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Her Dirty Secret

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Sebelius has been working behind the scenes to move energy production in a cleaner direction, Tom Thompson says. He served in the Kansas House with Sebelius in the early 1990s, sits on the executive board of the Kansas Democratic Party and lobbied for the Sierra Club during the 2007 session. "When she wants to, she can be very hands-on," he says.

But other state leaders — even Republicans — have been doing more. In February, governors from seven states created the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And governors from New Jersey, Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico and Washington have signed executive orders directing reductions in their states' global-warming gases by 2010.

Under the direction of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Public Utilities Commission announced earlier this year that it wouldn't allow utilities to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants because they cough up too much carbon dioxide. In Florida, after pressuring Florida Power and Light to kill a proposed coal-fired power plant, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist held a press conference to applaud state regulators for denying the company's permit last month.

Crist also signed an executive order directing Florida regulators to set greenhouse-gas limits for state utilities.

That's what Sarah Dean wants the state of Kansas to do: Take carbon dioxide into consideration before it gives any power plant the go-ahead. But without a sympathetic leader like Crist or Schwarzenegger in the governor's mansion, Sarah and Ray Dean are suing the state of Kansas to try to get it done.

As an appointee to the Kansas Energy Council, Dean knows that the KDHE doesn't consider carbon dioxide a pollutant and doesn't take the greenhouse gas into account when it's reviewing an air-permit application.

Initially, the Deans petitioned the KDHE to classify CO2 as an air pollutant and to reconsider the Sunflower permit. They argued that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate CO2. The Deans reasoned that Kansas should follow the highest court in the land.

State officials disagreed. Yvonne Anderson, general counsel for the KDHE, replied that the state of Kansas doesn't have to act on CO2 until federal laws are established.

"This is a huge deal to an awful lot of people, and there's an awful lot at stake," says Reid Nelson, one of the Deans' attorneys. "But you'd get more due process contesting a traffic ticket than we're getting here."

They won't get any help from the governor. In her written responses to the Pitch, Sebelius says she favors federal laws to curb greenhouse gases but is opposed to states taking action on their own.

And time is running out on the Sunflower issue. The KDHE staffer who worked on the air permit tells the Pitch that the decision on whether to issue it was making its way up the ranks to the fifth-floor office of KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby.

After nearly a year of debate, a decision is likely to come soon. Before the KDHE can issue or renew a permit, the agency is bound by Kansas law to hold public hearings and review input from state residents. Often, such comment periods come and go with little feedback from citizens. But during a three-month period at the end of 2006, the KDHE received more than 650 letters and e-mails about the Sunflower permit. They're enough to fill two cardboard boxes and have kept KDHE staff members tied up for more than six months reading and responding.

Some of the comments urge the KDHE to approve the coal plant in the name of economic development. Sunflower officials collected a dozen city ordinances in favor of the expansion and submitted them in a red binder. A form letter from Garden City produced dozens of identical comments backing the plant.

But the majority of the letters are from citizens from across the state: handwritten notes on pastel-colored stationery alongside typed technical analyses outlining concerns about global warming and water depletion and the health of their children. A minister in Olathe, a farmer in Salina, an oncologist in Wichita, a grandmother in McLouth — all have asked the KDHE to deny Sunflower's air permit.

The KDHE has also heard an earful from officials and organizations beyond Kansas. Attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin submitted a collective letter urging the KDHE to deny the permit. The letter highlights efforts in other states to curb global warming and notes that the KDHE would be "seriously undermining the concerted efforts being undertaken by multiple states" if it approved the coal-plant expansion.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggested that pollution from the new plants would taint a national wilderness 200 miles away. The Environmental Protection Agency feared that the KDHE would give Sunflower a break with lax restrictions on a pollutant that causes acid rain.

But hundreds of letters in the KDHE's boxes aren't addressed to the department at all.

Folders marked "Governor's Office" are full of correspondence from Kansas constituents communicating directly to Sebelius.

According to Sebelius' press secretary, the office received so much mail during the comment period that it lost count of how many letters it forwarded to the KDHE.

Many begin with "Congratulations on your re-election." Some end with simple affirmations such as "I know you can fix this; I trust you."

There are letters from dedicated Democrats who serve as precinct chairs in their hometowns and from lifelong Republicans won over by Sebelius' moderate leadership style. Nearly all of the letters plead with the governor to put a stop to the plants.

"I felt an overwhelming gush of pride when I voted for the first time in a midterm election.... So it disturbs me when I see that the official I helped to elect is actually considering allowing Sunflower Electric Power Corp to construct coal-fired power plants ..." — Kari Cozad, Lawrence

"Please don't be a hypocrite! Your Web site states, 'I'm working to make sure Kansas takes advantage of its opportunity to become a leader in renewable energy.' We cannot become a leader in renewable energy if Kansas builds new coal power.... As of right now, you're all talk, lady!" — Kaedden Timi, Overland Park

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