Sunflower Electric Power Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to get a state permit to build two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas.
It is the latest development in the utility company's ongoing battle with the state over the October 2007 denial of an air quality permit by Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby, who cited potential carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.
The Legislature tried three times this year to pass measures to overturn Bremby's decision and allow Sunflower to build the plants outside Holcomb in Finney County. Each bill was vetoed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who backed Bremby's decision.
Environmentalists opposed the $3.6B project, but there was bipartisan support because many legislators, especially those from western Kansas, viewed it as a legitimate expansion and economic development. But lawmakers couldn't muster the two-thirds majority in both chambers to override the vetoes.
"In denying the air permit, the administration has discriminated against 400,000 Kansans and over 1.5 million citizens in other states who will be forced to pay the price of this decision for decades to come through higher electric rates," said Earl Watkins Jr., Sunflower's CEO.
