Kansas governor signs bill to comply with power plant rules

Kansas will formulate a plan to comply with the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants despite ongoing opposition to it within state government. 

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill last week directing the state’s Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Corporation Commission to work on a strategy to meet the goals of the Clean Power Plan, which looks to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. 

{mosads}The bill acknowledges the state attorney general’s lawsuit against the forthcoming rule, telling agencies to find ways to delay compliance as long as possible, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. 

Kansas is one of a dozen states suing against the rule, which is due out later this summer. Republican officials and lawmakers there are not allies of Obama on climate issues, saying last week that they couldn’t identify environmental or health benefits associated with the plan.

Under the Clean Power Plan, the federal government sets carbon emission reduction targets for states, which then put together plans to meet those goals. States that don’t write their own plans are given reduction strategies from the federal government, something Brownback said he is trying to avoid in Kansas. 

“You’re seeing an administration trying to rush out a rule while they’re still in power,” Brownback said at a bill signing last week. “We just need to protect the rights of the state of Kansas and its residents from the continued pattern of federal intrusion and overreach.”

Oklahoma is the only state so far to definitively say it will not comply with the Clean Power Plan. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential Republican presidential candidate, wrote President Obama last month and told him the plan was “unworkable” for his state.