The proposed expansion of the Holcomb coal-fired power plant still faces some high hurdles, the Garden City Telegram reported. In addition to a legal challenge to its air-quality permit (which the Kansas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear late next month), the plant also must meet a deadline and new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. “One of the specific challenges we have right now is that under the proposed greenhouse-gas rule, the Holcomb expansion project and 11 others in the country are given one year to begin substantial construction – they avoid the effect of the greenhouse-gas rule if they do that,” Stuart Lowry, CEO of Sunflower Electric Power Corp., told Garden City leaders. “But the other EPA regulation – the (Mercury and Air Toxics Standards) rule – is effective immediately. And we’re being told that’s not achievable. So we’re sort of being twisted into knots. We could build under the greenhouse-gas rule and not have any negative effect. But if we can’t meet the (MATS) standard, we can’t operate.”
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