Topeka — More than five months after the state environmental agency closed the public comment period on the proposed coal-fired power project in western Kansas, no decision's come yet on whether to allow it.
And officials say there is no timetable on when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will issue its decision.
"It's still the same," Joe Blubaugh, a KDHE spokesman, said. "We do not have a set date at this point. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Officials with Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corp. are eagerly awaiting KDHE's decision on whether two, or possibly three, 700-megawatt coal-burning plants can be built near Holcomb next to Sunflower's existing 360-megawatt plant.
"We wished we would've had the answer long ago, but we're confident KDHE is doing a good job at doing their job," Steve Miller, Sunflower spokesman, said.
Meanwhile, much has occurred since mid-December when KDHE took the proposal under advisement. Plans for the plant have drawn strong opposition from environmentalists concerned about carbon dioxide emissions. Many scientists believe carbon dioxide, or CO2, emissions produce disastrous climate change, but neither the federal government nor the state regulates the gases.
Late last month, Lawrence environmentalists Sarah and Ray Dean filed a lawsuit saying that KDHE needs to impose restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal.
"We must turn the tide against global warming, and reducing C02 emissions is an excellent place to begin," Sarah Dean said.
The Deans point to a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which it ruled 5-4 that greenhouse gas emissions are an air pollutant and ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its refusal to control those emissions.
Sunflower Electric officials have defended the proposed project, saying the new plants would burn cleaner than older coal-fired plants.
The Sierra Club also has filed a lawsuit, demanding that KDHE have a formal hearing on the controversial project.
The Sierra Club said KDHE denied its request for a "quasi judicial hearing" on Sunflower's application.
Yvonne Anderson, chief legal counsel for KDHE, said the agency will seek dismissal of the lawsuits.
Anderson argues that regulation of C02 should be decided on the federal level before states get involved.
"The feds need to adopt them (regulations) first," Anderson said. "CO2 doesn't stop at the border," she said.
As far as the Sierra Club lawsuit goes, Anderson said KDHE followed appropriate rules in the permit process and had three public hearings. If the agency grants a permit, she said, opponents can challenge the action in court.
"They have due process," she said.
Another development in the proposal occurred in April when Tri-State Generation and Transmission, one of the project partners, announced it would delay construction of one of the units planned near Holcomb. The Westminster, Colo.-based company said it plans to pursue other natural gas and renewable energy plants to serve customers.
In addition, the Lawrence City Commission has urged KDHE to deny the permit because of environmental concerns, as have the attorneys general from eight states - California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, Sunflower Electric says it remains committed to the project, although it concedes that if the plan is approved, the hearings and potential legal appeals will delay the start of construction from this year to next.
"It's been longer than we would've preferred," Miller said, adding, "It's been our observation that the agency (KDHE) is being very deliberate and careful in its work."
Comments
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just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
"Many scientists believe carbon dioxide, or CO2, emissions produce disastrous climate change, "
No, this is incorrect. Nearly ALL scientists believe this.
lunacydetector (anonymous) says…
the kooky people of lawrence think they can control the world.....
teacher4ku (anonymous) says…
The Lawrence City Commission needs to worry about Lawrence, not what is going on in western Kansas. If they are so worried about global warming, maybe they should take a serious look at a good public transportation system for Lawrence to get more traffic off of the streets. Instead of trying to find fault everywhere else, maybe they should look in the mirror.
Lifelong_Lawrencian (anonymous) says…
I've never heard an explanation in any of the multitude of articles on the subject just how big a 700MW power plant is. Well here it is. Lawrence Energy Center is 539MW, Wolf Creek nuclear power plant is only 548. Three 700MW plants in addition to an existing 360MW plant would be huge. Clearly this company as well as many others across the country are trying to get these last cheap coal plants approved and built before legislation and public opinion make it impossible. Kansas has a surplus of energy. Our electricity is about 7.5 cents/KWh, whereas the national average is close to 10 cents/KWh.
Newell_Post (anonymous) says…
Someone ask them how much uranium goes up the stack of a coal plant and how many deaths-per-plant-operating-year result from same.
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/r...
hanni213 (anonymous) says…
I guess if caring about the environment, not being afraid to speak up for our rights, and doing everything in our power to assure that our children have a future on this planet makes us kooky...then there are a lot of kooky people here in Lawrence. So we aren't sheep...that is probably why I chose Lawrence as my home.
Coal burning is a bad idea no matter how you look at it. Some people are afraid that windmills would "uglyfy" the country side. Wait until the people living next to the coal burning plant see the mess they will have on their hands. I grew up in an area with a coal burning plant. Soot covered everything for a several miles radius. May as well start painting the houses black...might start a new trent. All that aside...I hear from some environmental mail I received that the company wanting to build this plant owns the coal mine they want to use for the coal burning supply. To top this off the coal in this mine has a very high mercury content, just lovely! The majority of the electricity produced is supposed to be supplying Colorado. See they have stricter laws there and are not allowed to build the plant there.
So is it that we are just kooky, or maybe really do have some reasonable concerns.
snowWI (anonymous) says…
Also, here is a website that lists the locations of all the power plants in the US. The information is a little old but it lists the CO2 emissions, SO2 emissions, NO2 Emissions, and mercury emissions of each coal plant. The Jaffrey Energy Center east of Manhattan is one of the dirtiest coal power plants in the entire country. Westar has not implemented the most strict anti-pollution control devices on coal power plants that were built in the 1950s! The proposed Holcomb plants would be the largest new source of CO2 emissions in the entire country, and would produce well over 10 million tons of man-made carbon dioxide every year. Cheap electricity comes at a high environmental price, especially since Kansas does not have as many environmental regulations compared to more progressive states.
To see if you live near a power plant look at this website:
http://www.cleartheair.org/dirtypower...
hanni213 (anonymous) says…
Absolutely true. What I don't understand is that Gov.Sebelius evidently put a stop to the plan of building windmills...supposedly constituents didn't want windmills, because they are unattractive.
I can't help but wonder if there has not been pressure on the legislature, by lobbists of the industry, to build the coal burning plant instead. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there had been some lucrative exchanges/promises made. Let's face it...it's all about the mighty buck.
hanni213 (anonymous) says…
....they make themselves wealthy at the expense of the environment, health and future of the population. Then feed propaganda to the general pupulation through main stream media, such as the LJW, that those who oppose "progress" are just a bunch of liberal "kooky" Lawrencians.
drewdun (anonymous) says…
lunacydetector's name is, um, ironic?
JSpizias (anonymous) says…
Some very respectable scientists question whether the emission of CO2 as a result of combustion of hydrocarbons is causually related to the observed small increase in global temperature and that it will lead to catastrophic results if emission of CO2 is not drastically cut. As any scientist knows, causuallity in complex systems such as climate is extremely difficult to clearly establish. I suggest those who are more scientifically inclined watch the video at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...
Also, take the time to examine carefully the detailed surveys of climatologists from the US and many other countries regarding this issue.
http://w3g.gkss.de/staff/bray/BrayGKS...
Note also that most of the CO2 produced is not due to combustion but is the product of heterotrophic and autotrophic respiration occuring predominantly in the seas.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Carbon...
Essentially all of the most dire predictions about the effect of increased levels of CO2 are based on complex mathematical models, models about which a large fraction of the climatologists surveyed have significant concerns. Moreover, the effects of deforestation appear to differ significantly for temperate and tropical zones. Thus, simplistic conclusions about the effects of deforestation on global climate do not appear to be justified.
lunacydetector (anonymous) says…
...ummmm, just tired of apologizing everywhere else in this state when i say i'm from lawrence.
try it if you ever get ambitious and go to another city that isn't nearby. say, "i'm from lawrence!" then notice the raised eyebrows. just tired of explaining that i'm not a socialist nor one of the kooks of lawrence. then i say, i wish they (the kooks of lawrence) would move back home. they have almost driven our town bankrupt. a past mayor is a published anarchist. things are real bad in lawrence. people are leaving, taxes are outageous - even the chamber promotes tax increases, the city has restricted businesses into oblivion.
then, these people, no matter where, all say, "the problem is, it's those people from KU who never made it in the real world."
...and i have to agree, because it's true.
jwils02p (anonymous) says…
The argument that Lawrence need not worry about what is going on in Western Kansas is flawed. At the very least this is a regional issues that encompasses five states (Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico). Kansas as a whole has a huge stake in this argument, but Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico have an almost equal stake with regards to this power plant. The third and possibly fourth units at the power plant are to be controlled by Tri-State Generation and Transmission from Colorado. This cooperative of rural electric cooperatives in a 4 state areas has been in constant turmoil since Tri-State began to try and strong-arm its cooperatives into extending their contracts an additional ten years. Tri-State's processor Colorado Ute went bankrupt in the late 80's and 3000 people on the western slope of Colorado lost their jobs. Those in Western Kansas should dig into the larger partnerships that are being made at the Holcomb site. They should look into the finances of those companies and make sure that people in Western Kansas don't end up jobless if hard times hit Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming or New Mexico.
Justin