Candidates keeping eye on energy

Issue of Holcomb power plant expected to be revisited in Legislature

By James Carlson

The state is facing budget shortfalls and the need to craft a new 10-year transportation plan, but a famous issue (or infamous issue, depending on your political persuasion) could show up in the Statehouse again this year — the Holcomb power plant.

The expansion of a coal-fired power plant in Finney County consumed much of last year's session. Lawmakers passed three bills to let construction of the plant move forward, but Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed each one.

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Proponents of the proposals said western Kansas needs the energy and jobs that would be created by the multibillion-dollar project. Opponents criticized the plant for its massive carbon dioxide output and its stripping of power from the state's top environmental regulator.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, who is seeking re-election in the 19th Senate District, voted against all of last year's measures and said he still opposed the expansion because it is a bad deal for Kansas.

"Only 17 percent of the energy produced by the Holcomb plants would have stayed in Kansas," he said. "The remaining 83 percent was planned for neighboring states."

Democratic Rep. Annie Kuether, who is running for re-election in the 55th House District, helped write the initial bill last year before voting against it. She said supporters of the expansion had cited the need for more transmission lines to carry wind energy.

"Transmission line projects are moving forward, as are two wind farm projects in western Kansas, things that Holcomb supporters said wouldn't occur without building a new coal-fired plant," she said.

Republican Jake Fisher, who is running against Kuether, said he would support a similar bill if it came up this year.

"The expansion would provide a significant economic boost to western Kansas," he said.

Republican Rep. Joe Patton, who is seeking his second term in the 54th House District, said the state needs a "clear and consistent energy policy."

"I would vote to expand Kansas energy production which will lower costs and bring thousands of new jobs, if it included incentives for alternative energy production including wind and other clean renewable energy," he said.

But others pointed to the 11 million tons of greenhouse gases the plants are projected to produce and say the payoff isn't worth the risk.

Democrat Carolyn Weinhold, who is running for the 20th Senate District, wants to see a focus on wind and solar forms of energy.

"Until we have clean coal-fired technology, I oppose expansion," she said. "We need to protect and conserve our air and water."

Last year's measures also would have restricted much of the power of the state's top environmental regulator to control greenhouse gas emissions. That provision was aimed at Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, who sparked the controversy in October 2007 by denying an air-quality permit for the expansion, citing the dangers posed by carbon dioxide.

Democratic Rep. Ann Mah, seeking re-election in the 53rd House District, said the legislation was "bad law" and would have "opened the state up for new coal plants without oversight."

Republican Shari Weber, a former House speaker who is running for the 19th Senate District, said lawmakers who fell for "all the smoke and rhetoric last year from some legislative leaders" caused the gridlock that many said delayed other pieces of legislation.

She said she would vote for the expansion to put Kansas on "a path to greater energy independence and economic growth."

Wherever candidates stand on the issue, Kuether said she knows one thing: "Indications are strong that the Holcomb issue will be back in the 2009 session."

James Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com.