10-04-2013 08:48 PM

Kansas court deals a blow to Tri-State's planned $2.8B coal plant






The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association's plan to help build a $2.8 billion coal-fired plant in Kansas received a blow Friday when the Kansas Supreme Court unanimously reversed the state's decision to grant the plant a critical air permit.
The high court said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s decision to issue the permit for the 895-megawatt plant in December 2011 was flawed because the agency didn’t consider the tougher federal Environmental Protection Agency ruled in place at the time, the Kansas City Star reports.
The court sided with the Sierra Club's arguments, reversing the decision to grant the permit and remanded the matter back to the health department. You can read the ruling here.
Tri-State, an energy cooperative based in Westminster, was backing the plant and working with Kansas rural cooperative Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build the new coal plant near Holcomb, Kan. The new plant is planned for the site of an existing coal-fired power plant run by Sunflower.
Tri-State was supposed to get 75 percent of the power generated by the new coal plant.
Lee Boughey, a spokesman for Tri-State, said the wholesale power provider isn’t giving up on the project, according to a story in The Topeka Capital-Journal.
“We respect the decision of the court in this very complex case involving state and federal laws and regulations and we will continue to work with our Kansas partners and [the Kansas Department of Health and Environment] to implement the instructions of the court as the permit process moves forward,” Boughey said.
“We will continue to take the steps necessary to preserve and advance our option to participate in the project. It remains one of a number of resources under consideration to meet the long-term power needs of our member co-ops,” he said.

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Cathy Proctor covers energy, the environment, transportation and construction for the Denver Business Journal and edits the weekly "Energy Inc." newsletter. Phone: 303-803-9233. Subscribe to the Energy Inc. newsletter


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