Her Dirty Secret

She explained that she'd met with leaders of Kansas utilities. "We discussed the need to diversify our energy sources and to promote alternatives to coal. It's [coal's] economically cheap, but its health and environmental costs are rising."

She pledged to work out an agreement with electric producers to generate more power from wind and to secure $1 million in state funding for an agency to help transport that clean power. She made good on both of those promises.

This past spring, the governor also signed an executive order increasing energy efficiency in government buildings and she hired an auditor to oversee the state's new conservation initiatives. When Greensburg was leveled by a tornado, she took the lead in advocating that the town be rebuilt to green-construction standards and powered with renewable energy.

But faced with the state's most contentious energy issue, Sebelius has compromised her new green ethic.

The governor declined the Pitch's requests for an interview to discuss her opinions about the Sunflower expansion and her vision for Kansas energy production. Instead, she responded — selectively — to a list of written questions.

"Developing a safe and dependable mix of electrical generation to support growing demand not just in Kansas but worldwide, is an enormously complex issue for which there is no silver bullet solution," the governor wrote when asked her stance on the new coal-fired power plants.

"Kansas is blessed with greater wind resources than most other states," she added. "Therefore, adding wind generation to the Kansas electrical generation portfolio is part of the solution — but we cannot expect it to be THE solution."

In coming years, Sebelius wrote, new technology will make coal generation far cleaner and less damaging to the environment.

"The basic question is, can we get by for 5 to 10 years by adding wind to the mix while we wait for the availability of new technology? I believe it is possible if we use our existing supplies more efficiently and reduce consumption of electricity through conservation....

"I want to see us get through this transition period by focusing on adding a realistic degree of renewable energy in conjunction with building a strong conservation ethic."

But Sebelius seems to contradict herself. Though she says she believes it's possible to wait for new technology that will make coal cleaner, she declines to address whether she has considered a moratorium on new coal plants.

She says she'd like to see Kansas navigate a complex energy era by focusing on wind energy and conservation but she does not express any reservation about the Holcomb expansion, which would further entrench a coal-fired system.

She says she wants to reduce consumption and use energy more efficiently to stretch Kansas' current supply of electricity but she declines to address whether the state could use those measures to make up for the small increase in power that the state would get from Sunflower's new plants.

After all, only 200 megawatts of the new power will serve Kansas residents — just a little more juice than is generated by the Butler County wind farm south of Beaumont. On a frigid Saturday morning in December, more than 100 Kansans rallied at the Capitol to tell Sebelius that her middle-of-the-road leadership was leaving her on the wrong side of the Sunflower issue. With mitten-covered hands, they held homemade signs with slogans aimed at the governor.

"Governor Sebelius: Just Say No!"

"Kathleen: Save Us From Fossil Fools!"

"Wind Good. Coal Bad."

Many of the placards had been printed on the back of "Sebelius '06" yard signs left over from the November election, a race in which the popular governor failed to gain the Sierra Club's endorsement because of her weak environmental record.

On a table stocked with hot chocolate, the Sierra Club provided sample letters to Sebelius. "Demand Governor Sebelius use her leadership to do what's right," fliers urged.

Griffith told the crowd that Kansans needed to draw a line in the sand and reject dirty power. The state is at a crossroads, he said, and the governor has the power to propose a moratorium on new coal plants.

"She's done it before. There is precedent," he said.

In 2003, when wind developers were eyeing sites in the Flint Hills, Sebelius put a hold on any new construction while a blue ribbon panel studied the issue. As a result, the governor designated a 60-mile swath as off-limits to wind farms.

With global warming threatening erratic weather and more frequent drought in Kansas, a half-dozen other speakers argued, a moratorium on coal would be the only responsible action.

"We do not want them to make a mistake of historic proportions," Griffith said.

Last September, Sebelius' press secretary, Nicole Corcoran, told Platts Coal Trader magazine that the governor would consider a moratorium on new coal plants if the Kansas Energy Council recommended it. (In 2004, Sebelius appointed the 35-member council of energy stakeholders — from citizen activists to utility executives — who advise the governor on energy policy.) But Ken Frahm, co-chairman of the council, says the group has not dealt with the issue of Sunflower's expansion. "She has not directly asked us to study it at all," he says of Sebelius.