Sunflower Coal Plant Update
Sunflower Electric has filed their revised air permit application at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The KDHE expects a review of the permit will take three to six months. A public comment period and public hearings will be scheduled soon – please check back for updates on that.
The controversial project not only faces financial and regulatory challenges, but there is still strong citizen opposition to the proposal. Throughout the multi-year, statewide debate about constructing new coal capacity, the opposition has grown stronger. Several community groups and environmentalists commented on the new proposal.
Amanda Goodin, an attorney with Earthjustice, pointed out that “the costs of building new coal plants have risen enormously since this project was first proposed. Better energy efficiency and improvements in managing energy demand have reduced the need for big new coal plants.”
Sunflower’s Holcomb expansion is primarily a project to serve out-of-state utilities. “The whole project really has nothing to do with Kansas energy needs. It will make Kansas more dependent upon imported fuel, and it will expose Sunflower ratepayers and Kansas taxpayers to increased costs,” said Scott Allegrucci of GPACE.
Sunflower is advancing a coal plant project very few other states are willing to pursue. In fact, many other states are rejecting coal plant projects, and not a single coal plant broke ground for construction last year. “It is discouraging that at a time when other states are investing in the clean energy technologies of tomorrow, Kansas is pursuing yesterday's outdated technologies,” said Stephanie Cole of the Kansas Sierra Club. Further, Cole added, “The Holcomb expansion represented risks to both ratepayers and the environment the first time Sunflower applied for a permit, and those risks have only increased.”
Coal plants carry great risk with increasing costs, expected carbon dioxide regulations, and energy demand decreasing. Sunflower is all too familiar with the risks associated with coal plants, as they are in massive debt from building Holcomb I, the facility they want to expand. “Sunflower already owes the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars for past coal energy plants and the government can't legally allow Sunflower to proceed with the plant without first considering the environmental harm it will cause,” Goodin of Earthjustice said.
Many question why Sunflower seems adamantly committed to coal as a fuel source. Kansas has rich wind resources, which are strong in the exact area Sunflower wants to build a new coal plant. “One wonders what might have been if Sunflower had pursued a more responsible course? How many Kansans might be working right now had Sunflower chosen to tap Kansas wind and natural gas to meet their energy needs?” said Allegrucci of GPACE.
Kansas was one of the last states to build a nuclear plant, and it appears we’re trying to be one of the last states to build a coal plant.
Care about Kansas’ energy future? Stay involved! Check back for updates on the Sunflower coal plant.
