From the early 1980s until 2007, Jim Haines was in executive management of Kansas Gas & Electric, Western Resources, and Westar Energy with a break when he was an executive at El Paso Electric Company in Texas. Prior to his career in Kansas, Jim was involved in utility regulation with the Missouri Public Service Commission in the mid- to late 1970s. Jim was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan where he began his post-secondary education at the Jackson Community College. He earned degrees from the University of Missouri Columbia in English Literature and Law. Jim taught at Washburn University as the Clark Distinguished Professor of Business and at the University of Texas at El Paso as the Skov Professor of Business Ethics. Jim’s work in the non-profit sector includes serving as [a member of the Boards of Directors of] the Land Institute and the Climate and Energy Project, along with many other community organizations in Kansas and Texas.

In this interview, Jim Haines describes his long career in the electric utility industry in Kansas during a tumultuous time. He talks about changes in the energy marketplace and in regulations regarding fuel types, safety, and the environment. He also identifies changes that enabled utilities to achieve economies of scale through mergers and acquisitions. Haines talks about the difficult years during which Wolf Creek, Kansas' only nuclear power plant, was under construction, including the public resistance to the plant and the push-back at many levels as construction costs escalated. In this discussion, Haines places the construction and initial operation of Wolf Creek in the specific context of Kansas as well as the general context of the U.S. nuclear power industry of the 1980s.