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Posted on Fri, Nov. 17, 2006
BY DAVID KLEPPER
The Kansas City Star

Sunflower Electric says the Facility will use 'The Cleanest Coal on Earth.'

But many are skeptical.

LAWRENCE | Plans to build the largest coal-burning power plant west of the Mississippi in western Kansas have environmentalists worried about pollution for the rest of the state.

But backers of the project say it will incorporate high-tech pollution controls, include innovative renewable energy features and give an economic boost to that part of the state.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp. hopes to build three 700-megawatt power generators at the site of an existing 360-megawatt station just south of Holcomb, Kan.

Most of the power generated by the new plant would serve consumers in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Texas.

State regulators held what was supposed to be the final of three public hearings on the project Thursday night in Lawrence. But so many people attended - most of them opposed to the plan - that another hearing was scheduled for 5 p.m. today in the Kansas Union at the University of Kansas.

The state Department of Health and Environment will analyze public input before deciding whether to grant a permit.

Environmentalists say the plant would be the biggest source of carbon emissions built anywhere in the country in the past decade. They predict it will use up precious water supplies and hurt efforts to encourage more wind turbines in the area. They worry that mercury and other pollutants will end up downwind in the rivers and lakes of eastern Kansas and Missouri.

And they say that with mounting concerns about carbon emissions and global warming, a large coal power plant is the last thing the state should be considering.

"There is no such thing as clean coal," said Sarah Dean of Lawrence, one of the leaders of the opposition to the plant.

Sunflower officials say the project will include the latest in technology to prevent pollution. They say the new plants won't add mercury to the atmosphere.

The company uses a process that strips away mercury before it enters the environment, according to Sunflower spokesman Steve Miller.

Opponents doubt that the process will work.

Kansas "will become the poster child for global warming," Charles Benjamin, of the Kansas chapter of the Sierra Club, said before Thursday night's hearing. "The debate over global warming is over, and it's time to do something about it."

The opponents argued that exploiting wind energy would create more jobs and provide cheaper power without the negative environmental effects.

But rather than discourage wind energy, company officials say, transmission lines from the new plant could actually make it easier to develop more wind turbines. That's because the transmission lines could be used to carry wind-generated electricity.

"Our consumers need power reliably, and they need it safely and as cheaply as possible," Miller said. "We're using the cleanest coal on Earth. We've got really tough mercury standards. This project has a lot of wonderful things about it."

And, with an argument that pleases political and business leaders in western Kansas, Sunflower promises the project will create new jobs - several dozen permanent jobs and up to 2,000 jobs during the six-year construction.

Reginald Mitchell, a Stanford University professor who studies coal technology, said it's true that coal-fired power plants are much cleaner than they were decades ago. Still, he said, he's never heard of a coal plant that can eliminate all of its pollution.

He said many of the arguments used to fight new coal plants are based on old fears. He said it's unrealistic to believe America can have an energy future without some reliance on coal.

"If you think about what we need to do with our energy policies over the next 50 years, fossil fuels are going to have to play a role," he said, noting that coal is the most common fossil fuel found in America.

Kansas City Power & Light is working on an 850-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Weston.

The Sierra Club also has opposed those plans.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To reach David Klepper, call 1-(785) 354-1388 or send e-mail to dklepper@kcstar.com.

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