5/12/2009

Governor, lawmakers get suckered into bad pact with coal plant

Deal is no good for Kansas

The folks over at Sunflower Electric must be patting themselves on the pack so hard their arms hurt. Who can blame them? The Hays-based utility pulled a neat trick on Kansans and left us with an environmental debt we'll be paying for decades.

In a deal worked out with new Gov. Mark Parkinson, the utility changed its plans to build two 700-megawatt plants in southwest Kansas, instead agreeing to one 895-megawatt plant near Holcomb. In exchange, Sunflower has agreed to add "green" technology to lower the plant's carbon emissions.

On the surface, this looks like a fair deal. But look under the rock and you'll find a nest of snakes.

Snake: One consistent defense of the project is that our state needs more electricity to satisfy current and future "baseload" demands, or the minimum power made available to customers.

Bite: Existing generating capacity of the Southwest Power Pool regional grid, of which Kansas is a member, exceeds peak demand by more than 30 percent. Kansas exports power even without the new Sunflower plant.

Snake: The plant will generate 1,500 jobs during construction.

Bite: After completion, the plant will employ only about 50. Last week, the German industrial giant Siemens Corp. announced it will build a 300,000-square-foot plant in Hutchinson that will build wind turbines and create 400 jobs.

Snake: The agreement means more green energy production over the long term.

Bite: Reducing demand is the best approach to a more green future. Conservation programs are simple and efficient but largely ignored by Kansas policymakers, who have asked utilities to help develop plans of action. These businesses are not in any hurry to reduce their revenue streams.

Snake: Sunflower states the coal-fired plants will provide customers inexpensive power.

Bite: Sunflower's application for permits to build two 700-megawatt plants shows a generation cost of 4.64 cents per kilowatt hour. That estimate comes from a three-year-old study and construction costs have skyrocketed since then. Over on the other side of the state, the Westar utility reported to the Kansas Corporation Commission in October 2007 that it had a 20-year contract to buy power from a wind farm for 4.08 cents.

Wind power is a cheap and clean alternative to carbon-spewing coal plants. Gov. Parkinson and Kansas lawmakers kicked that fact to the curb and continue their march down the road whistling to the tune set by Sunflower Electric.

-- Tom Bell

Editor & Publisher

822-1491

tbell@salina.com

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