Oil prices are dominating the headlines, but important developments are rattling other parts of the far-flung energy business, too – including a potential watershed moment for the coal industry.
Last week, in a victory for Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, her foes in the state legislature abandoned efforts to overturn her veto of a bill that would have essentially forced her to accept the construction of two new coal-fired power plants in the western part of her state. Coal plant plans are drawn up and dropped all the time, but these were different.
That’s because last October, Kansas became the first state ever to reject an air permit for a new coal plant because of greenhouse gas emissions. The state’s health and environment secretary rejected the permit, citing last year’s Supreme Court decision, which said that carbon dioxide is a pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been dawdling about coming up with those regulations, but the Kansas decision raises the prospect that proposed new coal plants could run into licensing problems at the state level.
Full article
