Congratulations to Gov. Mark Parkinson for calling out the Kansas Chamber of Commerce last week for putting its political agenda ahead of the business interests of a major state industry.

Parkinson was targeted by Jeff Glendening, the chamber’s vice president of political affairs, after the governor used a line-item veto to knock the “Huelskamp amendment” out of the state budget bill. The last-minute amendment offered by Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, would have barred state officials from implementing any federal regulations concerning greenhouse gases.

Huelskamp, who is seeking to claim U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran’s seat in Congress, apparently intended the amendment as a blow against government regulation, especially any regulations regarding clean air standards at electrical power plants in Kansas. It’s a political message that may resonate with the Republican base Huelskamp is seeking to attract, but it has some practical drawbacks. Key among those is the fact that kicking the Kansas Department of Health and Environment out of the regulatory loop could have left the state answering directly to the EPA on clean air regulations.

After the budget passed, the state’s major electrical providers — Westar Energy, Sunflower Electric Cooperative and KCP&L — all contacted the governor saying the amendment would stall their projects and hurt their businesses. Parkinson evaluated the situation, agreed with the utilities and vetoed the amendment.

Rather than thank the governor for responding to the needs of state business, Glendening chose to issue a cheap-shot rebuttal. “We are disappointed to see the governor veto the Huelskamp EPA amendment,” he said. “The real beneficiaries of today’s veto are radical environmentalists.”

Radical environmentalists? Westar? Sunflower Electric?

Glendening went on to thank Huelskamp for “offering this amendment on behalf of Kansas businesses.”

Which Kansas businesses? The ones that would be directly affected were foursquare against the proposal. One of the basic goals cited by the Kansas Chamber on its website is to support a positive business climate by providing “a stable regulatory environment” in the state. The Huelskamp amendment clearly would have destabilized the regulatory environment for state electrical providers, but the chamber chose to ignore that fact in favor of promoting the political interests of itself and Huelskamp.

Governors don’t always respond to such attacks, but Parkinson had had enough. He pointed out that all three of the electric providers are Kansas Chamber members and employ hundreds of Kansans. (Actually, it’s in the thousands. Westar alone employs 2,400 people.) He accurately called the continuing partisan rhetoric emanating from the Kansas Chamber a “black eye upon the state” that makes it harder to recruit companies to Kansas.

So the Kansas Chamber is unwilling to support the business interests of its members who are major state employers and would rather spew negative political rhetoric than to promote the state to potential new companies. It might make Kansans — not to mention the chamber’s own members — wonder whether the Kansas Chamber really has the state’s best interests at heart.