Kan. Coal Plants Project Uncertain

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5197567.html

Oct. 8, 2007, 5:18PM

Kan. Coal Plants Project Uncertain

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. — A western Kansas utility faces scrapping two proposed coal-fired power plants because of a debate over whether the state should limit pollution that contributes to global warming.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp. needs a permit from the state to begin construction on its $3.6 billion project at a site in southwest Kansas, an hour's drive from both the Colorado and Oklahoma borders.

Even some environmentalists initially expected the Department of Health and Environment to grant the permit, despite warnings that the plants will generate millions of tons of carbon dioxide, linked by most scientists to climate change.

But more than 15 months have passed without a decision. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, the co-chairman of a state energy council, personally oppose the project. The attorney general has told the department it can deny the permit over concerns about CO2 emissions, even if the state doesn't specifically regulate the greenhouse gas.

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"For a relatively conservative state like Kansas to make a decision to deny the permit would reverberate widely," said Craig Volland, a Sierra Club activist in Kansas. "We do feel better about the prospects that our voice has been heard."

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But environmental concerns have inspired opposition from across the nation. The attorneys general of eight states, including California and New York, complained the project would undercut their states' efforts to regulate greenhouse gases.

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