WE Blog

We are fortunate to have an enlightened public official like Bremby as Secretary of KDHE. Toooo many times in the recent past, Kansas has become known instead as the home of Connie Morris, Fred Phelps, Phill Kline, Kay O’Connor and Melvin Neufeld.

I find an interesting ’side note’ to the legislation Sunflower is pushing. In their original pitch they claimed that they would use their so-called “micro-algae” technology that would would “have rendered the expansion nearly carbon-neutral.” (Neufeld and Morris) I noted at the time that was a lie. The fact that they have removed even that little fig leaf from the legislation demonstrates that I was right.

If Sunflower has this magic technology they claim let them demonstrate it. Bremby is a scientist; Morris and Nuefeld are not.

I guess we all need a meter gauge to see how much we emit. The worst is yet to come in regulations and taxes. Carbon credits, greenhouse gases and CO2 levels is out of our control. Scientist are on both sides of these issues. I forsee our lifes being overtaken by all the hype of saving the world.

george posted February 16, 2008 at 9:01 am

“Scientist are on both sides of these issues.”

False. Scientists are in agreement re AGW.

Bremby is not a scientist. He doesn’t have a medical degree either. He is a political hack who does what the Gov. tells him to do.

Where is the concern about the Co2 coming from the Ethonal plants? Not to mention the use of water which is in short supply in Kansas.

Put a wind mill in every back yard for those that want wind energy. They will have electricity when the wind blows (about 37% of the time). When the wind does not blow they will do without electrity.

These same people should start hanging their clothes outside because their dryers produce Co2. They should also get rid of their computers, TV’s, VCR’s, DVD players, Video game players etc. They shoudl all ride bikes and leave their cars at home. All of these produce Co2. Not to mention they may want to try and breath less because they also produce Co2

Guess what none of these people will stop using electrical appliances, driving their cars or reduce how much they breath.

Why not put a fee on everything that omits Co2? There would be no shortage of money in Topeka for the Gov. to spend.

That would pretty much put a fee on everyone and everything including people.

This morning, I attended the public meeting of the “southern Kansas legislative delegation.” It was held in the new Valley Center City Hall on north Meridian and is attached to their old city hall building.

I estimate that about 12 legislators attended, some 100 citizens in the audience and several news reporters there to record the event.

I arrived about 20 minutes late but found the program informative. The first portion was devoted to the proposed vote on construction of the Holcomb/Garden City power plants. As you know this was recently courageously turned down by Rod Bremby, Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment. As I understand it, the Kansas legislature will have to get enough votes to override the possibility of a veto by the Governor.

It appeared to me the citizens who attended and spoke were STRONGLY OPPOSED to the proposed twin power plants. On the other hand, it appeared about half of the legislators who attended were in favor of building the power plants. State Representative Don Meyers of Derby, unfortunately was one of the strong proponents of approving the power plants. Reasons generally cited are business development in western Kansas and the $3.6 billion dollars to be invested in building the twin plants adjacent to an existing plant.

Basically the electrical power will be for Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

One of the legislators opposed to the plants, I’m sorry I didn’t get his name, seemed to me to make sense by suggesting a moratorium for a couple of years until the situation can be researched and more information provided to all of us.

The proponents seem to be trying to build a STRAWMAN of CO2, one of several greenhouse gases which are expelled by burning of coal, a carbon based fuel. Proponents do not want to discuss or hear about other greenhouse gases that are not as easily handled.

Also proponents particularly don’t want to acknowledge the massive elephant in the china shop … the vast gulping of water from our Ogallala deep underground aquifer which is already being drawn down at an alarming rate.

Proponents like to glibly answer that Sunflower power company, the local developer of the Holcomb plant, along with large financial combines of international investors, has “bought up several square miles of water rights” in the area and will reduce their water removal rights by some 20% plus or minus.

HOWEVER, THESE WATER RIGHTS ARE ANOTHER STRAWMAN IN THIS EPIC BATTLE FOR KANSAS WATER. The underground ancient OGALLALA aquifer is already being inexorbently DRAWN DOWN from thousands of irrigation spigots AND rapidly multiplying ethanol manufacturing plants AND other manufacturing plants. This does not even mention extraction for municipal water supplies.

The Ogallala could be emitting a loud S-L-U-R-P-I-N-G sound like an empty chocolate milk shake in a glass container … in a matter of 10 to 20 years.

Remember the Ogallala aquifer gravel beds were laid down millions of years ago, some say some 65 million years ago, at the end of the dinosaur era, when the Rocky Mountains rose up and began to erode boulders, rocks and gravel eastward into western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Over millions of years, water filled these gravel beds forming an underground reservoir larger than the largest of the Great Lakes. Also gradually over millions of later years, soils of clay and rocks settled above to create an impervious shield preventing much penetration by rain and river waters above.

As all Kansans know, Coronado and other early explorers and even pioneers of the 1800’s thought of Kansas as the “Great American Desert.”

Sometime in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s pioneering Kansans realized that water was abundent underground resulting in western Kansas cities with names of Garden City and Goodland. Irrigation gradually increased. Sugar beets, for a time, and corn gradually pushed out dryland crops such as wheat.

With no real protective agency with teeth, save perhaps the Kansas Sierra Club, the rush is on by huge corporations to drain the already rapidly depleting Ogallala reservoir particularly here in Kansas.

I presume these corporations when told this drainage would eventually eliminate clean drinking water for some portion of our 3,000,000 Kansans … their response would be “let Kansans drink regurgitated, lightly treated, sanitary sewage from already polluted Kansas surface rivers.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF KANSAS … THIS INSANITY MUST BE STOPPED UNTIL A COMPLETE SCIENTIFIC STUDY CAN BE MADE TO DETERMINE THE FUTURE OF THESE PROPOSED POWER PLANTS AND ETHANOL PLANTS AS RELATED TO THE FUTURE OF KANSAS’ FRAGILE UNDERGROUND AQUIFER WATER SUPPLY.

Bremby is a scientist; Morris and Nuefeld are not.

What a joke. Bremby is a political hack, nothing more. It is obvious that the national democrats are keeping a close eye on this one. Even the despicable Henry Waxman has involved himself. The simple truth is, the democrats are looking for anyway they can to raise taxes to further their wealth redistribution plans and the ultimate goal of the whole global warming hysteria is to pave the way for carbon taxes on fossil fuel burners which ultimately will be passed on to the American public.

Also, higher rates paid by all coal-fired electricity consumers does not equal “wealth redistribution”. But it does help account for the external costs of CO2, and encourages reducing those emissions.

Cosmos, just what are the external costs of CO2? Why do we burn natural gas to generate electricity when coal is so abundant? Now our home heating costs are through the roof also. Your “peer reviewed science” is nothing more than hype and propaganda to further an agenda. The high priest of your pantheistic religion, Al Gore is a laughing stock to everybody who is not a U.N. loving, one world order nut case. Your types claim that President Bush is a fear monger who uses the threat of terrorism to scare people, yet you want us to believe that manmade climate change is real. Who’s the real fear monger?

Hey folks, did you know that China is having the worst winter in 50 YEARS???

How is that possible?

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/ea_china_02_15.asp

The Senate voted 2-14-2008 on Sub SB 2066, the bill known as the energy bill. Read what Senator Vicki Schmidt has to say about the veto proof vote that took place in the Senate.
“Much discussion has taken place on the bill. In fact, several hours of debate on the floor of the Senate occurred February 13, 2008. In that debate, one point was very clear to me. The Secretary of Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE ) denied the permit based on his personal concept of CO2 emission standards. In fact, he stated that even if current plants, when applying for their renewal, did not meet “his” standards, they would be denied.
For several years, Kansas utilities have operated under a well-established energy policy. The proposed project had been recommended for approval by the KDHE senior staff that had reviewed the permit application and determined that the plant met the regulatory standards in Kansas. The decision to deny the permit by the Secretary of KDHE drastically changed Kansas’ regulatory policy without rulemaking, without due process and without authority of the legislature. This created a very unsettling environment for other utilities, labor, financial markets and to the public.
To date, there is no established rule on CO2 emissions. This legislation does create the Kansas Electric Generation, Transmission and Efficiency Study Commission. The 11 member Commission will study a variety of issues related to electric service. Reports are due back to the legislature.
This legislation has been referred to as “The Rule of the Law.” Without the stable standardization of requirements, rules and regulations, the business community will lose confidence in Kansas.”

Randy Scholfield has a good column on the issue,

‘Legislature refuses to tackle carbon issue’
http://www.kansas.com/611/story/313670.html

Cosmos et al: I will try to list some points that come to mind about this whole mess of the proposed Holcomb power plants.

** Kansas needs to put a two year moratorium on these proposed power plants until the public and politicians can get more information.

** Kansans need to learn why these power plants can’t be located somewhere between the source of the coal in Wyoming and the destination of most of the power which I understand is Denver.

** I have been told the coal trains that currently haul coal to the Holcomb/Garden City power plant actually enters Kansas out near Goodland, then runs all the way to Topeka and then doubles back to western Kansas. Does anyone know about this?

** The public and Kansas government needs to find out once and for all … how much water remains in the Ogallala aquifer. Is there any recharge (most knowledgable geologists say minimal).

** Are ETHANOL plants the biggest HOAX of the century in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma? Does ETHANOL produce more power than it takes to produce ETHANOL?

** How much water does it take to produce ETHANOL AND ELECTRICAL POWER in these respective power plants? Drop the spin about recycling water in these plants which we all know is not the case.

** What about the EFFLUENT from ethanol plants and electrical power plants? How is this going to be treated and who pays for it?

** Do these plants really provide a net plus in economic development or is this merely spin and dance by the developers?

** What is the entire list of GREENHOUSE GASES AND OTHER IMMISSIONS from these plants that endanger our environment?

Republican or Democrat, right or left, up or down … it’s time to stop destroying our environment. Kansas is my home state and I particularly don’t like the cavalier attitude of some of these “visioneers,” that is if we don’t like it, we can move on.

JWink

“So wind farms are not the answer to contiued power.”

85% of the planned energy from the proposed Holcomb power plants would go to Texas, Colorado and New Mexico.

They would get the power and we would get the pollution along with draining our aquifier and putting the future of Western Kansas in the dumpster.