Political trickery keeping Kansas coal plans alive

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If you thought the application to expand a coal-fired electricity plant in Kansas was dead, thinkย again.

Big Coal and their political allies in the Kansas State legislature have introduced a slick new Bill that if passed will make it very difficult for the massive Sunflower Electric coal plant expansion to not goย ahead.

Regular readers might recall our extensive coverage of the Kansas coal fight that started in late 2007 after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment became the first government agency in the United States to cite carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a proposed coal-fired electricity generatingย plant.

The Department of Health stated that greenhouse gas threatens public health and theย environment.

The coal company who lost the bid, Sunflower Electric and their political allies in the Kansas Legislature fought like heck to overturn the ruling. Even coal giant Peabody Energy got into the mix, dropping some big bucks on a fake grassroots organization calling itself โ€œKansans for Affordableย Energy.โ€

Through the โ€œKansans for Affordable Energy,โ€ Peabody and Sunflower went so far as to fund an outrageous ad campiagn threatening that imports of natural gas from the likes of Venezualan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were going to corner the Kansan energy market if the coal plant wasnโ€™tย built.

All this was despite the fact that a report by a third-party business analyst foundย that:

โ€œThe proposed coal-fired plant in Kansas could end up costing consumers between $22.4 million and $51.6 million annually and, the decision to build new coal generating capacity will put Sunflower Electricโ€™s ratepayers โ€“ who in this particular case are the actual owners โ€“ at significant risk.โ€

But risks to taxpayers be damned, Big Coal has figured a new way of getting the plant built with the introduction ofย  Bill 2182, which as environment writer Simran Sethi describesย it:

โ€œWhile the bill makes no mention of Sunflower Electric, carbon emissions, or the Holcomb coal plants, it would effectively strip Health Secretary Rob Bremby and the Department of Health and the Environment of their power to regulate industry based on air quality concerns, and therefore force them to grant the permits to Sunflower.โ€

It was Bremby and the Department of Health that were the ones who put a break on the Sunflower plant, so the pro-coal politicians are attempting through a new law to just cut the Department of Health out of the decision makingย progress.

Brilliant and sadly very Machiavellian. This is a fight that is not over by a long shot and DeSmogBlog will be watching it closely. If youโ€™re a local group thatโ€™s working on-the-ground against this expansion, drop me an email at [email protected] – we would love to help out where weย can.


This month weโ€™re giving away FREE copies Nobel Laureate Dr. Andrew Weaverโ€™s new book Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warmingย World.

Go here to find out more details about DeSmogBlogโ€™s monthly bookย give-away.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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