By JOHN HANNA

Associated Press

TOPEKA -- Chances are good that the Legislature will have the same debate next year about two proposed coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas that it had this year.

Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power hasn't given up building the plants in Finney County. Since October, plans have been blocked by Rod Bremby, secretary of health and environment, over the plants' emissions and concerns about global warming.

True, elections this year could change the composition of the Legislature. But important players in debates over energy policy are unopposed for re-election, and, absent a huge political catastrophe, Republicans are likely to keep majorities in both houses.

That means the 2009 Legislature probably will convene in January with a significant number of members who still want to overturn Bremby's decision to block Sunflower's plants.

Sunflower still is determined to build them, and various court challenges aren't likely to have run their course by then.

"I anticipate a full-blown debate until we get this fixed," said Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican who strongly supports Sunflower's project.

Many legislators, like Morris, view the plants as economic development, and Sunflower has enjoyed bipartisan support, though Bremby is an appointee of Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Sunflower would build the plants outside Holcomb, relying on two partners, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc., of Westminster, Colo., and Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, of Amarillo, Texas. The out-of-state partners initially would claim 86 percent of the new power.

But Sunflower's allies see benefits for Kansas. They argue the plants will spur development of larger transmission lines, which could open up the area for wind farms, and note that Sunflower plans a bioenergy center to capture CO2, use it to grow algae and covert the algae to fuel.

Environmentalists question the technology behind that center and oppose Sunflower's project over CO2.

Environmentalists also argue that allowing the new coal plants, which would provide enough electricity to meet the peak needs of 700,000 homes, would effectively smother any development of wind farms.

In denying an air quality permit, Bremby said the state couldn't ignore the dangers posed by climate change, which many scientists link to man-made greenhouse gases.

Bremby has said his action was an early step in moving Kansas toward regulating -- voluntarily -- greenhouse gas emissions. In March, Sebelius established an advisory committee to develop policy on such emissions; she already had a council reviewing energy policy.

"I think if the conversation is the same, I would be concerned," Bremby said. "Perhaps there'll be new topics and new solutions that are possible, and so, hopefully, that's where we will start with a conversation, as opposed to looking backwards."

This year's legislative debate ended with a stalemate.

Supporters of Sunflower's project forged bipartisan majorities by linking provisions overturning Bremby's decision and limiting the secretary's power to other initiatives, including "green" ones.

But Sebelius vetoed three bills and, as large as the majorities for them were, they weren't enough to override her.

That forced Sunflower to pin its hopes on the courts in the short-term. Bremby's decision prompted six legal challenges: one an administrative review; two in Finney County District Court and three now with the Kansas Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court said in April that its three cases wouldn't go forward until the others were resolved. A Finney County judge helped last week, dismissing the two cases before him. But even if the administrative review goes quickly, it ultimately will be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Kansans will be filling all 40 Senate seats and 125 House seats in the Nov. 4 general election. That's given both sides hope of a political breakthrough.

But the pro-Sunflower majorities in both chambers were large enough this year that the utility isn't likely to see its support drop far enough to prevent allies from passing the policy they prefer.

House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, an Ingalls Republican, and Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, a Greensburg Democrat, both supporters, are running unopposed. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, an Independence Republican, has no opposition, and Morris' only challenge -- which he's expected to beat back -- is in the GOP primary Aug. 5.

Finally, no one is challenging Rep. Carl Dean Holmes, a Republican from Liberal who's chairman of the House Energy and Utilities Committee.

He hasn't had a challenge to his re-election since 1996, and such safety has given him the chance to travel to national conferences and cement his status among legislative Republicans as their energy policy expert.

Holmes is almost certain to play a big role in drafting of energy legislation next year and to be among the House and Senate negotiators drafting the final version of anything. He is, of course, a big supporter of Sunflower's project.

And so Kansans shouldn't be surprised if next year's session has a familiar ring to it.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Political Writer John Hanna has covered state government and politics since 1987.