Three strikes, you’re out? Or – a set up for close encounters with the third kind? (Meaning another veto override attempt. Which would only be the second attempt, actually, they let the first coal bill die and only tried to override the second. But they attempted the override on the second before they let the first expire.)
It all got complicated.
Hopefully, all those details will someday be just footnotes in some obsessively researched legislative history. Today, what matters is the big picture – on Friday afternoon, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius vetoed the third coal bill (ENS). As she was widely quoted in Kansas papers:
“Rather than working toward a compromise solution, legislative leaders recklessly chose to jeopardize important initiatives for businesses and communities across our state by combining them with energy legislation I have previously vetoed twice.”
Will there be an override attempt on sine die, May 29? Even though they lost votes on this third bill, Sunflower supporters in the Senate could probably pull off an override attempt. There’s never been a lot of suspense there. The question remains the House. 84 votes are needed for override. This last bill, they received 76.
The third bill even tried a new tactic – packaging the measure with economic development initiatives. It was not successful. Sebelius’s veto message blasted the attempt as unconstitutional. Under the Kansas constitution, bills are limited to one subject.
Sebelius and other opponents of the 1,400 megawatt (MW) proposal claim that the legislation mixes environmental regulation and economic development. Supporters say the measure is purely economic development. The veto message pretty clearly told the other economic interests (who got shot down along with the coal plants) to just hang in there, help was coming. Next session.
Guess what else might be coming next session!! More coal legislation! It’s still unclear to me why the legislature needs to be involved in this process when there are ongoing court cases, and when the details of air permits and coal plant proposals are traditionally negotiated between administrative agencies and utilities and in response to federal interpretations (or in this case, the lack thereof) of the Clean Air Act – but according to House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, in 2009 Sunflower supporters will try again (TCJournal).
“I’m hoping we continue the conversation and try to gain approval of this next year,” he said. He said getting other utilities in the state to purchase a portion of the power from the Holcomb facility could generate some extra support. Some critics have focused on the fact that only 200 of the plant’s 1,400 megawatts are earmarked for Kansas, while the remaining energy will flow to Colorado and Texas.
Moving right along.
Subplot: Hyperion. Did KDHE Secretary Bremby’s decision to deny the air permit to Sunflower Electric set up a climate of regulatory uncertainty in Kansas that then lost the state the economic development opportunity of an oil refinery, to be built by Hyperion? (Their proposal was to emit 17 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. The proposed Sunflower plants would emit 11 million tons per year.)
Check out James Carlson’s article in the TCJournal and see what you think. The headline, “Possibility or Politics?” pretty much sums up as much as we will ever definitively know.
Then when you’re done, check out KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby’s response to House Speaker Melvin Neufeld in the Wichita Eagle. Did the decision create regulatory uncertainty? Bremby: Oh heck no.
“To be clear: There is no ‘regulatory uncertainty’ in Kansas. KDHE has continued to issue timely air-quality permits. Since the denial of the Sunflower Electric Power Corp. permit for a proposed coal-fired plant near Holcomb, KDHE has issued more than 300 air-quality construction and operating permits. Since January 2003, the agency has issued more than 3,000 air-quality permits. Under this administration, the only air-quality permit denied has been the Sunflower permit.”
Bremby also told his side of the Hyperion story.
“Kansas remains open for business. I am confident that Hyperion officials will recognize the tremendous natural assets and highly trained work force Kansas has to offer. Regardless of the outcome of the proposed Hyperion Energy Center, and despite comments to the contrary, the Sunflower denial will not be the determining factor.”
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
