By SHAJIA AHMAD

Special to The Hays Daily News

With the last few materials for an air-quality permit submitted as of this month, the CEO of Sunflower Electric Power Corp. is optimistic that the Hays-based utility's coal-fired plant expansion efforts at its Holcomb station are just a few steps away from fruition.

Sunflower CEO L. Earl Watkins said he does not know how fast the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will move to grant a permit application for construction of an 895-megawatt coal-fired plant alongside its existing 360-megawatt station four miles south of Holcomb, but he anticipates its issuance as soon as June or July, he told community leaders at a noon meeting of the Lions Club Tuesday. He said the project's completion date is estimated as 2016.

The KDHE, which began receiving portions of the second permit application last summer, announced earlier this month that its Bureau of Air staff is reviewing the materials to ensure that they meet the state's air quality requirements, a process that is likely to take three to six months.

Much of the power generated at the proposed plant -- about 90 percent -- would be sold to out-of-state customers, Watkins said, and the operations could generate between five million and six million tons of carbon pollution each year, the latter of which anti-coal organizers have identified as reasons to scrap the plan. However, the CEO reiterated the project's positive aspects, including Sunflower's plans to avoid producing excess power as it works to meet regional energy demands, reduction of carbon dioxide emission rates per megawatt of production as new technology replaces older coal plants, and "vital" economic benefits to western Kansas including job creation and increased local and state tax revenues.

Sunflower estimates that the average number of jobs available at the apex of the project's nearly four-year construction period will rise from 1,500 to 2,000, Watkins said. At full operation, the expansion efforts could add nearly 250 full-time equivalent positions, ranging from entry-level workers through management staff, according to Sunflower.

Following the possible approval of a permit, Watkins said, Sunflower officials would need to finalize engineering designs for the project prior to acquiring financing, a price tag for which the CEO said he couldn't yet pinpoint.

The Lawrence Journal-World reported this month that a new plant could cost $2.5 billion, according to a Sunflower spokeswoman.

Previously, Sunflower aimed to build two 700-megawatt units but was prohibited from doing so in October 2007 when KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby refused to issue air quality permits, citing potentially harmful effects from the plants carbon dioxide emissions.

Following a nearly two-year political stalemate, Gov. Mark Parkinson brokered a deal in May 2009 to allow Sunflower to build one coal-fired plant at the Holcomb site, in return for legislative approval of renewable energy legislation. The deal materialized shortly after former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a long-standing opponent of coal-fired plant construction, departed to lead the federal health and human services department.

Now that the new application has been filed, a process of public hearings on the proposal will begin anew, according to the KDHE, and Watkins stressed to Tuesday's crowd that he is hopeful the majority of them will join him in supporting the permit application. Colorado-based Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, Sunflower's primary partner, is still deeply committed to the project, too, Watkins said.

"We're going to need to go through this again, and we're going to need you to show up," he said Tuesday.

According to a release from the Kansas Sierra Club earlier this month, no single coal plant broke ground in 2009, and 29 new coal plant projects were shelved. In many cases, developers voluntarily walked away from projects, citing financial risks to ratepayers and the uncertain future of coal with looming federal environmental regulations, according to the environmental group that has actively worked to shut down the expansion efforts. The environmental group claims energy demands are decreasing as individuals adopt energy conservation practices.

Watkins said it is his political opinion that "no meaningful climate legislation will come through this year" and hopes to hear similar news as that heard by at least two applicants of air quality permits for similar sized coal-fired plants, which were granted by state authorities in Texas and Michigan.

Texas state environmental regulators issued an air-pollution permit to NRG Limestone for an 800-megawatt plant expansion near Jewett, about 100 miles south of Dallas, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Another proposed 830-megawatt coal-fired power plant at the Karn/Weadock complex in Michigan also got the nod from state officials, the Detroit Free Press reported. Both permits were granted in December.