Topeka — Environmentalists have called on the EPA to prevent construction of a proposed 895-megawatt coal-burning power plant in southwest Kansas.
In a letter to EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks, the Kansas chapter of the Sierra Club says state environmental officials at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment repeatedly failed to make the plant’s permit meet minimum requirements under the Clean Air Act.
“EPA must either require KDHE to issue an amended permit, including new emission limitations following a new public comment period, or EPA must take action to prevent the construction of this unlawful facility,” Amanda Goodin, attorney for the Sierra Club said in the letter that was released Tuesday.
The dispute is over a proposal by Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build an 895-megawatt coal-fired plant near Holcomb.
Last month, the EPA’s Brooks had written KDHE Secretary Robert Moser, saying that EPA found the state-issued permit for the plant was too lax in limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.
Officials from Sunflower Electric and KDHE have defended the permit, which was approved in December.
On Tuesday, KDHE General Counsel Caleb Stegall said, “KDHE stands behind its permit as issued. We look forward to defending it before the Kansas Supreme Court and are confident that the permit complies with all applicable state and federal air quality requirements.”
The letter from Goodin repeats allegations that state executive and legislative officials interfered with the permitting process. The letter also maintains that KDHE repeatedly ignored EPA’s guidance on federal air quality standards during the permit process.
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merrill (anonymous) says…
It is the only sensible path.
Why? Because not only is it a huge polluting device it will require my tax dollars to guarantee the cost of construction an cost of insurance. This is reckless use of my money.
Meanwhile CEO's blow money on politicians,high dollar pay packages,golden parachutes and shareholders. NOT on my tax dollars thank you!!!!
gl0ck0wn3r (anonymous) replies…
You mean pollution like your lawn mowers?
rduhrich (anonymous) says…
They're going to build this stupid polluting thing costing Kansas taxpayers' money, then have to go to Colorado to find customers to buy the output. Colorado knows better than to allow it to be built there. Talk about a solution where there's no problem, other than the coal industry wanting to increase consumption of their surplus. This is the unbridled greed of Corporate America at its worst. Every single person who backs this plant is a crook!
littlexav (anonymous) replies…
oh, hyperbole.
straightforward (anonymous) replies…
Heaven forbid a company in Kansas produce a product and sell it in a different state. Is it okay with you if we use water from our aquifers to grow corn, even if we sell it to other states? It's called exporting. It creates jobs here, sells a product someplace else, and then the money comes back into our state. Makes perfect sense. But what do I know, I guess I'm probably just a greedy corporate crook, right rduhrich?
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
I'm sure there are lots of child-porn aficionados who'd love to see some Kansas kids. Step right on up. It's just business, after all.
grammaddy (anonymous) replies…
Yep, pretty much.
rduhrich (anonymous) replies…
Straightforward, you're a fool.
cheeseburger (anonymous) says…
Go fly a kite Amanda, along with all your other tree-hugging friends!
sierraclub (anonymous) says…
Yep, greed!!! That is what it is all about. We do not need to stinkin electricity!!! This is 2011, we will go back to the days without electricity. Thanks Merrill and rduhrich, lets destroy the coal plants, lets destroy cars, lets destroy cell phones, lets destroy all of those inventions and go back to hunting whales, they have plenty of oil for us. Those dam dems and repubs are just greedy!!!! No more taxes, no more taxes, no more taxes. Hey, what about my welfare check, will I still get one?
cg22165 (anonymous) replies…
So, what you are saying is that you don't think there has ever been or ever will be any means of generating electricity other than burning coal. Hmmm.
culturechange (anonymous) says…
Expand Time for the lobbyist to go to work. In fact, one of our own KS Congressman recently introduced and passed, an amendment to the federal budget, that gave big refineries and big coal powered plants a pass on federal environmental regulations.
He heralded it as a savings to the federal govt. I dont understand how giving these privates companies a pass on environmental compliance is saving the tax payers anything....and it isn't.....but it was the lame excuse they hung thier hat on. And most poeple will believe that without thinking about it. It will cost us 10 time as much later to clean up the mess after these companies go bankrupt to avoid the clean up costs.
The lobbyists are hard at work and this plant is going in no matter how much damage it will do to the environment.
rooster (anonymous) says…
Tom Says: Funny too on a side-note how liberal journalists call any right-wing activist "extremist", but left-wing activist "activist".
Liberals would not normally kill someone they disagree with.
straightforward (anonymous) replies…
I would consider abortionists left-wing and they kill people for a living.
pace (anonymous) says…
The coal plant is a bad buy for Kansas. In the next 20 years we will see more and more homes and businesses making their own way to electric power, solar, wind, etc. Simply put, the coal plant is dirty, if they have to pay for their real cost to Kansas air, soil, and water they will be expensive, if they don't pay for their real cost , they will be expensive.
kansasexile (anonymous) says…
I thought the EPA already approved this plant. I remember the dispute was with the KDHE.
tunahelper (anonymous) says…
the epa has no say in this, it is a KDHE matter. Plus with the US House controlled by the Republicans, the power plant will be built. Why don't you whiney leftists go crying to The Annointed One and have him rescue you? The American public is sick and tired of these enviro-whackos and their tree-hugging theology. The power plant will be built. Actually, it is already built, it just wants to be expanded.
commuter (anonymous) says…
Maybe the Sierra club can petition the EPA to regulate gas powered lawn mowers!!!!!!!!!!
belexus73 (anonymous) says…
Actually, EPA has a very large say in it by law. EPA can strike down a permit if it feels the state authority who issued it failed to act appropriately.
straightforward (anonymous) replies…
Yet another violation of the 10th amendment. Who needs that pesky constitution anyway. It's old and outdated?
2002 (anonymous) says…
At one time, I considered myself an environmentalist. I was a member of the Sierra Club and similar groups. I still consider myself an environmentalist, but have cancelled my memberships in all similar groups. The reason is that these groups talk about sustainability and protecting the environment and good energy policy but have no solution except being against producing energy.
I am a giant fan of solar and wind power and I do believe that those sources are part of a solution, but for now clean coal and gas are necessary. Do you think that the Sierra Club and their hypocritical brothers are going to support a new hydroelectric plant or nuclear plant in Kansas or anywhere else? Or on a broad scale, will they support drilling for oil in ANWAR? No. The environmentalist of today would rather, by default, support fossil fuel production in other countries where it is less regulated, less environmentally sensitive and where its transportation damages the environment more than production closer to the source.
jafs (anonymous) replies…
I'm not sure why you believe that - to my knowledge, groups like the Sierra Club are interested in promoting alternative energy sources, although I imagine they're not great fans of nuclear energy.
But, conservation is something that can be done immediately by all of us, doesn't require any massive financial investment, and saves money to boot.
We can easily lower our usage without suffering much, if at all - our household uses significantly less than most, and we're quite comfortable, with CH/A, modern conveniences, etc.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
"I still consider myself an environmentalist,"
And judging by the rest of your post, you are deluding yourself.
pace (anonymous) replies…
"clean coal " so you are claiming this coal plant is going to be clean? Even the backer can't claimed that. Some of the same people who are defunding the EPA are also claim the EPA will monitor and insure the plant will work within stated perimeters If the"expanded" plant is only going to use clean coal, don't they have to change the proposal? Have they changed the grade of coal, originally slated, or have they changed their emission controls. If not, your claim of a clean coal plant is false.
cg22165 (anonymous) says…
"Clean Coal" = oxymoron originated by the coal producers who want to keep selling their product
Carbon capture and sequestration will never happen. The only reason coal is used so much now is that on a dollar input (not counting external costs) per kilowatt hour output basis it is the cheapest thing around. Well, that and some government subsidies. If you add in the cost of CCS, it will become more expensive than some of the alternatives. That's way these companies keep saying that they'll start doing it as soon as the figure out the technology, it the meantime, let us continue to build coal plants. Have to call BS on that one; the technology is not difficult. It's just that implementing and using it will drive their costs higher than their competitors in the alternatives market.
The_Big_B (anonymous) says…
"Green" = Nuclear.
There is only one source of energy that is clean, safe, reliable, domestic and adequate.
That source is nuclear.
Want to go "green"? Then, you've gotta go nuke.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
Except that it's neither clean, nor safe, nor reliable, nor domestic, meaning that it's wholly inadequate.