Kansas legislators push back against federal energy regulators ending competitive bids

TOPEKA — Two Kansas legislators asked federal energy regulators to ensure competitive bidding occurs on transmission projects, objecting to policies that handed a southcentral Kansas project to investor-owned utility Evergy without a formal bidding process.

Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins and Rep. Leo Delperdang, Republican chair of the House Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications, submitted a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, expressing concerns about maintaining competition and avoiding monopolies.

They …