Kansas Sierra Club Calls for Coal Plant Moratorium

Sierra Club Press Conference at the
Kansas Renewable Energy and
Energy Efficieny '06 Conference, Topeka, KS

Press release - For Immediate Release September 26, 2006

Good afternoon. My name is Bill Griffith and I am the Chair of the Kansas Chapter of Sierra Club. With me is Dave Hamilton the Senior Washington, D.C. Director for the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. Dave is here in Topeka to give a presentation on federal energy legislation and its effect on Kansas at the Kansas Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency '06 conference.

We have called this press conference today to express Sierra Club's concerns about the environmental, health and economic impacts of three new 700 megawatt coal fired electric generating plants planned for Holcomb, Kansas to be operated by Sunflower Electric Power Corporation. Last week the Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued a draft air pollution control permit and notice of public hearings for these plants.

These three 700 MW coal plants, when added to an existing 360 MW coal plant in Holcomb also operated by Sunflower, will create the largest coal burning electric power complex west of the Mississippi River. These three new coal burning plants will also be the largest new source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. These plants will emit 13 million tons a year of carbon dioxide for the next 50 to 75 years. Carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning power plants are a leading contributor of global warming green house gases. Scientific experts such as Jim Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, are warning that we have at most 10 years before we reach a "tipping point" and the effects of global warming will become irreversible. It is irresponsible for the state of Kansas to permit the largest new source of global warming greenhouse gases in the United States to become operational and pretend that there will be no effect on global warming.

These plants will burn coal from Wyoming and, according to Sunflower's air pollution control permit application, will potentially lead to a 60% increase in the amount of mercury emitted from all coal burning power plants currently operating in Kansas. Every river and stream in Missouri now has a mercury advisory meaning that pregnant women should not eat fish caught in Missouri 's rivers and streams because mercury threatens their unborn children. Water bodies in northeast Kansas are also showing signs of mercury pollution. Since the elemental mercury emitted by these coal burning plants at Holcomb comes down in rain as methyl mercury, one of the most toxic substances known to man, it is reasonable to expect that much of the mercury emitted from the new coal plants at Holcomb will further exacerbate mercury pollution to northeast Kansas and Missouri waters. It's not very neighborly of Kansas to allow mercury pollution from Kansas coal plants to pollute Missouri 's rivers and streams and threaten the health of unborn children.

Approximately 30,000 acre feet of water from the Ogallala aquifer have been acquired for these new coal fired power plants. Efforts are under way to transfer the use of the water rights from agricultural to industrial usage. These three new coal plants, combined with the existing coal plant operated by Sunflower, will use 8 billion gallons of water a year from the Ogallala aquifer. The Ogallala aquifer is already depleted in some areas and other parts of the aquifer will be depleted within the next 60 years or less. State agencies such as the Kansas Water Office and State Conservation Commission are seeking ways to work with irrigators and others to use better water management practices and even retire some water rights in order to extend the life of the aquifer for future generations. Given that the Ogallala aquifer is already threatened we question the wisdom of Kansas allowing water from this aquifer to be further drained for the largest coal burning complex west of the Mississippi River.

Sunflower Electric serves only 115,000 people in western Kansas, which is currently served by the power from their Holcomb 1 power plant. Why would Sunflower need to increase the size of their base load capacity by a factor of more than 6? The answer is, they don't. Almost all of this new power will be owned by other electricity distributors and sold to customers outside of Kansas. All the power from Holcomb 3 & 4 will belong to Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and will be sold to customers in Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska and Wyoming. Golden Spread Coop will own 400 MW of the capacity from Holcomb 2. It will be sold to its customers in Oklahoma and Texas. Sunflower says it will sell 150 MW from Holcomb 2 to its member coops and to Mid-Kansas Electric. Thus Kansans will receive only about 8% of the power from the expansion at Holcomb.

It is particularly ironic that we are here at the Kansas Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency conference holding a press conference about three new coal fired power plants to be constructed in western Kansas. Kansas currently ranks last in the nation in energy efficiency programs offered by Kansas utilities to their customers. Energy efficiency programs can reduce electric demand, without reducing electric service or quality of life, and save utility customers' money on their electric bills. Energy efficiency also saves money for utilities by avoiding the construction of expensive new power plants. For example, energy efficiency measures implemented in California has lead to their per capita energy consumption staying largely flat since the 1970's while the average American's energy use went up by more than 50%. More should be done to reduce electric demand by the utilities seeking to build these coal plants at Holcomb before they spend billions of their members' dollars while creating environmental and public health impacts in Kansas and beyond for the next 50 to 75 years.

Kansas is ranked third in the nation, according to the American Wind Energy Association, in wind energy potential. Wind generated electricity produces no carbon dioxide emissions, no mercury emissions, no particulate emissions, uses no water and the fuel (the wind) is free. The existing wind farms at Montezuma and Spearville in western Kansas and at Beaumont in eastern Kansas are producing electricity at better than expected amounts. Texas (that ranks 2nd in the nation) is now the largest wind power producer in the nation, exceeding even California, and has over 5 times more installed capacity than Kansas. New Mexico (that ranks 12th in the nation), Iowa (that ranks 10th in the nation), Minnesota (that ranks 9th in the nation), and Oklahoma (that ranks 8th in the nation) all have more installed wind capacity than Kansas. The new coal plants at Holcomb will kill more than token amounts of wind farm development in western Kansas for the next 50-75 years. Kansas will continue to fall behind other states with less wind energy potential. Kansas farmers and ranchers will continue to be deprived of needed income from leasing their land for wind turbines. Rural communities will not receive income from the in-lieu-of taxes paid by all wind farms developers to host counties and school districts. Studies have been done of the economic impact on Kansas of the Holcomb power plants. However, there has been no economic impact study of the lost opportunities to Kansas communities from greater development of its wind power potential if these and other coal plants are built in Kansas.

We call on Governor Sebelius to issue a moratorium on the permitting of coal fired power plants in Kansas and to convene a blue ribbon panel of experts to examine the environmental, health, and economic development impacts of the proposed coal plants at Holcomb and the other coal plants planned by Westar and the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities. Governor Sebelius convened a similar panel, called the Wind and Prairie Task Force, to examine the totality of impacts of large scale wind power projects in the Flint Hills. That panel issued recommendations to her and the legislature on action steps to encourage wind energy while minimizing impacts on the Flint Hills. The recommendations of that task force lead to the Governor calling for a ban on large scale wind farm developments in the "Heart of the Flint Hills". Given the longevity and large scale impact of the coal plants planned for Kansas, not only in Kansas but elsewhere, we think it is appropriate and urgent for the Governor to convene a similar panel to examine their impacts and make recommendations to the Governor and the legislature.

You will find more detailed information about the coal plants planned for Kansas, especially those planned at Holcomb, at the Kansas Chapter web site:
http://www.kansas.sierraclub.org.

For further information contact
Bill Griffith, Kansas Chapter Chair, at (913) 702-4611 or
Charles Benjamin, Kansas Chapter Legislative Coordinator, at (785) 841-5902.