Sunflower Electric looks to the future

Sunflower Electric President and CEO Earl Watkins reiterated on Wednesday the cooperative’s commitment to expand Holcomb Station and thanked Kansas legislators and Kansans who support comprehensive energy legislation.
    “On behalf of our 400,000 consumer-owners, I want to thank the Legislature for their support,” Watkins said. “Legislators recognize our project will be among the cleanest and most efficient power plants in the nation and will provide affordable and reliable power to thousands of Kansas families.”
    As the legislative session concludes on May 29, Sunflower does not expect further action on energy legislation that would support the Holcomb Station expansion.
    Throughout the session, the compromise energy legislation received strong support from legislators and a broad section of the state’s most prominent business, agriculture and labor groups, which worked tirelessly to help return confidence in the state’s regulatory climate.
    “Sunflower is thankful for the efforts of the business, agriculture and labor organizations that supported the energy legislation that enables the development of sound energy policy and returns regulatory certainty to Kansas,”Watkins said.
    Last October, the professional staff of the Kansas Department of Public Health and Environment recommended the approval of the air permit for the Holcomb Station expansion. The KDHE staff worked diligently to ensure that
all state and federal requirements were met, public health and the
environment were protected and public input was reviewed.
    KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby disregarded his staff’s recommendation and cited his emergency powers to deny the project’s air permit. The cooperatives believe the secretary illegally used his authority. Emergency powers under the Kansas Air Quality Act, and comparable powers under the
federal Clean Air Act, have always applied to emergency situations at existing facilities and have never been used in the air permitting process.
    “The Legislature sent a clear message that current law does not allow the Secretary to use his emergency powers in the air permitting process,” said Watkins. “Since we firmly believe that the KDHE secretary’s decision was flawed, Sunflower will continue to pursue legal and administrative remedies.”
    In addition to seeking legal remedies, Sunflower will continue working with the Legislature and the administration to advance an energy policy in Kansas that will allow for the construction of all forms of base load generation,
including the expansion of existing facilities in a manner that recognizes value to existing customers of not-for-profit cooperatives.
    “We remain committed to providing reliable electric generation and transmission services to our member owners in central and western Kansas,” Watkins said, “and the Holcomb expansion project is part of that mission.”