Since last year, Sunflower Electric Power Corp.'s application for a permit to construct a coal plant out west has languished at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Kansas Legislative leaders want to know why.
Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican and a Sunflower customer, has called a meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council to authorize a committee to look into the delay. He supports the coal plant, as does House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, also a Sunflower customer.
KDHE officials say no timetable ever existed for a decision on the permit. Public hearings on the permit application were held last fall.
In the meantime, Sunflower officials are expressing frustration and are saying the cost of the plant continues to grow as the Chinese keep driving up the cost of steel and construction. Plans for the plant already have been scaled back once — from three, 700 megawatt generators to two. Still, it's going to be a big plant, though not the largest one west of the Mississippi, as once was claimed.
A decision on the permit is widely expected sometime this fall.
Some Republicans have suggested that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is behind the delay. She's faced unprecedented criticism from environmental groups that vehemently oppose the plant. Some say the governor might be negotiating with Sunflower to come up with a deal that pleases everybody — perhaps, as Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson said the other day, a set of renewable energy investments to offset all that carbon from the coal plant.
