Those wacky Kansans and their coal power

Those wacky Kansans are at it again. They have put a wind power bill with another attempt to open up a coal plant in Southwest Kansas. This time the mostly Republican legislators will ignore a bill that denies using the coal plant because it violates pollution regulations. The Kansas legislature acts as if it is out to destroy the environment as quick as possible. There is even a new study out that says humans are increasing the pollutants to global warming at the same time greenhouse gasses are reaching a dangerous level.
The irony with this bill is that the coal plant will provide power to other states while polluting this one.

Below is The Wichita Eagle, Feb. 13, 2009, article about the new coal plant:

Bill links wind power, coal plants
Associated Press
TOPEKA - A House committee endorsed a bill Thursday that ties two proposed coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas to proposals for promoting wind and other renewable energy sources.
Supporters used the same strategy last year in an unsuccessful effort to clear the way for the coal plants despite Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' opposition. Like three bills Sebelius vetoed last year, the latest measure would overturn the denial of an air-quality permit for Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build the two plants outside Holcomb, in Finney County.
The Energy and Utilities Committee's 11-9 vote sent the bill to the House, where a debate is expected next week.
The bill also would limit the secretary of health and environment's power to regulate greenhouse gases that many scientists link to global warming. When he denied Sunflower's permit in October 2007, Secretary Rod Bremby cited their potential carbon dioxide emissions.

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To read about the climate study:
The Wichita Eagle, Feb. 14, 2009:

Climate warming gases rising faster than expected
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
CHICAGO - Despite widespread concern over global warming, humans are adding carbon to the atmosphere even faster than in the 1990s, researchers warned Saturday.
Carbon dioxide and other gases added to the air by industrial and other activities have been blamed for rising temperatures, increasing worries about possible major changes in weather and climate.
Carbon emissions have been growing at 3.5 percent per year since 2000, up sharply from the 0.9 percent per year in the 1990s, Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution for Science told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"It is now outside the entire envelope of possibilities" considered in the 2007 report of the International Panel on Climate Change, he said. The IPCC and former vice president Al Gore received the Nobel Prize for drawing attention to the dangers of climate change.
The largest factor in this increase is the widespread adoption of coal as an energy source, Field said, "and without aggressive attention societies will continue to focus on the energy sources that are cheapest, and that means coal."
……..Rising oceans can pose a threat to low level areas such as South Florida, New York and other coastal areas as the ocean warms and expands and as water is added from melting ice sheets.

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