HAYS, Kan., Nov. 18, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunflower Electric Power Corporation has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court, District of Kansas, against Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson and Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health & Environment Roderick Bremby, asking for injunctive relief related to the October 2007 denial of an air quality permit for the cooperative's power plant expansion.
The lawsuit asserts that the defendants, acting in their official capacity, have violated Sunflower's right to fair and equal treatment under the law and are unlawfully prohibiting interstate commerce. The case is the result of the denial of an air permit application for a power plant expansion at Sunflower's Holcomb Station in Finney County, Kansas. The lawsuit asks that these three officials be stopped from preventing Sunflower from lawfully pursuing the expansion.
"In denying the air permit, the administration has discriminated against 400,000 Kansans and over 1.5 million citizens from other states who will be forced to pay the price of this decision for decades to come through higher electric rates. We believe we have an obligation to act on behalf of the people we serve and to correct this wrong," said Earl Watkins, president and CEO of Sunflower.
Despite his own staff's recommendation to approve the application, Bremby denied Sunflower the permit required for construction of new coal-based electric generating units on the grounds that their carbon dioxide emissions would contribute to global warming. However, carbon dioxide is not currently regulated in Kansas or the U.S. and has not been used as a reason to deny an air permit for any other facility in Kansas. Bremby continues to issue permits that emit carbon dioxide but has not stated what constitutes an acceptable level of carbon dioxide, only that the amount associated with Sunflower's expansion project is "too much."
"Sunflower's permit application satisfied all KDHE rules and regulations governing the air permit process. The KDHE technical staff recommended to the secretary that the permit be approved, yet Secretary Bremby denied the permit," Watkins said. "Sunflower's permit application is the only one -- out of thousands of such applications since 2003 -- that the KDHE has denied. This is unfair and a violation of rights guaranteed to Sunflower by the U.S. Constitution."
Sebelius and Parkinson have repeatedly stated that the denial was proper because the majority of the power would be exported to other states. It is not against Kansas or U.S. law to export products, including electricity, and the administration continues to promote exports of electricity generated by wind and other Kansas products. It is, however, against the law to interfere with interstate commerce.
"Denying the air permit on the basis that too much of the electricity would be exported impedes the right of Kansans to engage in interstate commerce, inhibiting our citizens' pursuit of prosperity and quality of life," Watkins said. "In a time of economic downturn, it seems unconscionable that a project like this would be denied since it creates 329 jobs earning more than $16 million in annual wages and fully complies with all state and federal requirements while helping to secure our energy independence."
Sunflower developed the Holcomb Expansion Project to meet its growing energy needs and keep rates affordable for the customers of its member distribution systems, including nearly 48,000 people who live below the federal poverty level, 63,000 senior citizens, 25,000 farms and 12,000 small businesses.
Today's environmental profile of coal is the result of investments in new technologies to reduce emissions that have resulted in 70 percent fewer emissions than a coal plant coming online in 1980. The Holcomb Expansion Project, as designed, will be the cleanest plant in the region with regulated emissions that are 90 percent less than the average coal plant in the U.S. generating fleet.
About Sunflower-Sunflower Electric Power Corporation is a regional wholesale power supplier that operates a 1,257 MW system of wind, gas, and coal-based generating plants and a 2,300-mile transmission system for the needs of its six member cooperatives who serve more than 400,000 customers living in central and western Kansas. Visit Sunflower's website at http://www.sunflower.net.
Sunflower's member cooperatives include Lane-Scott Electric Cooperative, Dighton; Pioneer Electric Cooperative, Ulysses; Prairie Land Electric Cooperative, Norton; Victory Electric Cooperative Association, Dodge City; Western Cooperative Electric Association, WaKeeney; and Wheatland Electric Cooperative, Scott City, Kansas.