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Legislature approves coal power plants

By Amanda Thompson

Monday, March 9, 2009

The Kansas House and Senate each passed bills last week that gave a thumbs-up for Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build two new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb in western Kansas. The Senate approved the bill 31-9, and the House approved the bill 79-44.

Thomas Overly, Louisburg graduate student and geography major, said although he expected the House and Senate to approve the bill, which would allow for construction of the coal plants, he was disappointed by the decision.

“There are other more sustainable forms of energy that we could be investigating and harnessing,” Overly said. “But we’re still catering to special interests.”

The Senate passed its bill with a veto-proof majority, but the House didn’t get the 84 votes it needed for a two-thirds majority that would have given it power to overturn a possible veto from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

“I would guess that the governor would probably have some pretty good leverage this spring to veto and then have the veto sustained,” Brooks said.

It was not the first time the legislature battled over the proposed coal plants. In October 2007, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Rod Bremby refused to issue a permit to Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build the coal plants because of possible violations to the Air Quality Act.

Brooks said even if Sebelius vetoed the bill this time, supporters of the coal plants would be persistent in trying to get the project approved in the future once she left Kansas for her new position as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“In the spring 2008 legislative session the supporters really tried three separate times to go over the top of the governor. That shows a pretty high level of commitment,” Brooks said. “But the governor was able to hold her supporters together against it, which is also a pretty high level of commitment.”

Brooks said supporters of the coal plants usually cited the need to jump-start the western Kansas economy and creating jobs as primary reasons for wanting to build.

“I suspect that supporters of the plants would say they want to make Kansas self-sufficient in electronic energy and to sell energy and use the revenue in Kansas,” Brooks said.

Overly said he didn’t think the economy was a good reason to pursue the coal plants.

“Investigating and pursuing alternative forms of energy will also create jobs and help the economy,” Overly said. “You can create new jobs with a prison, but that doesn’t mean it will improve the community’s well-being.”

Brooks said although the ball was now in Sebelius’s court, it could be a while before a final decision was reached.

“It’s pretty early in the legislative process,” Brooks said. “There are still a lot of cards to play in this game,”

— — Edited by Grant Treaster

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