Topeka ? House Speaker Melvin Neufeld says the “cleaner” western Kansas coal-fired power plants should be built, and the Lawrence Energy Center coal-burning plant shut down because of carbon dioxide emissions.

Neufeld’s comments were published recently by the Hillsboro Free Press after he spoke to the Learning in Retirement Program at Tabor College.

“What we really need to do, and what the goal is, is to get (a base-load plant) built and the transmission lines built and shut down the seventh dirtiest coal plant in America – the one at Lawrence,” said Neufeld, R-Ingalls.

“The Lawrence people are opposed to the cleaner one – the Holcomb plant is supposed to be the cleanest and lowest emissions of any plant in the nation. But they don’t want to trade. So we need to build something like that and shut down the Lawrence unit and clean up the air,” he said.

State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said Neufeld’s comments may stem from his frustration about the decision by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to deny permits for the two 700-megawatt coal-burning plants near Holcomb.

“I understand the concerns of western Kansas, but I hope this doesn’t become an east Kansas versus west Kansas issue,” Ballard said.

State Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, a national energy expert, said Neufeld’s suggestion to shut down the Lawrence Energy Center is “neither feasible nor desirable.”

Sloan added, “We have to look at energy needs statewide.”

On Oct. 18, KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby stunned Sunflower Electric Power Corp. by rejecting the plants, citing concerns about carbon dioxide emissions and global climate change. Lawrence City Commission had officially opposed Sunflower’s plants.

Hays-based Sunflower has appealed the decision, which is now before the Kansas Supreme Court.

Part of Sunflower’s arguments is that it isn’t fair for KDHE to stop its proposal based on CO2 emissions when there are other plants in Kansas emitting carbon dioxide.

Westar Energy Inc.’s Lawrence Energy Center was ranked this year by an environmental group as one of the worst in the nation in “dirty kilowatts” for emitting 4.18 million tons of carbon dioxide while producing 3.26 million megawatt hours of electricity in 2006.

The western Kansas plants would have emitted about 11 million tons of CO2 per year. Approximately 85 percent of the power would have been sold out of state.

When asked to elaborate on Neufeld’s comments, his spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag said he had no plans to try to shut down the Lawrence Energy Center.

Jones-Sontag said Neufeld was trying to make the point that if cleaner-burning coal-fired plants are constructed then less efficient ones could be taken out of the mix and the environment will benefit.

“He wants the state to work toward a sound energy policy that will benefit the short- and long-term energy needs of the state,” she said.