Kansas Gas & Electric Co. v. Kansas Corporation Comm'n

The opinion of the court was delivered by This is a consolidation of three appeals by three electrical utilities from orders of the State Corporation Commission (KCC) granting in part and denying in part the requests of the utilities for rate increases due to the commercial operations of the Wolf Creek Generating Station (Wolf Creek) near Burlington, Kansas. The three utilities are Kansas Gas and Electric Company (KGE), Kansas City Power and Light Company (KCPL), and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (KEPCo). The KCC is the appellee. There are also a number of intervenors, including the Kansas Attorney General and various individuals and organizations representing interested citizens and the public. Historical Background The legal issues presented in this case are not peculiar to Kansas but are the natural result of the national controversy over the construction of nuclear power plants which has developed over the past thirty years. On December 8, 1953, in his address to the United Nations, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced his ""Atoms for Peace"" program. Among other subjects, he spoke of using the atom ""to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind."" He spoke of providing abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world and envisioned the cooperation of the nations of the world to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind. The possibility that nuclear energy could be used to improve rather than to destroy the world excited most Americans. Today, three decades later, the future of nuclear [239 Kan. 486]