HOME
Posted on Sept.27, 2007
By SARAH KESSINGER
Harris News Service
KS Lt. Gov. Parkinson Pushes Wind Energy Over Coal
TOPEKA -- Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson told a crowded energy conference Tuesday the state's communities would benefit more from investments in wind power rather than in coal-fired electric plants.
"The wind we buy now is probably going to be cheaper than coal will be in five years," Parkinson told about 500 people attending the Kansas Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Conference 2007 at the Ramada hotel.
Parkinson based his prediction on the likelihood coal will become more expensive if Congress tacks on a new tax or other regulation to reduce greenhouse gases.
The projection for wind energy, he said, poses a "huge opportunity" for western Kansas, which has new transmission lines in the planning stages.
Parkinson cited studies by the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory that found wind farms provided communities with stable sources of income. And unlike coal, they leave no environmental costs and are a free power source. Their studies of a Minnesota farm found the same.
Right now, the state's existing wind farms produce 364 megawatts of energy, but Kansas has the potential to build nearly 20 times that amount, Parkinson said.
"I will tell you that I'm not willing to wait five or 10 or 15 or 20 years for this to happen," he said. "And I'm also not willing to follow the lead -- as some have suggested -- of countries like China and India that, in my mind, are continuing to do the wrong thing."
But one utility official waiting for a new coal-fired plant to be built said wind would be important, but fossil fuel would continue to be also.
"We need that for baseload," said Larry Berg, vice president of corporate relations for Hays-based Midwest Energy, after Parkinson's speech.
He agreed with the state leader's contention, however, that the state could eventually see wind farms produce as much as 7,000 megawatts of power.
"I think it's achievable in due time."
The company has agreed to buy 25 megawatts of wind energy from a new Smoky Hills wind farm under construction west of Salina.
Federal subsidies of wind energy make the purchase feasible, Berg said.
Coal still is cheaper, making it a more popular option. So Midwest Energy plans to purchase another 75 megawatts of electricity from one of two coal-fueled power plants that Sunflower Electric Corp. is seeking state permits to build near Holcomb.
"We really need that air permit," Berg said of his company's projections that customer demand in 41 western Kansas counties would grow by 1 percent per year in the next five to 10 years.
State air quality regulators have yet to issue a decision on the controversial permits, which have been pending for more than a year.
Environmentalists oppose the plants, set to export most of their power to utilities in others states, because of pollution and global warming.
They are urging state officials to instead push more wind energy and savings through energy efficiency rather than allowing more coal-burning facilities, which could cancel the need for wind farms.
Parkinson actively has promoted both wind and efficiency in his first year in office. He reminded the crowd Tuesday of the oft-cited quote: "If not now, then when? If not us, then who?"
Parkinson said the time was now for Kansans to work together to solve the issue.
Ron Klataske, lobbyist for the Flint Hills chapter of the Audubon Society, said more wind farms can benefit Kansas, but only if they are sensitive to their local environment and local communities.
The state, he said, needs to establish new siting standards, rather than its current set of voluntary guidelines.
"Seven thousand megawatts can either be a highly commendable resource," Klataske said, "or it can be a catastrophic destruction of remaining intact prairie landscapes that we have in Kansas."
back to our home page