Late Monday afternoon, amid calls for regulatory certainty around carbon dioxide, the Kansas Department of Health & Environment issued an interim guidance document for permit seekers.

Only new power plants are covered by the policy. New electric generators – by far the largest and longest-term emitters according to the document – will be required to report their projected carbon dioxide emissions and submit plans to control or verifiably offset those emissions.

The policy should provide welcome relief to those who testified on behalf of the agricultural, commercial, and industrial communities. Their emissions are excluded from consideration.

And while some in the environmental community may feel the policy does not go far enough, CEP finds it a reasonable approach, similar to at least a dozen other states’ approaches to greenhouse gases today and to the way we’ve treated other emerging threats in the past.

When the U.S. began to understand the risks from lead, for example, we didn’t recall every car that ran on leaded gasoline but did decree that all new cars would run on unleaded. When we discovered the ozone hole was being created by chlorofluorocarbons, we didn’t recall air conditioners and hair spray, but ensured by global agreement that new refrigerants and propellants used other means.

Many utilities around the country have already chosen to take a similar approach. Oklahoma Gas & Electric, when denied a permit for their proposed 950 MW coal-fired plant in 2007, moved to make an unprecedented wind and natural gas play instead. Associated Electric Cooperative in Missouri received their permit for a 660 MW coal-fired unit at Norbonne last year, but scrapped their plans due to projected costs and opted instead for a combination of efficiency, wind, and nuclear.

To be clear, “regulatory uncertainty” still remains where it has always been: at the federal level. We await an endangerment finding from EPA (rumored within weeks), and then a protracted rulemaking (usually 12-18 months). Congress is likely to consider greenhouse gas regulation this spring.

But for Kansas, for now, KDHE has provided clarity.

--- Nancy Jackson, www.climateandenergy.org