Planning for a clean future
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 01:04 p.m., January 8, 2008
Updated 01:04 p.m., January 8, 2008
The Kansas Legislature will convene next week, issues that have been simmering in the state since last spring will once again be brought to a boil.
One issue likely to generate more heat is energy policy in general and coal-fired power plants in particular.
In October, Rod Bremby, Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment, denied Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s application for a permit to expand its coal-fired plant near Holcomb in southwest Kansas. Bremby said the plant would release too much carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere, increase global warming and degrade the environment in Kansas.
Sunflower, which intended to sell much of the power from the expanded plant to customers in other states, defended its plan and challenged Bremby’s decision.
Sunflower’s allies in the Legislature are expected to introduce legislation to reverse Bremby’s ruling. The legislators are backed by the governments of some communities in southwest Kansas.
Like any argument over energy policy, the Sunflower case has as much to do with economic development as it does with energy production. A expanded plant would mean more jobs and more readily available energy for new industries in that sparsely settled part of the state.
The issue was further complicated last week when The Land Institute released the results of a poll of Kansas voters. According to the poll, voters agreed 2-to-1 with Brenby. The margin of support was less in western Kansas, which would benefit most from the building of the plant, but even there, a slim majority supported Bremby.
The poll also found that about 75 percent of Kansas voters would support the expanded use of wind power in the state.
Bremby’s action and the results of the poll indicate that more may be going on in Kansas than a simple fight over the construction of one power plant.
If legislators and the rest of state government are listening, the volume has just been turned up on an important message. The message? It is time for Kansas to abandon its piecemeal approach to energy, environmental and economic-growth policies.
Fragmented and poorly executed policies have delayed economic growth and created division where there should be unity of purpose.
The people of Kansas would be best served if legislators said no to this attempt to flip back the calendar to the days when the health of the environment was at best a minor consideration in any business plan.
What this Legislature should do is lay the foundations for mutually supportive state polices that will promote clean economic growth.