Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told The Eagle editorial board Thursday that she opposes turning Kansas into a carbon-emitting generator of other states’ power, our editorial today reports. “I think it’s not acceptable or appropriate that we would build these merchant plants to sell energy to other folks and impose those health risks on Kansans,” she said.
Is that a signal that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s approval of a new coal-fired plant near Holcomb isn’t a slam-dunk after all? Or was Sebelius just deftly injecting some distance between her personal view and KDHE’s decision, whatever it may be?
Also check out on our Opinion page a video clip of Sebelius joking about the “Coal-lovin’ Governor” music video. “I’ve now seen you dance on two videos, and let me just say that ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is not in your future anytime soon,” she told me. No disagreement here. Sebelius also was glad to hear that we decided against having Bucky Walters impersonate her in the video. “Having seen him as the Brownback Girl and now as Loretta Lynn,” she said, “I very much appreciate him not being me.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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Does Governor Sebelius have opinions of her own?
Could she be replaced by a robot cardboard cutout standing at the front door of the Governor’s office in the Kansas Capitol building?
Perhaps link the cardboard Governor replica to electronic sensors that automatically test the direction of public opinion across Kansas each morning.
Sebelius is supposed to be the leader of the State of Kansas. She is responsible for the cabinet members she chooses and the Secretary of KDHE is hand picked by her.
Her input and views are taken to heart by her cabinet and implemented accordingly so for her to say that she does not control this issue is a farce.
Why don’t you make her accountable and responsible?
Veritatem dies aperit.
Time reveals the truth.
If Sebelius wanted this water wasting, pollution belching coal plant stopped, it would be stopped. Period.
But… little Stevie Miller and his merry band of campaign contributors wouldnt be happy. And that would make governor “leadership” unhappy as well.
What a FARCE!
And was it all nyuck nyuck nyuck with the editorial board? A little love fest? Did anyone ask her any serious questions about WATER POLICY?????????
Probably not. Everyone was likely too busy patting each other on the back…
Looks like the WE editorial board fell prey to her charming demeanor and lobbed a few softballs. This is what passes for “leadership” in Kansas?
She needs to throw her weight behind making sure it doesn’t get built, in Kansas. What’s next, becoming a nuclear dumping ground for other states spent fuel?
OK, sorry for the long format here, but this wasnt an easy copy and paste. So if you are interested, scroll through.
Wonder why I am ALWAYS bitchin’ about Sebelius using water as payment for political capital?
Wonder why I am ALWAYS bitchin’ about Steve Irsik being the gov’s puppet at the Kansas Water Board? Why I consider him a big irrigation whore?
Take a look at a partial list of his campaign contributions. Who says we dont have the very best political appointees that MONEY can buy?
Steve Irsik, Chairman(This is Steve Irsik, JrDemocrat from Ingalls)[Steve Irsik, III, is Republican from Garden City]
ContributorQuery
StatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN9/7/2001$1,000.00SEBELIUS, KATHLEENGovHouseIRSIK, STEPHEN4/17/2002$250.00KISSICK, LEILAHouse115StatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN5/23/2002$1,000.00SEBELIUS, KATHLEENGovStatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN7/17/2002$250.00PRAEGER, SANDYInsuranceStatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN12/31/2003$1,000.00SEBELIUS, KATHLEENGovStatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN8/27/2004$1,000.00SEBELIUS, KATHLEENGovStatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN9/15/2006$2,000.00SEBELIUS, KATHLEENGovSenateIRSIK, STEPHEN J JR8/2/2004$300.00RASURE, DANSenate40SenateIRSIK, STEPHEN J JR8/21/2004$250.00PETERSON, TIMSenate40SenateIRSIK, STEPHEN J JR10/1/2004$750.00PETERSON, TIMSenate40SBOEIRSIK, STEPHEN J JR10/19/2006$100.00CRUZ, TIMSBOE5SBOEIRSIK, STEPHEN J JR10/19/2006$100.00CRUZ, TIMSBOE5SBOEIRSIK, STEPHEN J JR10/19/2006$100.00CRUZ, TIMSBOE5StatewideIRSIK, STEPHEN JR10/25/2002$300.00GARNER, JIMInsuranceStatewideIRSIK, STEVE5/2/2006$1,000.00MORRISON, PAULAGStatewideIRSIK, STEVE8/7/2006$1,000.00MORRISON, PAULAGStatewideIRSIK, STEVE9/12/2006$1,000.00MORRISON, PAULAG
ContributorOccupationDateAmountRecipientIRSIK, STEPHENINGALLS,KS 67853SELF-EMPLOYED9/24/2004$1,000Boyda, Nancy EIRSIK, STEPHENINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/FARMER6/8/2006$1,000Boyda, Nancy EIRSIK, STEPHENINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/FARMER10/7/2006$500Boyda, Nancy EIRSIK, STEPHENINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/RANCHER11/1/2006$500Boyda, Nancy EIRSIK, STEPHENINGALLS,KS 67853FARMER – RANCHER4/17/1998$500Moran, JerryIRSIK, STEPHENINGALLS,KS 67853FARMER-RANCHER4/17/1998$500Moran, JerryIRSIK, STEPHEN J JRINGALLS,KS 67853SELF-EMPLOYED/FARMER2/9/2006$1,000Doll, John GIRSIK, STEPHEN JRINGALLS,KS 67853FARMER4/21/1994$1,000Brownback, SamIRSIK, STEPHEN JRINGALLS,KS 67853AG BUSINESS7/29/1996$1,000Frahm, SheilaIRSIK, STEPHEN JRINGALLS,KS 67853FARM AG BUSI9/11/1996$1,000Brownback, SamIRSIK, STEPHEN JRINGALLS,KS 67853FARMER8/13/1994$500Brownback, SamIRSIK, STEPHEN JRINGALLS,KS 67853FARMER10/27/1994$500Brownback, SamIRSIK, STEVEINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/RANCHER9/19/2002$5,000Kansas Democratic State CmteIRSIK, STEVEINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/RANCHER3/29/2006$1,000Boyda, Nancy EIRSIK, STEVEINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/AG BUSINESS5/8/2003$1,000Kansas Democratic State CmteIRSIK, STEVE JRINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/AG BUSINESS3/6/2007$10,000Kansas Democratic State CmteIRSIK, STEVE JRINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/AG BUSINESS3/15/2006$10,000Kansas Democratic State CmteIRSIK, STEVE JRINGALLS,KS 67853CATTLEMAN5/13/1996$1,000Roberts, PatIRSIK, STEVE JRINGALLS,KS 67853CATTLEMAN10/24/1996$1,000Roberts, PatIRSIK, STEVE JRINGALLS,KS 67853SELF/AG BUSINESS10/5/2005$500Kansas Democratic State Cmte
I guess he bought and paid for his seat…—–
And in case you are wondering who Tim Peterson is, he is Adrian Polansky’s brother in law. Polansky is the Ks Sec. of Ag, a sebelius appointee, and has an ex-officio seat on the Kansas Water Board. Both peterson and polansky are big irrigation supporters and ethanol supporters.And they both supported draining Cedar Bluff to satisfy the whims of the russell ethanol plant and the city of hays using treated water to green up their golf course.
Yep. Real conservationsists those two…
Tim Peterson regularly runs for the kansas senate seat out here and gets his butt kicked regularly by Ralph Ostmeyer, but he is governor leadership’s boy, so he just keeps running and pushes out democratic candidated who might actually WIN the god damn seat.
Oh, and did I mention that peterson is the first district democrat chair? And his dad held that job as first district chair before tim? Only slightly incestuous out here, but then, it serves governor leadership’s purposes to keep the peterson/polansky family dynasty going.
I especially love Irsik’s contributions of $10,000 and $5,000 to the Kansas Democrat Party. And to Nancy Boyda. The dems go-to fundraiser?
Like I said, we have the best water board in kansas that money can buy….
…and a hat tip to our favorite campaign contribution researcher for providing me with this good info. I’ve had it for some time, and just never found the right time to post it.
So… while governor leadership is yucking it up with the media, and while our water supply goes swirling down Steve Irsik’s irrigation drains, and while polansky and peterson work their asses off to give our water away to big corn and big ethanol..
… I thought injecting a little truth in campaign financing might be appropriate.
A POX on all their houses.
And for those of you who dont know, steve irsik is buddies with steve miller, the lobbyist for Sunflower Electric and their coal plant. Look up miller’s contributions and Sunflower Electric’s contributions for further evidence.
And irsik is from Ingalls, right outside garden city. He is a BIG supporter of the coal fired power plant.
big surprise, eh? hehehehehehehheeh
…..yawn…..
Not that I know much about the Holcomb plant, but if they are not using the General Electric style of Coal Plant, why not?
From what I read, it’s supposed to be super efficient, consumes most of its own pollutants for reuse and has a high efficiency water reuse system.
Anyone know?
It should take about one minute for the KDHE to weigh the cost benefits of this project, and come back with a resounding No.
ksfarmgrrl,
Good inside ball commentary. Irsik has some deep pockets, and judging from Kathleen’s fancy footwork, he may be getting his money’s worth.
Governor Sebelius, if you truly oppose the Holcomb plant, then stop it. The only way you’ll end up with dirty hands is if you try to punt the decision to KDHE and then slink away.
I thought the Eagle video was well done. It sent a message to the governor in a good-natured friendly way.
Really, Sunflower Electric Power Corp needs to convert the Holcomb plan to an 800 wind turbine network. Same power, no air pollution and no aquifer depletion.
Because the wind doesn’t always blow, options for providing power at all times include buying it from other states, using instate coal and natural gas reserve generating capacity, and home storage.
Let’s consider storage of electricity generated when the winds are up. A Tesla roadster battery pack, weighing approximately 900 pounds and taking up about 10 cubic feet of space, stores 52 kw-hrs of energy. The average Kansas home uses about 30 kw-hrs per day. So 20 Tesla power packs could keep a house going for a month. At 18,000 pounds, you’d have to install it on reinforced concrete, which is to say, it would take up a 6 ft x 6 ft x 6 ft corner of a basement.
So wind generation even without fossil fuel backup is technically feasible.
Add to the mix energy-efficient home design, including window and skylight systems that can transmit/convert solar radiation to household heat in winter, and reflect it in summer, higher R-value insulation, and turning off lights in rooms not being used (manual or automatic), and Kansas homes can have all the comforts of today’s homes while saving 30% of our current energy usage.
Of note, Wichita has some of the intellectual and assembly-skills capital to build wind turbine generators. A wind turbine is basically a scaled up version of an airplane propeller. It can be made of aluminum or composites that Wichita has knowledge and skills in. We could also manufacture energy-conserving devices using the talents of Wichitans.
Frankly, these enterprises could employ hundreds of times more people than the projected 400 persons that would be employed at the Holcomb coal-fired plant.
Heheheh. Thanks CF. There’s even more inside ball commentary here regarding the movements of one Joe Harkins. Governor leadership sent him first to the Kansas Water Office to get things lined up with Cedar Bluff going to Hays and the ethanol plant in Russell.
Then… he went to the Kansas Energy Office to get things straightened out there, and lined up for big ethanol and Mark Parkinson to take over. Harkins put it all in motion and on cruise control so mark can just run to the head of the parade, but NOT touch any of the buttons. Heheheh.
Now? Harkins has moved to the KCC. You know, the one that regulates utilitiy rates? Think ethanol and coal fired generating plants. All things “commnerce” related.
And wtf is MORE commerce related than water, ethanol and coal fired electricity.
I’m tellin’ ya, Harkins is Kansas’ own Darth Cheney. The evil that slinks in under the radar, sets the evil in motion, then slinks out leaving NO tracks. You can track sebelius by watching Joe Harkins and Joyce Allegrucci.
Evil is as evil does.
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that Steve Irsik is one of the BIGGEST ag welfare queens in the state, and especially in his “region” in southwest ks. The Environmental Working Group website regularly lists him as being one of the biggest subsidy recipients, like most big corn and big irrigation guys.
Hence the contributions to brownback and Jerry Moran. Gotta keep those USDA dollars commin’. And dont think for one minute Adrian Polansky and the Kansas Water Office arent useful in keeping big irrigation and big corn fat and happy.
And keep those dollars flowing to sebelius, big corn, big irrigaion, big ethanol and coal’s best friend.
This is a KWCH video on the making of the Coal Miner’s governor video.
http://www.kwch.com/Global/category.asp?C=100952
One of the first things I learned about Kansas, back when they required we learn a semester of Kansas History, was our state was considered “The Great American Desert.”
(That was before they got to Utah, Nevada, and eastern California, but what of that?)
Thing is, there aren’t all that many opportunities for western Kansans to make a living and the prospect of a power plant seems to many to be a viable option.
I’d much prefer a wind farm rather than a coal-fired or nuclear power plant.
At the same time, we should recognize that a traditional power plant in western Kansas would be a drop in the bucket when it comes to the aquafer compared to the widespread irrigation that’s serving agribusiness.
Perhaps it would be better overall for a water-sucking power plant to drive the western Kansas economy rather than irrigation-driven agriculture. I dunno.
If the United States stopped spending $3 Billion a week to kill Iraqis, perhaps we’d have some funds available to develop alternatives to fossil fuels.
Like most politicians, Governor Sebelius is dealing with the here and now.
All the more reason to vote for someone who has a vision for the future.
Sebelius is loading he administration and the Democratic Party with some of the sleaziest slime in the state. It is clear that she and her administration are for sale and that many honest Democratic activists are being shoved aside to make room for Sebelius’ Republicrat cronies.
I remember the Governor’s campaign ads when she ran the first time around. Wasn’t it all about rolling up the sleeves and going to work to clean up government? That’s what they ran on the telly, anyhow.
I got a call from the Dems a week or two ago, right about when I was sitting down to dinner. A polite enough fellow wanted to know if I’d be interested in contributing. At the time, it had been a long day and I didn’t want to drop what I was doing and mess with a phone call. I wanted to sit the hell down for a minute, eat dinner and relax. So the kid wanted to know if I’d go ten bucks. You know what? I could have gone ten bucks pretty easily. I told him to mail me the form, but apparently they don’t mail you the form. You either agree when they have you on the phone at an inconvenient time and you’re hungry, or they can’t be bothered to put a stamp on an envelope and drop a piece of paper in the mail. Not that it matters.
If Sebelius wants to make a case for a coal-fired plant, let’s hear it. Otherwise, saying she disagrees with it but not doing much of anything to stop it makes you wonder why the hell she ran for Governor.
What gives?
“Democratic activists are being shoved aside to make room for Sebelius’ Republicrat cronies.”
Posted by: Dump Sebelius for a real Democrat | August 31, 2007 at 07:57 PM
Shhhh, you’ll alert the others to our plan!
Here you go Kansas. here are the questions you dodged yesterday about the Happy Hooker and some of the other political scoundrels on Kansas.
“Sorry, the only thing that’s killing lucid discussion on here is your asinine reference to Ted Kaczynski.
If you want lucid discussion why don’t you tell us why Kathleen’s coal plants are such a good deal for Kansas, why don’t you tell us how the land deal Tiahrt’s staff is involved in benefits Kansans. Why don’t you tell us your solution for the health care needs of the poor of Wyandotte County now that Kathleen has forced KU Hospital to give that money to shore up her cronies’ incompetence at the Med School.
Those are all factual issues, not your silly comments about sniffing roses and getting a giggle out of corruption.
Posted by: Dump Sebelius for a real Democrat | August 30, 2007 at 12:16 PM”
“It’s Ted Kaczynski revisited. That is, technophobia – tossing word bombs causing destruction of lucid discussion.”
Posted by: the LYING troll Kansas | August 30, 2007 at 12:10 PMhttp://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/08/well-sebelius-i.html#comment-81132029
Up to this point, I have not been one to oppose Sebelius. I voted for her twice. Her comments upthread, however, are inconsistent with statements that she has made in other periodicals over the past few months, when she seemed to be wired for stereo to ram the coal plants through. Has she decided to use her leadership position to oppose the project, after all? Or is she telling Brownlee one thing and still planning to give this crackpot scheme the go ahead behind the scenes?
Let’s see, Governor. Right now, Kansas makes national headlines whenever evolution comes up, or a couple years back when the BTK saga was playing out. Great national public relations. Right? So what’s Sebelius arguably backing? Oh, nothing much. Just this environmental hoax of a coal-fired plant, is all, which will make national headlines most assuredly when approved and paint the state of Kansas, once again, in a backward light.
Does the Governor truly believe that Kansas will attract astute, innovative citizens from around the country when it hits the national papers that her administration authorized the building of coal-fired plants in the face of mounting evidence about global warming?
Scotch it, Governor, unless you want to spend the rest of your political career explaining why you didn’t.
Try and tell the difference between the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the writings of Al Gore.
So similar in nature, pretty scary.
=======”The modern individual on the other hand is threatened by many things against which he is helpless: nuclear accidents, carcinogens in food, environmental pollution, war, increasing taxes, invasion of his privacy by large organizations, and nationwide social or economic phenomena that may disrupt his way of life.” Ted Kaczynski
“Any child born into the hugely consumptionist way of life so common in the industrial world will have an impact that is, on average, many times more destructive than that of a child born in the developing world.” Al Gore
“Industrial society seems likely to be entering a period of severe stress, due in part to problems of human behavior and in part to economic and environmental problems.” Ted Kaczynski
“All pre-industrial societies were predominantly rural. The Industrial Revolution vastly increased the size of cities and the proportion of the population that lives in them, and modern agricultural technology has made it possible for the Earth to support a far denser population than it ever did before.” Ted Kaczynski
What does it say about our culture that personality is now considered a technology, a tool of the trade, not only in politics but in business and the professions? Has everyone been forced to become an actor? In sixteenth century England, actors were not allowed to be buried in the same cemeteries as ‘God-fearing folk,’ because anyone willing to manipulate his personality for the sake of artifice, even to entertain, was considered spiritually suspect.” Al Gore
Hmm.
Al Gore hasn’t murdered anybody?
What a heaping pile of s#it your little cut-and-paste post is, “Kansas.”
Take both sources out of context and draw conculsions.
All Lutherans, I guess, are Dennis Raders.
Every Republic Senator sollicits sex in airport bathrooms.
Every member of George WMD Bush’s administration is a liar like he is. (Okay, that last one’s a bad example for my case. Ignore that one.)
Every reputable scientific study is convinced that global warming is a potential catastrophe. A few scientists (mostly funded by the fossil fuel industry) think it might be due to natural forces. An overwhelming preponderance of evidence tends to show that fossil fuels contribute to the problem.
Oh! And by the way, the most serious threat to global peace on earth centers on that region of the planet that depends on fossil fuel for its economic and political strength.
Hey! Maybe circumstances are adding up to tell challenge us to find an alternative to fossil fuels! Ya’think?
Yeah troll Kansas, Al Gore obviously suffers from “technophobia”.
That’s why he pushed for development of supercomputers and networks, joined Apple’s board of directors, and uses Keynote. /sarcasm off
‘Apple – Hot News – Key to “An Inconvenient Truth” ‘http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2006/05/inconvenienttruth/