TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The permit allowing a new coal-fired power

plant in southwest Kansas is signed by the state’s top

environmental regulator and not Gov. Mark Parkinson.

But Parkinson’s fingerprints are on the document nonetheless.

Environmentalists had viewed the decision and its timing last

week as inevitable and remain suspicious that Parkinson was

directly involved. Supporters of the $2.8 billion project take the

governor at his word that he didn’t apply the pressure to get the

permit issued. Yet they still see Parkinson as important to

Sunflower’s getting the go-ahead.

Parkinson brokered a deal with the Hays-based company in April

2009, allowing the coal plant. Otherwise, the Democratic

administration might still be locked in a stalemate with Sunflower

and its allies in the Republican-controlled Legislature.