Sunflower Electric's rush job on coal plant
Recently The Associated Press uncovered an e-mail from Sunflower Electric to a group including legislators and the State Treasurer.
The e-mail accuses Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Bremby of “gaming the process” for Sunflower Electric’s coal plant permit, and requests contacting the governor’s office to pressure KDHE to shorten the process. The e-mail mentions scheduled meetings between some of these individuals and the governor’s office.
Regarding whether the process is being unnecessarily delayed, compare the timelines of the current and the most recent permit process.
The previous permitting process began on 6/1/2006 and concluded on 10/18/2007. It involved a public comment period over 80 days long and the full process took over 16 months. There are no recorded complaints from Sunflower or their supporters about the length of that process.
The current permitting process began on 6/30/10 and concluded on 8/15/10 when the first public comment period ended. That’s 46 days of public comment, and the full process would take less than 6 months if the permit is decided during this calendar year.
During the 2006/2007permitting process, KDHE received about 785 total public comments (verbal and written, pro and con). Prior to the most recent public hearings, KDHE had already received over 2,200 public comments on the current draft permit – excluding comments from the public hearings and more than 800 comments submitted between the public hearings and August 15th.
Incorrect data submitted by Sunflower means that an entire section of the permit remains unavailable for review. One wonders whether this was an intentional part of Sunflower’s strategy. Without that data there can be no conclusive analysis done on the permit, since adjustments to one part of complex emissions modeling can impact the entire permit. As such, the public has been unable complete a technical review of or offer all relevant comments on the current permit.
Presumptions that a final permit can be granted before the end of the year are just that – presumptions. Sunflower and their allies are forcing KDHE to take one-third the amount of time to review and respond to at least four times the number of public comments received compared to the previous permit review process.
According to the AP article, the governor’s office claims no involvement in the permitting process and no pressure from that office on KDHE. Yet one of the legislators on the Sunflower email confirmed that pro-coal allies met with the governor’s office, which then communicated with KDHE. And KDHE has now proposed a 30-day second comment period rather than the 45-day period they had announced at a 9/9/10 Joint Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy meeting.
It seems that those making the accusations of “gaming the system” are the very ones doing the “gaming.” Efforts by elected officials and others to pressure KDHE are potentially illegal, certainly unethical, and at the very least undermine the responsibility of the agency to objectively and fairly conduct the regulatory process in the interests of the public.
Scott Allegrucci is executive director of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy in Topeka.
Google+
Share
Tweet
Comments