State News

Topeka — Lobbyists’ spending has doubled over last year, and the reason is the controversy over two coal-fired power plants proposed for southwest Kansas.

But state legislators are not getting wined and dined more than usual. The increased spending is for a public relations blitz by the pro-coal and anti-coal groups urging everyday Kansans to pressure legislators.

Kansas Senate, District 20 race
By Mike Hall
The Capital-Journal
Published Sunday, October 19, 2008

Unlike most people trying to unseat incumbent state legislators, Carolyn Weinhold has already been there.

A Democrat now running for the 20th District Kansas Senate seat, Weinhold served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1993 to 1994 when she lived in Salina.

She and her husband, Frank, are the parents of two sons, one of whom is deceased.

Some say time is running out for coal plants, but backers fight on
By Chris Green - Harris News Service - cgreen@dailynews.net

TOPEKA - A year after the state's top environmental regulator nixed the construction of two coal plants over global warming concerns, the future of the project remains hazy.

But Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and its partners don't fear time is running out on the project as they pursue a legal challenge that could leave the fate of their Holcomb expansion in the hands of the Kansas Supreme Court sometime next year.

By Chris Green - Harris News Service - cgreen@dailynews.net"

TOPEKA - The Legislature's top two sitting Republican leaders say they want to resurrect efforts to clear the way for two coal plants in southwest Kansas during the next session.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who successfully vetoed legislation allowing the plants this past spring, said the governor would be disappointed to see the issue consume more of lawmakers' time during the 2009 session, which begins in January.

Leavenworth, Kan. -

Last year, the Sebelius administration refused to grant a permit to Sunflower Electric Power Corp. even though the professional staff at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment recommended approval of the application.

BY NANCY JACKSON

By Christine Metz

September 25, 2008

This is the year for talk about which states are red and which ones are blue.

But in the midst of an energy crisis and rising concerns over carbon emissions, some are focused on a different color: green.

And in the past year, Kansas has been shaded as a murky brown.

In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Kansas No. 31 when it comes to protecting the environment.