Kansas governor turns away from coal plants

June 27, 2008
By Joe Hanel | Herald Denver Bureau

DENVER - A year ago, Kathleen Sebelius was just a Democratic governor in a small, Midwestern, Republican state.

Today, she's a major enemy of the coal industry, a hero of environmentalists and a possible vice presidential choice for Sen. Barack Obama.

Sebelius visited the Denver Athletic Club on Thursday to talk about the war she started with the coal industry when her administration denied a plan to build two big new power plants in western Kansas. Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which supplies electricity to Southwest Colorado, backed the plants with a local partner, Sunflower Electric Power Corp.

Sebelius told the crowd at an event sponsored by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, that even conservative Kansans worry about coal power.

"What's happened in Kansas in the last six months is really incredible. Citizens became remarkably engaged in the process," Sebelius said.

More coal power plants are on the drawing board, including Desert Rock southwest of Farmington, but both major presidential candidates want to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, a step the Bush administration has resisted.

"This is a tipping point for our state and our country," Sebelius said.

Her administration last year denied plans for the coal plants because of their carbon-dioxide emissions. Her opponents in the Kansas Legislature tried three times to overturn the administration's decision, but they couldn't override Sebelius' veto. This fall, she's helping target legislators she thinks are vulnerable because of their support of the coal plants.

Tri-State spokesman Jim Van Someren said the company is still waiting to see what happens with a lawsuit over the Kansas plants. In the meantime, it has bought gas-fired power to meet summer demand and is increasing its conservation programs. Tri-State also is looking to add renewable-energy generation, and its board will meet next month to weigh its options on future power resources, Van Someren said.

Instead of the coal plants, Sebelius is pushing an energy agenda that focuses on wind power and conservation. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has made a similar strategy his signature issue.

Still, it's tough to explain to people why their utility bill has to rise, Sebelius said.

Previous Kansas administrations looked at power plants based on their cost to consumers.

"If you interpret cost very narrowly, low cost will always end up with coal in a state like Kansas," she said.

Her administration broadened the definition of cost to include the price paid by the environment and the public's health.

Colorado followed her example this spring, when Ritter and other Democrats passed a bill to allow the Public Utilities Commission to consider the future cost of carbon regulation when approving new power plants. The change should make solar- and wind-power plants compare more favorably to coal generators.

"Every major coal group in the country came to Kansas. They figured this was a battle they could win. This is the Heartland," Sebelius said. "If Big Coal couldn't win in Kansas, where could they win?"

Sebelius didn't have much to say about speculation that Obama will choose her as vice president.

"It's very flattering and a little surreal to have that being tossed about. I think it has more to do with the work we've done in Kansas," she said.

New EPA standards mean cleaner air

The ozone issue in the Four Corners region is a very important issue. As EPA toughens the standards across the country, many areas like the Four Corners will be faced with significant new challenges to meet the new standard, but the result will be cleaner air.

At every opportunity the opponents of the Desert Rock Energy Project criticize the project even though it will be among the cleanest, most advanced plants in the U.S., will result in hundreds of new family wage jobs, be the largest taxpayer in the state and will help meet the region's growing need for power.

The most recent falsehood asserted by critics is that the project will significantly increase ozone and regional haze pollution for the region in light of EPA's tougher standards. Fortunately, the facts present a different case whether critics like it or not.

In fact, due to the extensive array of pollution controls on the expected project, it will be a low emitter of NOx, which is a major ozone-causing emission. Based on information developed by the Four Corners Task Force the 2005 NOx emission in the Four Corners area were approximately 148,507 tons annually Desert Rock would increase this number by less than two percent.

At the same time, developers have agreed to go even further to reduce overall emissions, paying for projects at other facilities in the region that will reduce Desert Rock's impact on regional haze and ozone-causing emissions by 110 percent, assuring an overall reduction in these emissions.

These potential projects may be at existing power plants or they may be at other oil/gas or industrial facilities in the region, but in the end, will mean a real reduction in ozone-causing emissions.

Ozone issues and regional haze pollution are a major concern for all communities, businesses and residents in the Four Corners. That is what we've heard during the four years and hundreds of public meetings that we have participated in within the communities around the Four Corners.

It is also why we've taken painstaking steps to develop Desert Rock to help meet these challenges, while at the same time providing tremendous economic and employment opportunities to Navajos.

Frank Maisano
Desert Rock Energy Company
Washington, D.C.