Coal Busters in Kansas
By Ben Proffer at Change.org
A recent article from Earthjustice brings back fond memories of 2007, when Kansas regulated greenhouse gases for the first time ever.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment emerged from its Republican shell like an Amish kid in Rumspringa to shout, “Why regulate? Because I CAN.” That’s right, Kansaswas the first state in the US to voluntarily block a coal plant specifically because it would increase heat trapping emissions.
Even after the Supreme Court ruled inMassachusetts v. the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases could and should be regulated, another two years passed before any such regulation hit the books. A little secret: At the time the EPA was run by a group of energy industry gunners who would routinely shoot down any attempt to block emissions under the Clean Air Act: Think of it as Fox guarding the chicken coop. The ruling should have broken the EPA’s regulation strike, but it worked better as precedent than practice. The agency went into a deep freeze, refusing to move or even breathe until the next administration swept the staff back into the lobby pool. (They’re back and having a ball! See the Murkowski Amendment).
What made Kansas’ rebuff of Sunflower Electric so significant at the time was its reasoning; what keeps it relevant today is its model. Kansas blocked further investment in coal with bipartisan urging from both environmentalists and red-as-the-flint-hills-ranchers. There were still lobbyists. There will always be lobbyists, but activists and concerned citizens moved much faster at the state level than the national. Had Secretary Bremby waited for word from the EPA there would be a new coal plant rising on the great plains near Holcomb.
Today, if the EPA is blocked by Congress from upholding the sworn duty the Supreme Court has charged it to fulfill, it need not stymie a transition to clean energy.
Stephanie Cole of Sierra Club’s Kansas chapter is nothing but optimistic for her state, even though it is currently consuming an energy soup that’s a whopping 74% coal. Are the fabled wind corridors of Kansas going to save the state from black lung? No. “From our perspective,” said Cole, “natural gas has a more powerful effect on coal-fired energy at the moment.” Ok, but what about in the future? “For Kansas, our biggest hurdle is transmission. The policy is in place, but our strongest wind resources are in the western corridor of the state. To unlock that potential we need the transmission lines in place.” Without it, she said, “We are essentially maxed-out on wind potential.”
With transmission lines running up to a million dollars per mile, it would seem like coal is the more cost-effective choice. So what of Sunflower Electric’s reapplication for an air permit, for the same plant no less? Expect it to be blocked again. Here’s why: For the cost of this single plant, transmission lines could be laid across Kansas nine times.
If Kansas can do it, every state should. We know the stakes. We know our states (respectively). It’s time to stop waiting on the feds.
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