Amanda Goodin, agoodin@earthjustice.org, 206-343-7340 x1020
Topeka, KS – The Kansas Supreme Court issued a decision today to uphold a permit for the proposed Sunflower coal plant near Garden City, Kansas. Earthjustice, representing the Sierra Club, challenged the permit in court in January 2016 arguing that the fast-tracked permit failed to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas rules by failing to set gas emission limits. As written, the permit would allow the proposed Holcomb coal plant to emit 8,000,000 tons of greenhouse gases each year, which would make it the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state of Kansas.
The proposed 895mw plant has been the subject of more than a decade of disagreement between Sunflower Electric, a small electric co-op in western Kansas, and the project’s opponents, which have argued for years that the plant is unnecessary, too costly, and too polluting.
According to a 2016 report by the Department of Energy, the cost of wind power is down 41 percent from 2008 and solar costs are down between 54 percent and 64 percent in that same period. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates of overnight capital costs, the $2.8 billion cost for the plant could cover the capital costs of 1.5 GW of wind or 1.1 GW of utility scale solar.
In response to today’s decision, Amanda Goodin, Attorney at Earthjustice, the law firm representing the Sierra Club, issued the following statement:
“Today’s decision is disappointing, but it is not the end of the story. The proposed new Sunflower plant would be one of the most expensive coal plants in the country at a time when renewable energy is cheaper and more widely available than ever before. Putting nearly three billion dollars into constructing this plant would be an incredibly foolish gamble. A plant that expensive would take decades to pay off – any financer would be gambling $3 billion on the untenable notion that the massive emissions from the plant will be unregulated for decades to come. We simply won’t let that happen. Sunflower got off the hook for its massive emissions today, but we will continue to fight at every turn to hold them accountable for their pollution. That day will come sooner than they think.”
Elizabeth Katt Reinders, Senior Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, released the following statement
“Sunflower’s decade-long quest to build a $2.8 billion dollar coal plant faces additional hurdles. The decade-old proposed plant no longer has a buyer lined up for its power output, the project may still require federal financing approvals, and perhaps most significantly, the energy market in Kansas and the surrounding area has changed dramatically in favor of abundant low-cost clean energy, putting the new plant proposal on shaky ground at best.
“The overwhelming trend is that coal is on its way out, and clean energy is taking its place. In 2016, 63% of all new power generation was clean energy. Since the Holcomb plant was proposed, the cost of clean energy has plummeted.
“As the rest of the nation is embracing a profound shift in our energy landscape from coal to clean energy, Sunflower is trying to take a huge step backwards. Since the proposed Holcomb coal plant lacks a buyer for its power, ratepayers would be saddled with a huge expense for no benefit.”