The Lid on Coal's Coffin Stays On.
Holcomb Plant Quietly Dies in Legislature.

Sometimes in cartoons, characters play a game where a gopher pokes his head out of a hole and the character tries to bang the gopher on the head with a bat before it goes back down the hole. There are several holes so the character must keep watching to see where it will come up next.

Bills concerning the building of a 1400 mw coal fired power facility in Holcomb were like this game during the 2008 legislative session. As those fighting the production of 11 million tons of carbon dioxide fought, new bills kept popping up. On May 29, 2008, at 10:35 a.m. the game machine was turned off when the gavel was struck by Speaker of the House Rep. Melvin Neufeld, ending the 2008 legislative session and any further attempts to pass legislation limiting the authority of the Secretary of KDHE and allowing Sunflower to re-apply for permitting Holcomb. The Senate did like wise a short time later.

The gopher started popping up in January as HB 2711 in the House and SB 515 in the Senate. It may seem silly to have to say from which house each of these came but as time went on, where coal plant bills came from was often uncertain. For instance, these bills were eventually combined into House Substitute for SB 327. Bills with 3 digit numbers are Senate bills and 4 digit numbers are House bills. Should there then be a veto, the house of origin begins the over ride process. SB 327 was vetoed by Governor Sebelius on March 21 st . The Senate voted to over ride but there was no motion to over ride in the House.

On March 26, after a lull in Holcomb activity, there was little on the House Agenda. Interestingly there were a number of Holcomb executives and lobbyists at the Capitol that day. As the House went into session, House Substitute for SB 148 was born. The gopher chase was on once again. 148, similar to 327, with some additional “green” provisions or “lipstick,” was passed. On April 17, Governor Sebelius vetoed 327. The Senate voted to over ride but the House on May 1 st was unable to muster the 84 votes needed to do the same. It failed in the House by a vote of 80 to 45.

You would think the gopher would stay in its hole, but no. Senate Substitute for HB 2412 was written with more lipstick. Later a trailer bill, HB 2802, was written to add more lipstick to 2412 should it go into effect. Both of these passed. It was apparent in the waning days of the veto session that there wouldn't be enough votes to over ride. Governor Sebelius vetoed 2412 and 2802 on May 16 th after the veto session.

None-the-less there was still a chance that a veto could be over ridden on May 29 when the legislature got together for sine die, the official last day of the 2008 legislative session. Because 2412 was a House bill, the veto over ride process had to begin in the House.

There were 98 members of the House in attendance on sine die but many were not Holcomb supporters. The Speaker of the House Rep. Melvin Neufeld, asked if anyone wished to move to over ride 2412 or 2802. No one rose to do so. Soon after, the Speaker hit the gavel ending the 2008 legislative session, keeping the gopher in its hole for now.

I did not mean to disparage the good name of gophers in this article. Nor do I condone taking a bat to any creature. Working against this legislation was not a game either. It took a lot of patience, perseverance and hard work on the part of a lot of volunteers fighting this bill. There were many days when I was the only lobbyist fighting these bills whereas there where many supporting it.

One thing those other lobbyists did not have was a group of hard working grass roots volunteers who weren't willing to give up. Anyone who came to a rally, visited their legislator personally or otherwise communicated your opposition to these bills should be proud. Stopping these bills will help continue the movement going on in this country to bring us a cleaner healthier environment.

However, your efforts will only be fully successful when Kansas has an effective clean energy plan in place that serves the whole state and the environment. We need to remember to support those who support us. The 2009 legislative session begins in about 7 months. We kept the gopher in its hole for now, but he is still there. Work needs to continue to keep the lid on tight.

Tom Thompson, Legislative Coordinator