KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Commissioners with the Kansas Corporation Commission voted on Wednesday that a proposed merger of Kansas City Power & Light and Westar Energy was not in the public's best interest, imperiling what would have been a $12.2 billion combination of utilities.
The three-member commission _ Pat Apple, Shari Feist Albrecht and Jay Scott Emler _ all agreed with an earlier staff recommendation against the proposed deal.
The Kansas Corporation Commission had argued that the merger, had it been allowed to proceed, would have cost too many Kansas jobs and would saddle Great Plains Energy, the parent company of KCP&L, with too much debt after acquiring Westar.
Great Plains Energy last year announced its plan to buy Westar. To pull it off, Great Plains would buy $8.6 billion of Westar's energy and assume $3.6 billion in debt
Great Plains Energy, the parent company of KCP&L, and Topeka-based Westar had argued that the acquisition would serve 1.5 million customers more efficiently than it could as two separate companies. KCP&L officials predicted $2 billion in savings over a 10-year period would result from a completed deal. The utilities said that investors welcomed the acquisition.
KCP&L serves most of the Kansas City metro area not served by publicly owned utilities. Westar serves much of eastern Kansas.
Environmental groups, the Citizen Utility Ratepayer Board and other utilities including the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Public Utilities joined Kansas Corporation Commission staff in criticizing the proposed merger.
Last December, the Kansas Corporation Commission staff recommended that its commissioners deny the deal with what a KCP&L spokesman had described as unusually critical language.
