Tag Archives: Sebelius
Industry Wields Sway Over Air Pollution Rules, Enforcement
Sunflower Electric’s Kansas permit success (to date) is a telling snapshot of how, when industry flexes its muscles over Clean Air Act issues, it often wins. From Kansas to Louisiana to Texas, Wisconsin and Ohio, community groups have fought new plants, expansions and chronic emissions – only to see industry score victories with regulators and politicians. Continue reading
Fair Fight?
Whether people are opposed to or supportive of Sunflower’s coal-fired plant, the regulatory trail this project has traveled over the last four or five years raises questions and concerns. This is a contentious fight, but it doesn’t help KDHE or Kansas to be caught misrepresenting the facts of the case. Continue reading
Serve Kansans’ Health
By Rhonda Holman for the Wichita Eagle The Kansas Department of Health and Environment under Gov. Kathleen Sebelius created “regulatory uncertainty” for business, or so critics said. Nowadays, it increasingly looks as if the certainty is that KDHE will do … Continue reading
Sunflower’s Permit Should be Denied
Bob Somer, special to The Kansas City Star By now it should be clear to anyone who has followed the five-year saga of Sunflower Electric’s efforts to build a second coal-fired utility plant in Holcomb, Kan., that the public has … Continue reading
Collusion in Kansas Force-Feeds Coal Power
By Brian Smith for Earthjustice “This is not how government is supposed to work” Americans are worried about their government.We imagine backroom deals are cut, fates are foretold and the little guy always gets shafted because powerful interests own the … Continue reading
A Polluted Process by Mark Parkinson’s Administration on Sunflower Permit
Kansas City Star Editorial Opposing sides are still debating whether the proposed Sunflower coal-fired plant in western Kansas would pollute the environment. But emails obtained by The Star leave little doubt that the process the state of Kansas used to grant … Continue reading
Kansas Agency, Utility Worked Closely on Permit for Plant
By Karen Dillon for The Kansas City Star Hundreds of emails document that officials of a Kansas power plant enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Kansas regulators who issued them a building permit in December. The Sunflower coal-fired power plant … Continue reading
Environmentalists Seek Moves on Kansas Coal Plant
By John Hanna for Associated Press (via The Wichita Eagle) TOPEKA, Kan. - Environmentalists demanded more aggressive action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against a planned coal-fired power plant in southwest Kansas, telling a regional administrator on Tuesday that he’s … Continue reading
Fired KDHE Leader Speaks Out At Last
They told him no, he would no longer be KDHE secretary. He was told that he could receive a severance package if he agreed not to discuss the issues until after Parkinson left office in January. Continue reading
A Coal Plant Over the Rainbow: The Parkinson-KDHE-Sunflower Electric Mess
Unfortunately, too many of our own elected representatives are ambivalent toward, even supportive of, the negative health, environmental, economic, energy policy and ethical impacts of the proposed coal plant and the process that has resulted (for now) in a state permit. As a result, it will be up to federal regulators and the legal system to ensure that the rule of law is still meaningful in Kansas, and to safeguard our environmental and public health legacy for future Kansans. Whether the coal plant does or does not ever become operational, this process could and should have been much different. Continue reading
