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In The News
January 3, 2008
Poll shows most Kansans supported coal plant rejection
Published by the Kansas Health Institute, 1/3/08
By Mike Shields

TOPEKA, Jan. 3 — Likely Kansas voters, by a 2-1 margin, backed the state’s recent decision to block two new coal burning electric generators, according to a poll released today.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Roderick Bremby on Oct. 18 denied permits for the plants, which Sunflower Electric Corp. sought to build in Holcomb near Garden City.  Bremby said the generators would produce too much carbon dioxide, which scientists say is a major “greenhouse” gas contributing to problems of global climate change.

The poll showed majority support for the KDHE decision, now facing court challenge from the Hays-based utility, also existed among likely voters in the 1st Congressional District. That district is the state’s most rural and largest and includes Hays, Holcomb and the districts of state legislative leaders who have said they want to reverse the agency’s ruling.

According to the poll, KDHE’s decision was favored by a majority of Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals and in each of the state’s four congressional districts.

“That’s a pretty healthy endorsement of this decision,” said pollster Alan Secrest. 

The poll of 1,007 likely voters was conducted over a period of four days: Nov. 19, 20, 25 and 26. It was the first one commissioned by The Land Institute, a Salina non-profit group that advocates and researches use of renewable resources for agriculture and energy.  The telephone poll was done by Cooper & Secrest Associates of Washington, D.C., which has a long history of political polling in Kansas. The firm has done work for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and former 2nd District Congressman Jim Slattery, both Democrats.

The poll, which Secrest said had a 3 percent margin of error, showed the permit denial had statewide backing from:
• 84 percent of Democrats
• 72 percent of Republicans
• 84 percent of liberals and 71 percent of conservatives.

It also showed that only 27 percent of those surveyed found “very persuasive” the argument that the permits should have been approved to create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in economic development.

Opposition to the decision was strongest in the 1st District, where 40 percent of those polled said they disagreed with it; 51 percent there said they agreed and 9 percent said they were not sure.

Legislative response

The poll also showed that only 35 percent of likely voters were impressed with the Legislature’s performance and priorities and that 61 percent had negative views of the Legislature.

“Kansans are anxious to see their legislators get on with the critical issues and opportunities they have yet to address, rather than revisit a decision that the majority of Kansans favor,” the pollsters concluded. “Clearly, Kansans would also look favorably upon increased investments in wind energy and on legislators who actively support such investments.”

But the poll seemed unlikely to deter legislative leaders opposed to the KDHE decision.

“We’ll certainly go in and look at the (KDHE) regulatory process and see how it stacks up,” said Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton. “You can tailor your polls to get the response you want.  I’d like to see them ask the question about whether people would support the decision if it means their energy bills triple. To totally ignore coal in the future when 95 percent of our energy reserves are in coal, I think will have a devastating result economically.”

The poll also showed that 75 percent of those contacted favored expanded use of wind energy.

“I am not surprised about the results of the poll,” House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, said. “We all know the kind of answer you get depends on how you ask the question.  Wind power can play an important role in our state's energy portfolio, but the simple fact is wind turbines alone cannot meet our growing demand for electricity."

Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, chairman of the Senate Utilities Committee, said the poll didn’t impress him, either.

“It doesn’t come anywhere close to what I’m hearing. They must not have talked to any of my constituents and I’m in the Big 1st,” he said.

Emler said most of the legislators he has talked with about the decision, regardless of party affiliation, were disturbed by the process used to deny the permits.

“My problem is it was done illegally,” he said. “We can’t allow a bureaucrat to rewrite the laws. He (Bremby) clearly overstepped his authority.”

Carbon dioxide is a pollutant that is unregulated by the federal and Kansas governments.  But when Bremby issued his decision he cited a Kansas Attorney General’s opinion that said state law allowed him broad latitude to halt or prevent pollution considered harmful to health or the environment. There is general scientific consensus that carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to global climate changes that are considered harmful to the environment and potentially dangerous to health.

“Constructive discussion”

Secrest and Nancy Jackson, a Land Institute spokesperson, declined to discuss some specifics about the poll, which they said was initially intended as an unpublicized research tool for the Institute’s new Climate and Energy Project, which has the aim of providing accurate and unbiased information about climate change and energy.

But Jackson said the organization decided it should share what it learned about the coal plant decision because it might contribute to “a broad, healthy and constructive discussion about our energy future at a critical time.”

Secrest, without revealing details, said the poll also showed that the popularity of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a second-term Democrat, was apparently undiminished by the KDHE decision. The Kansas Republican Party has been critical of the decision, which it has said was dictated by the governor.

Secrest also said he was unaware of any polls about the proposed plants prior to the KDHE decision.

Jackson said the poll also indicated that though the majority of Kansans were in favor of the decision, they were mixed in their views about climate change and its causes.

Please view the original article at http://www.khi.org/s/index.cfm?aid=1039
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Approximately two-thirds of the world’s population (along with critical infrastructure such as transportation routes, energy processing facilities, and major urban centers) are located near coastlines. All face significant threats from sea level rise.
CNA, “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change,” http://securityandclimate.cna.org/
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