Kansas Energy Office

The Kansas Energy Office (KEO) was created by statute in 1975, attached to the Governor's Office in legislation that also provided for the establishment of a Governor's Energy Advisory Council. The State Energy Coordinator, a governor-created position, had been created in 1973 and was replaced by this Energy Office. In 1978 the KEO was reorganized and given independent status as a separate state agency, and the Energy Advisory Council also changed and became part of the KEO. The mission of the KEO was to assist the people of Kansas in adapting to changing energy realities of the 1970s, which were precipitated by an increasing national dependence on imported oil and by the long-term depletion of the world's fossil fuel resources. The Kansas Energy Office had responsibilities to propose a comprehensive state energy strategy to the state's public decision-makers; assume a key role in pursuing the plan's implementation; serve as an information and analysis resource for the Governor and Legislature in their energy policy deliberations; provide direct assistance to Kansas citizens as they sought or were required to modify and alter their energy use behavior; and, when necessary, minimize threats to the public welfare which might have been posed by energy product shortages. The Kansas Energy Office was abolished in 1983, and its duties and responsibilities were transferred to the Kansas Corporation Commission. [Secretary of State. Kansas Biennial Report. Topeka: Secretary of State, 1980.] [ Kansas Statutes Annotated, KSA 74-68. http://kansasstatutes.lesterama.org/Chapter_74/Article_68/#74-6801 (accessed 5 May 2009).]