December, 16 2010, 03:30pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Amanda Goodin, Earthjustice, 206-343-7340, ext. 20
Stephanie Cole, Sierra Club, 402-984-1122
Kansas Issues Permit for New, Massive Sunflower Coal Plant While Other States Begin Retiring Existing Coal Plants
Federal review of air permit process expected
TOPEKA, Kan.
Today, the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) issued a permit for the
highly controversial coal plant Sunflower Electric seeks to construct
near Holcomb. The coal plant has been the subject of a multi-year
controversy after being denied a permit in the fall of 2007.
Today's action and the controversy it has generated is expected to
provoke a review by the federal government. A top Environmental
Protection Agency official wrote in an open letter on November 27:
"If KDHE recommends Sunflower be permitted before Jan. 2, EPA will
review this initial decision ... That's why EPA must scrutinize not just
the language of any Sunflower permit, but the whole state
decision-making process that produced a permit."
"The EPA has announced plans to carefully review this permit to
determine whether KDHE adequately considered public comments and whether
the permit includes the strong pollution controls required under the
Clean Air Act," said Amanda Goodin of Earthjustice. "If EPA blinks-and
it certainly shouldn't-the Clean Air Act allows the people of Kansas
legal redress to ensure the Act's full enforcement."
The final permit was pushed through in less than six months despite a
comment period that generated 6,000 public comments, many of which were
against the project, and despite decreasing electricity demand, low
natural gas prices, and considerable renewable energy growth. In fact,
just this month Colorado announced it will be shutting down coal plants
while Kansas brings a comparable amount of new coal capacity online,
ironically, mostly to serve Colorado.
"Thousands of people got involved in the permitting process with a
belief that their input would be fairly considered, and it should have
been. Accelerating the process to permit a coal plant for an
out-of-state utility, at the expense of Kansans, is inexcusable," said
Stephanie Cole of the Kansas Sierra Club.
Long-term Health and Financial Consequences
The proposed new coal-fired power plant would emit millions of tons
of pollutants each year over the 50+ year life of the project, posing
substantial risks to human health and the environment. The pollutants
emitted by the plant will include fine particulates, ozone forming
constituents, hazardous pollutants such as mercury and greenhouse gases,
all of which EPA has found pose serious risks to human health.
Sunflower has itself admitted that there is no need in Kansas for the
vast majority of the capacity from this massive new polluting
plant-instead, Tri-State, a Colorado utility, is slated to receive the
majority of the power. But Tri-State's recent long-term resource plan
shows that Tri-State has no need for the capacity either, and Tri-State
has not yet committed to the project. Sunflower still hasn't paid back
the federal government the millions of taxpayer dollars it owes for its
existing coal plant at the Holcomb station. Given Sunflower's massive
debt and precarious financial situation, it can't possibly finance this
new coal plant itself without putting Kansas ratepayers at risk.
A Politicized Process
The permitting process requires public comments to be thoroughly
considered. Instead, review of nearly 6,000 public comments apparently
was cut short in an attempt to avoid new national environmental
regulations, which become applicable on Jan 2, 2011.
The permitting process has been a national embarrassment for Kansans,
as the state, blessed with some of the country's best wind resources,
vigorously pushes forward with plans for an unneeded coal plant, which
would burn Wyoming coal while other states begin retiring their existing
coal plants. This politicized fiasco was plagued with leaked emails
exposing permit process manipulation, backroom deals, unwarranted
involvement from the state legislature, and the abrupt and suspicious
removal of former Secretary Bremby from KDHE.
"The rushed job on this permit is an injustice to the thousands of
citizens who participated in the process with the belief that their
input was meaningful," said Stephanie Cole of the Kansas Sierra Club.
"By turning the permitting process into a race against the clock, the
state has signaled that it does not value public involvement."
While Sunflower may now have a permit for the project, they are far
from breaking ground on a new coal plant. In fact, coal plant
construction has been on the wane for years, and it is unlikely
Sunflower, already highly indebted to the federal government, will break
coal's multi-year losing streak anytime soon.
While Kansas is rushing to build a coal plant for a Colorado utility,
which would receive most of the power, the rest of the country,
including Colorado, has moved beyond coal. For example, just last week
Colorado announced plans to begin retiring existing coal plants.
Recent coal plant shut down announcements:
- Just last week, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved the retirement of 902 megawatts of coal power.
- The Boardman plant in Oregon with will be shut down by no later than 2020.
- Los Angeles will get out of one of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the country-the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona.
- The Arizona Public Service Company will begin retirement of three boilers at the Four Corners power plant.
- In recent months, over 13,000 megawatts of existing coal capacity has been announced for early retirement.
"Under this scenario, Colorado gets power while Kansas makes a
long-term commitment to an outdated coal plant other states are
unwilling to take a gamble on," said Stephanie Cole from the Sierra
Club. "Kansas gets the pollution; Colorado gets the power. What a deal."
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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Apr 30, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday lauded the Biden administration for expanding its "campaign against pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper or inaccurate listing of patents" for a wide range of drugs including Novo Nordisk's Ozempic.
"Let me commend the Federal Trade Commission, under the leadership of Chair Lina Khan, for taking bold action today against the bogus patents Novo Nordisk has filed to prevent Americans struggling with diabetes from receiving a generic version of Ozempic at a much lower price," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement.
Sanders—who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee—stressed that "Novo Nordisk must not be allowed to make billions in profits by delaying generic competition for Ozempic by unlawfully filing junk patents that have nothing to do with the drug itself, but the injection pen."
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The Associated Pressreported the DEA is proposing rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I—which includes heroin, MDMA, and LSD—to Schedule III, a far less restrictive class that includes ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone, and over-the-counter products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dose. According to the DEA, Schedule I drugs have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."
While it would not legalize cannabis for recreational use, the DEA proposal—which is subject to review by the White House Office of Management and Budget—would affirm medicinal marijuana and recognize that the plant has a lower potential for abuse than other widely used recreational drugs.
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)—which works to end the failed 53-year War on Drugs—warned that "under this proposed shift, marijuana criminalization would continue at the federal level and most penalties, including those for simple possession, would continue as long as marijuana remains anywhere on the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)."
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that "it is great news that DEA is finally recognizing that restrictive and draconian cannabis laws need to change to catch up to what science and the majority of Americans have said loud and clear."
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Booker and Schumer were among the 21 senators who last week sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram noting that it's been 18 months since Biden ordered HHS October to review cannabis scheduling and eight months since the agency's rescheduling recommendation.
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Legalization advocates, meanwhile, pushed the Biden administration to go much further, as 24 states plus the District of Columbia have approved adult-use recreational marijuana and 38 states have legalized medicinal cannabis.
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The Group of Seven Climate, Energy, and Environment Ministerial concluded a meeting in Turin, Italy, on Tuesday with a commitment to phase out "unabated" coal use by 2035.
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"This was the first opportunity for the G7 to show they were taking the COP28 agreement seriously. They have failed."
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