After months of study, a majority of the task force made two recommendations: For the near term, add an additional coal power plant locally. For the long term, expand efforts to encourage energy efficiency.

Around 225 CU customers have chosen to have their electric needs supplied by a wind farm in Kansas. They pay about twice as much for electric power as other CU customers. But there's no way wind could supply electricity for everyone in Springfield. We would have a lot of hours in the year with no power if we did that, Twitty said. Of course, a blackout is one way to conserve.