Economy
Price shocks could hit consumers without more oversight of grid building boom
An aging electric grid, fossil fuel power plant retirements and a massive renewable electricity buildout are all contributing to a boom in transmission and distribution wire projects by electric utilities across the country. In 2020, investor-owned electric utilities spent $25 billion on transmission, up from $23.7 billion in 2019, figures that the Edison Electric Institute, […]
Lack of bidders increasing costs to plug abandoned oil and gas wells in Kentucky
Contractors? have started plugging some of the thousands of oil and gas wells abandoned by the fossil fuel industry across Kentucky, using new federal funding. But a lack of companies able or willing to bid on the work is increasing costs, a Kentucky official said recently.? Kentucky received an initial $25 million grant through the […]
Happy cows, good food, more profits for farmers
NEW CASTLE?— For more than a century Henry County relied on tobacco to keep its farmers and its economy going. For most of the second half of the 20th century a federal program?stabilized the price of tobacco, guaranteeing those farmers a steady, predictable income. That all changed in the new century after Congress ended tobacco […]
Jobs were hard to find in Dawson Springs. Then a tornado struck.
DAWSON SPRINGS — A long line of cars and trucks trails out of downtown, waiting to pick up bags carried by volunteers, cartons of eggs and more from a food pantry giveaway on a cold November morning.? The need is there, said Lisa Barnes, one of the volunteers loading food into each passing vehicle. As […]
Kentucky tornado survivors living in limbo
MAYFIELD?— Makayla Puckett didn’t feel comfortable with talking about what happened until recently. She would speak about that December 2021 night and have to sometimes stop herself, the trauma too much to recollect.? The 25-year-old mother of two kids remembers squeezing into a small closet of their Mayfield home with her partner, the train-like roar […]
Kentucky lags on farm-to-school purchases
The food-service director at Bowling Green Independent Schools will often get texts from a farmer in a neighboring county asking her if she wants the latest produce, like a fresh batch of purple cauliflower.? “We’re not ever going to say no. We can always add something fresh,” said Dalla Emerson. “We try to bake them […]
Kentucky is sacrificing its workforce to lack of affordable child care, lawmakers say
What happens when a promotion and small pay-raise effectively impose an $18,000 penalty on a working parent? It’s not only a hardship on the affected family but also makes it hard for employers — not to mention the state of Kentucky — to build a workforce, according to findings by Kentucky lawmakers who have been […]
$100 million for Kentucky flood recovery in Biden’s disaster-relief request to Congress
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration wants Congress to approve more than $37 billion to help communities throughout the country recover from various natural disasters, including Hurricanes Ian, which battered Florida and the Southeast U.S. in late September, and Fiona, which hit Puerto Rico. The supplemental funding request comes on top of a $9 billion COVID-19 […]