If At First You Don't Succeed, Perhaps It Was a Bad Idea

Third try at coal-plant bill heads to Kansas governor

Posted at 12:46 PM on 25 Apr 2008

With firm belief in the power of try, trying again, Kansas legislators have sent another coal-plant proposal to the desk of veto-happy Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The governor has twice shot down legislation to allow a new two-unit coal plant to be built in her state, but legislative leaders say the new plan is a compromise: it would reduce the size of the proposed plant and set accelerated timelines for Sunflower Electric to develop renewable energy sources, create consumer efficiency programs, and track greenhouse-gas emissions. Sebelius says she will analyze the bill and bring a decision mid-next week, though she notes that the new legislation has "a number of the elements of the two bills that I've already vetoed" -- including disallowing the state environment department to impose tough restrictions on power-plant emissions. The state legislature believes that this time it has enough bipartisan support to override a veto.

sources:  Associated Press, Harris News Service, The Star