a.m. on your smart devices, the time will fall back to 1 a.m.
While people will gain an hour of sleep, it comes at the cost of losing an hour of sunlight.
Here’s what else to know about daylight saving time.
In 2021, federal lawmakers introduced the Sunshine Protection Act, a move that would ensure Americans no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. However, the bill has stagnated in the House of Representatives, so it has not been enacted.
Nineteen other states have passed their own laws to enact permanent daylight saving time, although Kansas and Missouri are not among them. These state laws can’t go into effect without federal approval.
Two states, Arizona and Hawaii, don’t observe the time shift. They live year-round on standard time, which has more light in the morning and less in the evening.
Critics of daylight saving time say more dark mornings could lead to grogginess for commuters and parents who drive their children to school in the cold months.
Other concerns about daylight saving time include:
Disruptions to harvesting schedules for farmers
Interference with religious observances based on solar and lunar time
Potential delays in reworking computer systems programmed to switch twice a year.
Electric utility Evergy will build two new natural gas power plants in Kansas as economic development success increases demand for electricity even as the monopoly plans to retire some coal generation.
Evergy announced Monday it will build the two 705 megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plants. One in Sumner County is expected to start supplying electricity in 2029, and the second in Reno County is expected to come on line in 2030.
“High-efficiency modern natural gas plants will meet the electricity needs for our region’s growing economy,” said David Campbell, Evergy’s chairman, president and CEO, in a statement. “These plants also will bring good paying jobs and tax dollars to Kansas.
“Dispatchable natural gas is an important resource within Evergy’s growing and diverse energy portfolio, complementing our planned investment in wind and solar resources and supporting our commitment to affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity.”
The Reno County plant will be just south of Hutchinson, at the corner of McNew Road and Morgan Avenue. The Sumner County plant will be across from an existing substation a few miles south of Conway Springs.
The news comes after Kansas lawmakers passed two new laws designed to benefit Evergy’s investment in natural gas power plants. That followed testimony from Evergy officials that more power generation was needed by 2030.
Evergy officials said that the “flexible generation” from the two new plants “pairs well with the abundant renewable resource potential in Evergy’s service area and will meet stringent emissions standards.”
Why is Evergy building new natural gas power plants?
Chuck Caisley, an Evergy executive, told Kansas lawmakers that the monopoly needed more generation by 2030 and wanted to build new natural gas plants. He cited growing demand for electricity as well as coal retirements.
Evergy, which provides power in both Kansas and Missouri, has several anticipated coal power plant retirements in the next 10 years. The company’s 2024 integrated resource plan update called for retiring 1,963 megawatts worth of coal generation by 2033. Meanwhile, the corporation would add 2,598 megawatts from natural gas, 1,950 megawatts from solar and 1,250 megawatts from wind.
While there has made a push for more renewable power, like the purchase of the Persimmon Creek wind farm, officials have said energy policy continues to include fossil fuel generation that can be ramped up during periods of peak demand, especially during summer and winter.
“A diverse generation mix is helpful,” Caisley said. “So I mean, our wind over the last week has played a significant role in keeping the lights on. Now, it fluctuates so much that it’s good to have baseload dispatchable generation underneath it. And by and large, that is fossil fuel derived right now.”
Caisley told the House energy committee in January that Evergy Kansas had excess capacity of about 400 megawatts, which is equivalent to about four wind farms or about half a coal power plant. However, the excess was expected to disappear by the end of the decade.
That is especially due to economic development in the state adding new, large electric customers — particularly Panasonic’s electric vehicle battery plant in De Soto.
“Kansas is experiencing record economic growth, and Evergy is prepared to deliver the reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy needed,” said Gov. Laura Kelly. “Evergy’s multi-billion dollar investment brings direct value to the Hutchinson and Sumner County areas in jobs and tax dollars. It also ensures Kansas can continue to invite business growth that benefits the entire state.”
“We’re pleased to make this investment in communities we serve,” Campbell said. “As Kansas and Missouri are seeing historic opportunities for attracting new businesses to our area, Evergy is committed to providing the affordable, reliable and sustainable energy our customers need. This growth benefits all customers by helping to hold down prices.”
Then there is the scheduled retirement of a Lawrence coal unit in 2028. Evergy would likely keep it open “as long as that is a viable plant from a cost perspective and as long as we need the generation,” Caisley said, but Environmental Protection Agency requirements could require “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of environmental controls to that plant, making it not “financially viable to operate anymore.”
“Right now, coal is not viable to build,” Caisley said. “Natural gas is.”
While Evergy has the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant, the company indicated it is not looking to add more nuclear in the near future.
“Because traditional nuclear is too expensive to build, and small modular reactor technology is still evolving, utilities are looking to natural gas as the next baseload fuel,” Laura Lutz, another Evergy official, told the House tax committee in February.
Gov. Laura Kelly has announced Kansas is receiving $9 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act for two projects aimed at mitigating the impact of drought in Kansas.
“Decades of over-appropriation and more frequent droughts have now put communities across Kansas in crisis,” Kelly said. “These projects will be instrumental in our work to increase our state’s water quality and quantity.”
The Kansas Equus Beds Aquifer Recharge, Storage, and Recovery Project near Wichita will receive $7 million. This is a critical supply for more than 20% of municipal, industrial, and irrigation water users in Kansas. The Kansas Voluntary Agreements Program was selected to receive $2 million for the state-implemented Kansas Water Transition Assistance Program in either the Prairie Dog Creek or Rattlesnake Creek Basins.
When fully implemented, the Equus project will recharge the Equus Beds Aquifer, providing water to Wichita at a rate of up to 100 million gallons per day through injection and infiltration of Little Arkansas River diversions into the aquifer in south-central Kansas. The Kansas Water Right Transition Assistance Program will conserve approximately 10,000 acre-feet by rotating temporary land fallowing or permanently retiring water rights.
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Third District Democrat, voted for the Inflation Reduction Act and supported additional federal funding for these projects.
“I’m glad to see resources from the Inflation Reduction Act coming home to Kansas,” Davids said. “The ongoing effects of drought are a persistent threat across our state. This investment is a critical step to protect Kansans’ livelihoods, support the work our farmers do to feed the world and protect the economic security of towns across Kansas.”
This announcement builds upon previous investments of almost $33 million from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for aging infrastructure, water recycling, and WaterSMART projects in Kansas.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes an overall $550 million for domestic water supply projects and $4 billion for water conservation and ecosystem projects in the Colorado River Basin and other areas experiencing similar levels of long-term drought. To date, U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation has announced 222 drought mitigation and 16 domestic water supply projects from Inflation Reduction Act funding for a total of more than $2.5 billion.
Election integrity is paramount to ensuring democracy, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s director does not take the mission lightly.
Jen Easterly and CISA senior advisory Cait Conley spoke with select members of the media from the Mid-America region, which included Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, on Oct. 24, as elections are on the minds of many Americans until the last poll closes on Nov. 5. At stake is the selection of a new president along with many other races at the federal, state and local level.
Easterly said the agency was established following Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Jen Easterly is director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. (Journal photo by Dave Bergmeier.)
In 2024, state and local election officials and workers are on the front lines to ensure that citizens have fair and safe elections. In the past three years, she has traveled the country working with elected officials.
“I have enormous confidence in the security and integrity of election infrastructure because I know how tirelessly those election officials work to ensure that every one of their citizen’s votes are counted as (they were) cast,” Easterly said.
The machines Americans use to vote are not connected to the internet, she said. More than 97% of registered voters will cast their ballots at poll sites where they will have a paper record they can verify, she said. Finally, election officials have put in multiple safeguards, physical security and cyber security to avoid compromise. The processes include pre-election testing of equipment. Post-election audits are also used to ensure accuracy.
Each state handles its election processes differently, which she said helps to provide a secure and resilient system. That means one bad actor cannot impact the outcome of an election for the president.
Easterly said there are threats to democracy from identified bad actors in Russia, Iran and China. Their goals of undermining Americans’ confidence in the integrity and security of election results can sow partisan discord to pit Americans against each other.
“We cannot allow them to do that,” Easterly said.
The negative tone creates distrust, and she is concerned about the safety of election officials, workers who are regular citizens who help at the local level because they believe they are doing the right thing to promote democracy.
If Americans hear of storms that create a power failure or a ransomware attack on an election office, they should have confidence in the integrity of the system to know that their ballots will be counted as they were cast, she said. CISA has been helping with training election officials so they understand what to do.
Conley said sophisticated malware can create the illusion of problems and they can spoof legitimate media outlets to generate misinformation that undermines the integrity of elections.
Easterly and Conley both said candidates, regardless of party affiliation at all levels, have a responsibility to not spread misinformation.
They also stressed the importance of turning to local media and when they have questions about election integrity to reach out to local and state election officials.
CISA serves as the federal government lead in working with the state and local election officials to secure election infrastructure against cyber, physical and operational security risks. The agency has personnel in all 50 states and United States territories that work with election infrastructure stakeholders to shar information; conduct physical security assessments of election facilities; conduct infrastructure resilient surveys; assist with obtaining security clearances and offer resources, training and access to the CISA products and services.
