Business
Sierra Club wants hearings on new coal-plant proposal
June 22, 2009, 2:41 p.m. Updated June 22, 2009, 4:06 p.m.
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Topeka — Environmentalists on Monday demanded that the state hold public hearings on Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s new proposal to build an 895-megawatt coal-burning power plant in southwest Kansas.
“Building a massive, new polluting coal facility will have serious long-term consequences for Kansas, and the public’s voice should be heard on such an important matter,” said Stephanie Cole, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Sierra Club.
In 2006, Hays-based Sunflower applied for a permit to build three 700-megawatt coal-burning plants near Holcomb. Sunflower then reduced it to two plants. In 2007, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby denied the permit, citing health and environmental concerns from the project’s climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions.
The issue was fought over for two legislative sessions until Gov. Mark Parkinson took office in April. He negotiated a closed-door agreement with Sunflower to allow one 895-megawatt plant.
The Sierra Club said public scrutiny of the new proposal is needed because it is vastly different from the earlier one, and three years have passed since the initial public comment period. The organization wants hearings to be held in Lawrence, Topeka and Garden City -- similar to a public hearing schedule that was undertaken when Sunflower initially applied for project permits.
In the first go-round, the Lawrence hearing was so crowded that KDHE had to hold two hearings.
Cindy Hertel, a spokeswoman for Sunflower, said the company was in the process of re-submitting information to KDHE but didn’t know if there would be a new application process.
“We will do whatever is necessary as the rules require,” she said. KDHE said it received a revised permit application Friday.
Parkinson’s office said the governor believes public input is an important part of the process “and he trusts that KDHE will allow for public input when it is appropriate.”
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22 June 2009
at 3:35 p.m.
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tunahelper (Anonymous) says…
environ-whackos are gonna lose. get over it, the coal plant will be built.
p.s. move back to california and new york, you are not welcome here. silly leftists.
22 June 2009
at 3:58 p.m.
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newmedia (Anonymous) says…
Given the state of the wacko's in the current day and age if Sunflower says they will do what the rules require I am inclined to believe they will do just that in order to get the plant built.
22 June 2009
at 5:03 p.m.
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KEITHMILES05 (Anonymous) says…
Hey Steph! Put a sock in my darling.
22 June 2009
at 6:06 p.m.
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labmonkey (Anonymous) says…
The Sierra Club needs to realize that a majority of the public wants this plant. They only speak for a small minority of Kansans.
22 June 2009
at 6:19 p.m.
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blakus (Anonymous) says…
Living in Wyoming, one of the more conservative states in the US and the largest energy producer (like coal, natural gas, etc.), I have seen the tides turn when it comes to energy production. Wyoming is going wind-wild…. why? I don't know for sure, but it is interesting that a state that puts out so much raw energy for the rest of the US would start the transition to wind. Heck, they just passed a law allowing individuals to install large wind turbines on their own property, even in cities. And trust me, Wyomingites give the same thought to 'leftists' as tunahelper does. But yet, it isn't considered 'left' to care about the environment in Wyoming.
22 June 2009
at 6:26 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
labmonkey, think it would be interesting if we could get a vote on this. Think a lot of people would be surprised. Possibly even me, and I'm strongly against it.
22 June 2009
at 6:38 p.m.
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TomShewmon (Tom Shewmon) says…
Please anyone, please, please tell me when I will not have to be surrounded by loons? Anyone. It's sort of like worms are burrowing into my brain.
22 June 2009
at 6:43 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
When you come out of your 10 acre compound near Linwood and enter the real world.
22 June 2009
at 6:48 p.m.
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edjayhawk (Anonymous) says…
The Sierra Club needs to realize that a majority of the public wants this plant. They only speak for a small minority of Kansans.
Can you back that up, or are you just spewing redneck mentality…
22 June 2009
at 6:49 p.m.
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TomShewmon (Tom Shewmon) says…
Why would I want to do that? To be eternally miserable like a far-left loon?
22 June 2009
at 6:53 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
Tom, accept the fact that most, if not all of us consider you an eternally miserable person.
22 June 2009
at 6:56 p.m.
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TomShewmon (Tom Shewmon) says…
The cash-heavy Elite Left has a powerful lobby. Just look at The Anointed One who paid his way into the whitehouse. It's not about majorities or minorities with the kooky left. They now have a loud voice with the internet and nearly every corrupt liberal media outlet rooting for (fill in the cause) and funding from The Elite Liberal Hollywood and East Coast Elite Liberal entities, not to mention America haters like George Soros. It's not some big mystery and yes, it visits little old Kansas just like everywhere else. Just stop and take a look–-very easy to figure out what's happening all around.
22 June 2009
at 6:59 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
Yes, Tom, the last 2 elections show that most voters have figured it out. Why can't you?
22 June 2009
at 7:57 p.m.
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Machiavelli_mania (Anonymous) says…
I used to donate to the SC. That is going to stop. I want that coal plant.
22 June 2009
at 7:58 p.m.
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Machiavelli_mania (Anonymous) says…
Good heavens, Beo, are you forcing conformity??
22 June 2009
at 8:15 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
Somehow 25—50 new jobs vs 12 million tons of carbon dioxide annually seems like a very poor trade to me. But then Sunflower bought and paid for the politicians to pass this, so it must be OK. Parkinson doesn't dare run for election. But then he has a secure retirement already paid for.
22 June 2009
at 8:19 p.m.
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TomShewmon (Tom Shewmon) says…
I know this sounds really strange, but since Sebelius left the state to go improve America's health and America's human quality of life, now we have a coal plant movig forward it appears and Tiller is dead. Just in a couple months! Am I just grasping?
22 June 2009
at 8:20 p.m.
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TomShewmon (Tom Shewmon) says…
Is it the heat?
22 June 2009
at 8:30 p.m.
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Machiavelli_mania (Anonymous) says…
I don't believe that man is creating the global warming. It is going to happen with or without us, because it already has before, many times.
I am more a believer in pole-shifts, since they have happened before, and will happen again.
The Earth's magnetic field remains a charged mystery
June 15th, 2009 in Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
http://www.physorg.com/print164253692…
Public Release: 22-Jun-2009
Nature Geoscience
Close relationship between past warming and sea-level rise
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_release…
Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, along with colleagues from Tuebingen and Bristol have reconstructed sea-level fluctuations over the last 520,000 years. Comparison of this record with data on global climate and CO2 levels from Antarctic ice cores suggests that even stabilization at today's CO2 levels may commit us to much greater sea-level rise over the next couple of millennia than previously thought.
Natural Environment Research Council, Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft
Public Release: 21-Jun-2009
Nature Geoscience
Ice sheets can retreat 'in a geologic instant,' study of prehistoric glacier shows
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/10191
Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo.
National Science Foundation
Why do you think global warming is an unnatural process???
22 June 2009
at 8:32 p.m.
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Machiavelli_mania (Anonymous) says…
Nancy boy, you are an bad-hearted man. So glad I don't know you.
22 June 2009
at 8:40 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
Machiavelli_mania, somehow bad-hearted is not how I would describe him. Hate filled racist, ignorant right wing christian, rush true believer, W lover, Cheney believer? Lots of more descriptive terms. Take your pick. Maybe even a gutless coward? We already know what else he is.
22 June 2009
at 8:43 p.m.
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just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…
Alcoholism is a natural process, too, MM.
22 June 2009
at 8:47 p.m.
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beobachter (Anonymous) says…
bozo, was that aimed at Tom? Or others?
22 June 2009
at 10:22 p.m.
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TomShewmon (Tom Shewmon) says…
Sticks and stones………
I didn't used to feel sorry for the stock far-left zealot, but now I do.
23 June 2009
at 12:29 a.m.
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cg22165 (Anonymous) says…
MM,
I don't know; what makes you think there has to be only one force influencing the earth's temperature? What makes you think that the little CO2 molecules absorbing IR radiation care whether they came to be in the atmosphere as a result of plate tectonics over millions of years (for instance) or billions of little humans burning fossil fuels over decades?
All your citations mean is that the shift from one climate pattern to another can be abrupt.
23 June 2009
at 5:27 p.m.
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belexus73 (Anonymous) says…
Asking for public input in a proposal that involves health and the environment is understandable. I am puzzled why anyone would oppose this. It will be interesting to see if Bremby opposes this permit and the governor-which will probably lose him his job as KDHE Secretary.
23 July 2009
at 11:30 a.m.
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swku (Anonymous) says…
The new sunflower plant will generate 1,500 new jobs at its peek. I'm sorry but being born and raised in Garden City Kansas, I know from personal experience that those jobs are much needed and welcomed.
If you guys want to boycott something why don't you focus on the Westar Energy Plant right outside of Lawrence that is ranked on of the dirtiest coal plants in the United States.
Sunflower is going above and beyond to make Kansas residents happy and meet the requirements put in place for them.