To the editor:

Why would Kansas coal plant companies stoop to bribery, I mean memoranda of understanding, in a desperate attempt to gather support? Consider:

¢ The USDA’s Rural Utilities Service has suspended its loan program to rural power cooperatives for coal plants, citing climate change and rising construction costs. Power plant construction costs are up 130 percent since 2000.

¢ On Wall Street, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley are imposing standards that will make it harder for companies to get financing to build coal-fired plants.

¢ After the budget for the FutureGen experimental heat- and CO2-trapping coal plant nearly doubled, the Energy Department backed out. Plans were scratched.

¢ A federal appeals court unanimously struck down the EPA’s mercury plan, saying the Bush administration ignored the law when it imposed less stringent requirements on power plants.

¢ Carbon taxes arrived in North America. British Columbia enacted a consumer-based tax on carbon emissions, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane and heating fuel. Ontario is shutting down coal plants. In Europe, wind energy employment has more than tripled and is expected to triple again.

We don’t need to build more coal plants. We need to build more imagination.

Jake Vail,
Lawrence