To the editor:

After learning about the proposed expansion for Sunflower Electric’s coal-fired plant in Holcomb, near Garden City, I felt it was important to point out just what this expansion could mean for Kansans. According to the Kansas Sierra Club:

¢ Only 8 percent of the energy generated from this plant will stay in Kansas. The rest will be shipped to Colorado. So while Kansas gets the pollution, Colorado gets the power.

¢ Each year 13 million tons of carbon dioxide, a potent “greenhouse gas,” will be produced.

¢ These plants also are major producers of smog-producing nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which produces “acid rain,” all of which will affect eastern Kansas due to the wind patterns.

¢ Mercury emissions in Kansas are expected to increase by up to 60 percent.

¢ Eight billion gallons of water will be used each year to cool the towers.

¢ Kansas landowners will miss out on the opportunity to generate income from leasing their property to wind plants.

We have better options than dirty, coal-fired power plant technology that will offer new jobs and economic opportunities. And that free, clean and constantly renewable technology is wind. Yet despite having the third-largest wind resources of any state, Kansas has developed only a small wind industry compared with neighboring states. Why?

Fortunately, there is still about a week to make our concerns known to people and agencies that can slow or even stop the construction of these massive, environmentally damaging plants. More information is available at www.kansas.sierraclub.org.

Ann Wilson,

Lawrence