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Coal bill backers try new strategy

Eagle staff and news services

TOPEKA - Kansas lawmakers struggled to end the 2008 legislative session Saturday, mounting last-minute efforts to resurrect two rejected coal plants.

But plans to adjourn fell apart after a dispute between the House and Senate over a final spending bill. Now, lawmakers say they'll return Monday, hoping to finish their work for the year.

Senate leaders, however, said they won't bring back members until there is work to be done.

Two days after a failed effort to overrule a regulator's rejection and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' veto of the proposed western Kansas coal plants, lawmakers in the House tried one more push.

Saturday afternoon, supporters of Sunflower Electric Power Corp.' s project in Holcomb inserted a bill authorizing the two plants into an economic development package tied to an intermodal project in Johnson County.

"Clearly, we're making the statement this is economic development," House Speaker Melvin Neufeld said. "There needs to be a decision whether we want economic development in this state or whether we want to go back to the Stone Age."

Backers of Sunflower's project began describing the new measure as the "economic stimulus bill."

Tom Thompson, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club's state chapter, said Sunflower's allies are dooming worthwhile initiatives by tying them to proposals Sebelius has rejected. And if the bill fails to become law, he said, "it doesn't stimulate anything."

Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby rejected the coal plant project last fall because of concerns about carbon emissions and climate change. Since then, lawmakers have tried repeatedly to overrule him and Sebelius.

Bremby's decision also inspired six separate legal challenges, three of which are before the Kansas Supreme Court.

The new bill's passage requires only a simple majority. But it probably faces another veto from Sebelius. Lawmakers would have a final chance to overrule Sebelius on May 29, the session's formal end.

That final day -- a formality that many lawmakers skip -- could take on unusual significance this year if an override attempt is made.

The Senate has twice voted to override Sebelius on the issue, but when the House tried Thursday, it fell four votes short of the required 84.

Known as a "Hail Mary" in Capitol hallways, the new legislation was meant to give lawmakers yet another chance to get the plants authorized.

The tactic infuriated Rep. Judy Morrison, a Shawnee Republican who voted no on Thursday's veto override.

"It's one of the worst bills I've ever seen," she said. "What they're trying to do is force everyone to vote for it. It's blackmail."

Sebelius and other plant opponents questioned whether the coal plants belonged in an economic development bill, but supporters noted the project's economic impact on western Kansas and the effect that energy decisions have on the state economy.

"I don't want the Legislature faced with constituents wondering why they don't have electricity,' said Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, who backs the project.

Sebelius favors investment in renewable energy and notes that nearly 85 percent of the project's electricity would serve out-of-state customers. She said the new bill was yet another example of legislative leaders putting the coal plants before other issues.

"It's an indication that the House and Senate just didn't do their work in a timely fashion, and now they're trying, you know, to repackage a whole series of things," she said. "I have the same opposition to the key components of the coal bills that I've had from day one."

Sebelius said attorneys in her administration already have told her that the latest bill would violate the constitution's one-subject rule.

"By calling the building of coal plants economic development doesn't make them economic development," she said. "Just on that basis, we will give it a very close look."

Contributing: David Klepper and Jim Sullinger of Eagle Topeka bureau; Associated Press