AG Supports Coal Permits

The Kansas Attorney General’s office has filed a legal brief asking the Kansas Supreme court to uphold a construction permit issued for Sunflower Electric power plant in Holcomb.

Derek Schmidt, Attorney General, said his office is defending the State of Kansas and its Department of Health an d Environment against a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club asking the Court to reject the permit.

“The publicly stated goal of Sierra Club, to impose an indefinite moratorium on construction of all facilities that burn coal, is not a proper administrative purpose under existing law,” Schmidt said. “No law authorizes or requires KDHE to refuse to license an electric generating plant because its fuel source is coal.”

The permit was issued in December 2010 by KDHE Acting Secretary John Mitchell after KDHE staff found that Sunflower had met the permitting requirements.