Coal May Be the Goal for Most Legislators at the Kansas Statehouse but Where it Goes, Nobody Knows.

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.kctribune.com/article.cfm?articleID=18701

Coal May Be the Goal for Most Legislators at the Kansas Statehouse but Where it Goes, Nobody Knows.

Cleon Rickel [e-mail]
Published 03/13/2009 - 12:00 a.m. CST

A bill that would allow a western Kansas power cooperative to build two giant coal-fired power plants faces a likely standoff, and no one knows who will win.

What's known is that there's overwhelming support for the coal plants in the Legislature and that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has threatened to veto the bill. What’s up in the air is whether there’s enough support in the Legislature to override her veto.

This week, a “conference committee” of negotiators for the Kansas House of Representatives and the Senate are trying to work out the differences in two versions of the controversial bill that would give an air-quality permit to the Hays-based Sunflower Electric cooperative to build the two large power plants near Holcomb in southwestern Kansas. Both versions of the bill would also limit the ability of the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to regulate power plants’ emissions.

When the conference committee agrees on one version, it will go to both houses for another vote. If the final bill is approved, it goes to Sebelius.

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