Lawrence lawmakers expect the Legislature will spend a lot of time fighting about two rejected coal-fired electric plants in western Kansas. ...Regardless of their views, they all agreed that rejection of the plants must be followed with a debate on how Kansas will meet its future energy needs, and what can be done to help the western Kansas economy should Bremby's decision stand. "Western Kansas needs more electricity," Sloan said. "So if you are not going to allow that plant to be built, how will you meet their legitimate needs?"

Its giant windmills remain still, but Smoky Hills Wind Farm already is generating economic activity in north-central Kansas. Between 200 and 250 workers are constructing the facility -- building roads, erecting turbines and assembling electrical systems that will collect and distribute the 100 megawatts of power that will be generated -- and about two-thirds of them have been hired locally.

A watchdog group is asking that all three members of the Kansas Corporation Commission be recused from hearing Westar's wind energy request, citing a meeting nearly a year ago in which the governor's office reportedly promised the CEOs of several utilities that KCC would ensure their companies would be fully compensated for investments in wind. The meeting was detailed in a confidential e-mail sent by Westar's CEO and was later obtained by the Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board. ...Joe Harkins, who was at the meeting and is now a KCC commissioner, voluntarily recused himself from the case on Nov. 9. A week later, CURB formally asked that the two remaining members, Michael Moffet and Thomas Wright, be disqualified also.

Everyone agrees that one factor that has slowed the growth of wind power in Kansas is a general lack of power lines to take the power to markets. Now, critics of the decision to deny the permit needed to build two new coal-fired power plants at Holcomb say plans to enhance transmission lines are being shelved. And that, in turn, is putting wind projects on hold. ..."The decision to deny the coal plant has not changed any transmission plans that would be used for wind," said Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson. "Now, obviously, the coal plant decision did stop the transmission that would have headed into Colorado."

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' administration Thursday was in damage control mode over its decision to reject two massive coal-fired plants in western Kansas. In a speech to a Rotary Club in Topeka, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson repeatedly emphasized development of alternative energy projects in western Kansas, and the accompanying economic activity. ..."I think they are trying to create a vision that things are all perfect," said Kreutzer, a plumbing and mechanical supply contractor. But, he said, denial of the coal-fired plants has chased off a lot of potential development in the region. And Sebelius' refusal to allow the plants to be constructed has produced a potential political standoff, he said.

The biggest loser in the state's decision to block construction of two coal-fired generating plants near Holcomb could be the industry that opponents of the plants say they want to support: wind farms. Across western Kansas, at least seven -- and possibly as many as 13 -- proposed wind projects could be in jeopardy because their feasibility hinges on being able to access the new transmission lines that were part of the Sunflower Energy Cooperative's plan for the new plants. "I'd say this decision pretty much halts wind development in western Kansas," said David Snyder, economic development director in Ness County, who said his county's wind farm project is in doubt. "We need transmission lines, and we need the coal plants to get them." ..."Without the transmission lines and the baseload capacity that would come from the Holcomb project, our wind development really won't happen," McCants said.

A 320-foot crane used to construct turbines at the under-construction Smoky Hills Wind Farm fell Wednesday morning while it was being moved from one site to another, said Glenn Melski, vice president and manager of operations for Enel North America, one of the companies that's managing the project. ...The 56-turbine, first phase of the wind farm, which is about five miles northwest of Ellsworth, had been scheduled for completion in December. Melski said he didn't know how much the crane incident would affect the project's schedule.

Iberdrola Renewable Energies USA has filed three new conditional-use permit applications with the Ellis County Environmental Office, requesting permission to install three meteorological towers. The towers would be located in the southern portion of the previously proposed wind farm area. The towers would stand 60 meters tall, the same height as the tower installed to collect wind data in 2006, said Project Manager Krista Gordon. ...Wing said the submitted applications are incomplete, and that further information is needed. For example, the application is missing a list of the affected landowners, he said. "There's no way it's going to happen," Wing said of the Nov. 28 meeting. "They're incomplete."

...commission's Monday night meeting, where regulations on private wind turbines eventually were approved on a 6-0 vote. ...The new zoning code section sets out a series of steps that must be followed, such as having the site surveyed, rules limiting height to 200 feet, setbacks from property lines must be at least 1.5 times the height of the tower and generally limiting the number of turbines to one per 80 acres. Commissioners questioned a few provisions, including one requiring turbines be shut down during icy weather, with some saying that rule would be difficult to enforce. Koepsel said she'd read reports of 2.5 pound chunks of ice being thrown as far as 800 feet from turbine blades, so icy weather is a safety issue.

Countywide zoning, conditional-use permits and tower construction topped the Ellis County Commission agenda Monday morning. But for once, the discussion wasn't related to wind energy. Commissioners heard from opponents to construction of a 300-foot tall communications tower southeast of Victoria city limits. Commissioner Perry Henman said ... "The problem I see we're getting into is every time we have an industrial application," Henman said. "When we have a project deal, we don't have any problems with any of those. Once we have an outside or bigger industry wanting a conditional-use permit, we have this problem every time.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment recently sparked controversy around the country when it denied a permit for the expansion of a coal-fired power plant in its state. The plant, being proposed by Sunflower Electric Power, was denied because of carbon dioxide emissions concerns. During today's OnPoint, Jeff Holmstead, the former chief air official at the U.S. EPA and currently head of the environmental strategies group at Bracewell & Giuliani, explains why he believes the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had no legal basis for turning down the proposal for the permit. He also discusses why he thinks denying this project will negatively impact consumers and will have no significant impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For the anti-nuke crowd, the storage pool's ghostly appearance hints at potential catastrophic fallout from reliance on an energy source with a waste stream so toxic it must be guarded for centuries. ...The nation's tolerance for atomic power is about to be tested by an industry intent on welcoming a new wave of nuclear plants and drowning memories of accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Legions of activists will surface to obstruct the flow of this nuclear gambit. The exchange is likely to spark a relapse into polarizing environmental, political and regulatory debates that dominated nuclear power's emergence at Wolf Creek and plants carrying the names Copper Station, Turkey Point, Vermont Yankee, Peach Bottoms, Beaver Valley, Comanche Peak and Grand Gulf. ...Stuart Lowry, a Topeka lawyer who works with power cooperatives and serves on the Kansas Energy Council, said he didn't need surveys to grasp that nuclear power had to play a larger role in the nation's energy future.

"It has almost become like a gold rush," said Sherry Kunka, Xcel Energy project director. "We have a long waiting list of developers seeking transmission access." ...The future of wind development depends on transmission lines that need to be built to take the power where it is needed because local needs are filled. One transmission plan would be just for wind energy headed for the rest of Texas. Another would take it to the grid that serves the eastern U.S. When Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Roderic Bremby denied an air permit for two large coal generators near Dodge City, Kan., on Oct. 18, he may have put up a roadblock for sending power east, said Bob Bryant, president and general manager of Golden Spread Electric Cooperative.

Enjoy the wind, while it's still free. Next year, you'll be paying for it in your electric bill. While wind itself doesn't cost anything, buying, installing and maintaining the equipment to turn it into megawatts of electricity is expensive. In Kansas, the cost is likely to reach into the billions. Starting next year and for the next few years, you can expect to pay about $2 to $2.50 more a month on your Westar Energy bill as the company brings on line the first phase of its wind expansion plan. Overall, that 300 megawatts of wind power will increase the company's rates by $55 million in 2009, its first year of operation, according to documents filed with the Kansas Corporation Commission. The 20-year cost works out to $830 million, the documents show. ...The governor wants to increase the use of wind power to 20 percent by 2020. Assuming future wind projects have similar costs, Kansas consumers could end up paying about $4.8 billion over the next 20 to 30 years to meet those goals. ..."I have not been against development of any kind of alternative energy," said Rep. Don Myers, R-Derby, a 15-year veteran of the House Utilities Committee. But Myers and others say the biggest drawback of wind is that utilities using it will have to maintain conventional power plants to back it up on days when the winds are calm, usually in late summer.

Why is Kansas behind? The short answer: It's complicated, and thoughtful people disagree. Wind proponents say the state has provided little leadership, either through regulation or incentive. State officials say Kansas has been perceived as being anti-wind, which has encouraged citizens opposed to wind. Utilities insist they're embracing wind just as fast as they can. ...Many utilities maintain that adding any significant quantity of wind-powered generation will make the electric grid too unstable, because you never know when the wind will start blowing. Or stop. ..."They [wind turbines] could never, ever serve even one home," he said. That's because at some point the wind will stop but demand for electricity hasn't. ...in order to make this wind power available, Austin Energy had to line up a back-up source of electricity for nearly all its wind energy. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the electric grid in much of Texas, requires all utilities file an energy plan, every day, that shows how much electricity it expects its customers to use during every 15-minute period of the next day, and where it plans to get that power from. The 9 percent rule If the power source is a wind farm, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas counts only 8.7 percent of the farm's rated capacity. Never mind wind farms typically produce 20 percent to 40 percent of their rated capacity in the long term. What matters is the short term.

Midwest is doing what it can with renewable energy, such as wind. "Let's use what we can from renewables, but they're not the silver bullet," Helm said. Midwest has agreed to buy 25 megawatts of power from the Smoky Hill Wind Farm west of Salina, but if past performance is any indication, it will rarely get the full amount. When Midwest was purchasing power from the Gray County wind farm, it generally was getting only 8 megawatts of power anywhere from 35 percent to 40 percent of the time. "We never got the total amount we contracted for," Helm said.

The licensing agreement with a company that has proposed a wind energy farm in Cowley and Elk counties may be completed within the next month, according to Cowley County Administrator Leroy Alsup. The agreement sets the standards and specifications for construction and operation of the project, he said. Greenlight Energy, Inc. of Charlottesville, Va., constructed Kansas' largest wind farm in Butler County and applied to construct one in Cowley and Elk counties. The company has since been purchased by a subsidiary of British Petroleum, according to Alsup.

The uncivil war ignited by a request from Iberdrola Renewable Energies to build a 200-megawatt complex near Hays exposed deep gaps in thinking about wind power. Advocates pointed to a sustainable, free source of energy that didn't mirror a coal-fired plant's contributions to smog, acid rain, global warming and mercury poisoning. Critics responded that each $2 million turbine was an aesthetic irritant, complete with blinking night lights to warn aircraft. Property owners near the proposed site suggested land values would nose dive. ..."No one in their right mind can possibly consider this an environmentally beneficial development for a peaceful rural community," he [J.P. Michaud] said.

Unlikely bedfellows in the past, utilities are turning more often to environmental groups for advice on potential wind farm sites. ..."We do have a bit of a landrush sort of scenario going on right now without much to control it, Pollom said, "Wind energy in general really has no federal oversight, like you might see with conventional power plants, because you're not producing air emissions. You're not using water resources, and it's not regulated by the Kansas Corporation Commission." The only regulatory involvement is in a zoned county. But much of the state's rural western counties have no zoning, leaving citizens without a formal appeals process.