A polluted process by Mark Parkinson's administration on Sunflower permit
Opposing sides are still debating whether the proposed Sunflower coal-fired plant in western Kansas would pollute the environment.
But emails obtained by The Star leave little doubt that the process the state of Kansas used to grant the power company an expedited building permit was foul.
As detailed by Star reporter Karen Dillon, regulators in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment worked hand-in-hand with officials from Sunflower Electric Power Corp. as they rushed through a permit review process.
Speed was of the essence because Sunflower wanted to beat a Jan. 2 deadline. New federal regulations scheduled to take effect after that date would increase the cost of building a coal-fired plant — and improve air quality.
Emails show that staffers in the Department of Health and Environment were in almost daily contact with Sunflower and even allowed the power company to compose official state responses to questions and concerns from the public.
An agency conducting an objective review wouldn’t operate that way. Only an agency seeking to validate a foregone conclusion would give so much authority to an applicant.
The permit process is a shameful legacy of former Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson. Parkinson, a Democrat, reversed the refusal of his Democratic predecessor, Kathleen Sebelius, to grant a permit for a coal-burning plant in western Kansas. Sebelius and her secretary of Health and Environment, Roderick Bremby, said the plant would pollute Kansas air while generating most of its power for Colorado.
Parkinson fired Bremby in early November, after Sunflower officials said they thought he was slowing down the permit process. With Bremby gone, regulators and Sunflower staff worked nights and weekends to process the permit.
The rush to grant the approval raises questions about the safety of the proposed plant. The point of the laborious process is to fairly weigh all valid concerns. That doesn’t seem to have taken place in Kansas.
The Sierra Club has filed a legal appeal. It claims, among other things, that the Department of Health and Environment didn’t respond adequately to public comment, as required by state law. The case is before the Kansas Supreme Court.
The federal Environmental Protection agency also has expressed concern that the permit’s emission rates are higher than federal law allows.
Either the courts or the EPA should put the brakes on the Sunflower project. A coal plant that will affect air quality for decades is too important to be the end result of a polluted process.
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