Power plant construction alarms Sierra Club

Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Sierra Club has raised global warming concerns about a planned 1,400 megawatt coal power plant in Holcomb.

The conservation society is suing the state of Kansas for not allowing a full hearing about the construction of the plant.

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If we make power so expensive people on the lower end of the economic spectrum cannot afford it, that’s a problem.

-Steve Miller. senior manager of external affairs at Sunflower Energy

Bruce Nilles, attorney with The Sierra Club, said it wants a chance to bring in experts to argue why the plant should not be built in Holcomb, a town in mid-western Kansas.

The power plant is set to be built in two phases next to an existing 360 megawatt coal power plant. Each phase will contain one coal burning unit, capable of generating 700 megawatts of electricity. One phase of the plant would generate enough electricity to power more than 11.5 million 60 watt light bulbs. Construction for the first phase will begin in early 2008, and construction for the second phase will begin a year later.

Nilles said the large power plant would set the U.S. back in regards to environmental protection.

“The largest source of global warming in the U.S. is coal-burning power plants,” Nilles said. “We need to start cutting our pollution, not increasing it.”

But Steve Miller. senior manager of external affairs at Sunflower Energy, the company backing the power plant, sees the issue as a matter of supply and demand.

“Coal is the least expensive form of electricity,” Miller said. “If we make power so expensive people on the lower end of the economic spectrum cannot afford it, that’s a problem.”

One of the ways Sunflower is trying to appease environmentalists is by scaling back the size of the plant, Miller said. The original design called for three phases of construction with three coal burning units instead of two.

Miller said Sunflower also hopes to make the plant carbon neutral, meaning it would compensate for all the carbon dioxide emissions it produced using a complex chain of systems.

Algae would be used to recover carbon dioxide from the plant. Miller said the system would be the first of its kind.

The energy from the plant would go to seven states. The first phase of the plant would serve Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The second phase would serve Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico.

Robin Pena, city administrator, said that citizens in Holcomb would see benefits from the power plant.

Holcomb could see a population increase from the new plant because of the new jobs it would create.

Pena said Sunflower Energy would also contribute significantly to the school district through property taxes.

Kansan staff writer Joe Hunt can be contacted at jhunt@kansan.com.

— Edited by Mark Vierthaler

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