Kansas GOP Measure Could Lead to EPA Takeover of Coal Plant Permits

A last minute amendment to the Kansas budget bill seeks to bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating carbon dioxide linked to global warming in that state. If adopted, the effort — led by Republican State Sen. Tim Huelskamp — could quickly turn into a lesson in unintended consequences.

Observers say the poorly written measure could end up giving the EPA unprecedented oversight over coal permitting and other regulation of utilities in Kansas, at a time when fossil fuels are under political attack in Washington.

The issue has sparked outrage on both sides of the aisle. But perhaps the most worried are backers of Sunflower Electric Corp.'s proposed coal-burning facility. The plant is two years from breaking ground in the town of Holcomb, and the EPA still must approve its revised permit application. 

Supporters had hoped for a 2010 greenlight from EPA. But in a May 18 letter to Kansas Gov. Parkinson, Sunflower CEO L. Earl Watkins, Jr. warned that the new budget amendment could delay the permit until after the 2011 deadline for the EPA to issue its "tailoring rule." The rule is expected to outline what sources of carbon emitters will be regulated, and it could put the plant in jeopardy.

"Under the budget bill, if KDHE [Kansas Department of Health and Environment] staff is prohibited from addressing GHG [greenhouse gas] regulations, they could be forced to delay issuing permits on large projects until FY 2011 is expired," the letter said. "Otherwise, EPA would step in and implement the GHG piece of the CAA [Clean Air Act], or simply refuse to allow KDHE to issue permits for which GHG regulations would apply."

Measure Revives Long-Running Battle over Holcomb Plant

The controversy marks the latest chapter in a three-year struggle between lawmakers, environmental advocates and utilities over new coal-fired construction in Kansas.  

In 2007, the proposed 2,100-megawatt Sunflower coal facility in Holcomb, some 60 miles from the Colorado border, became the first in the nation to be denied an air permit by a state agency based on potential dangers that greenhouse gas emissions pose to human health and the environment.

After four follow-up attempts by the Kansas legislature to push through plans for the two large coal plants — and four vetoes by then Gov. Kathleen Sebelius — the Sunflower saga finally seemed to be drawing to a close last May, when a backroom deal was brokered between the utility and the current governor, Mark Parkinson.

The agreement gave Sunflower the greenlight to build a smaller 895-megawatt plant at the site.

But now the state legislature appears to be back at it. And this latest attempt to intervene in the coal plant's fate may have fractured a key relationship between Sunflower and one of its chief advocates, State Sen. Huelskamp (picture).

Huelskamp, a Republican who is also running for Congress in the Kansas 1st District, added a late amendment to the budget bill that would prevent any state agency from spending money "to plan, draft, propose, promulgate, finalize or implement any rules and regulations pursuant to the Clean Air Act [CAA] involving the greenhouse gases identified" in the EPA’s endangerment finding.

In stripping the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) of its right to control global-warming pollution, observers say, EPA would get that authority instead.

The move would have negative consequences for all utilities in Kansas, including Sunflower. The odd twist to the story is that Huelskamp has long been a vocal supporter of Sunflower and has received campaign contributions from the utility.