US red states making fastest progress on clean energy

New York

TWO years ago, Kansas repealed a law requiring that 20 per cent of the state's electric power come from renewable sources by 2020, seemingly a step backward on energy in a deeply conservative state.

Yet, by the time the law was scrapped, it had become largely irrelevant. Kansas blew past that 20 per cent target in 2014, and last year it generated more than 30 per cent of its power from wind. The state may be the first in the country to hit 50 per cent wind generation in a year or two, unless Iowa gets there first.