Tell Tri-State: Don't expand the dirty Holcomb coal plant.

Great news! A federal district court judge ruled last week that the proposed expansion of the dirty Holcomb coal plant must undergo a full environmental impact statement before moving forward. This decision effectively blocks the massive expansion of this dirty coal plant for the time being.¹

But the Colorado-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which has partnered on the proposed expansion with the plant's original owner Sunflower Electric, still intends to pursue its shortsighted expansion plan.

With this important victory behind us, it is time to go on offense and tell Tri-State -- the key decision maker on the plant's expansion -- that it needs to give up on its plan to expand the dirty and dangerous Holcomb coal plant.

Tell the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association: Give it up! Kansans don't want the Holcomb coal plant to be expanded.

CREDO activists in Kansas have been fighting the expansion of this plant for years and last week's court decision is a huge step in the right direction. But expanding the Holcomb plant at all -- without or without a thorough environmental assessment -- is a bad deal for Kansas.

The expansion of the plant would generate electricity not for Kansans, but for people in Colorado. So if it moves forward, Kansans will experience all of the air pollution while Colorado residents will benefit from the electricity generated at the plant.

To make matters worse, the original Holcomb coal plant cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars back in 1980, which the plant's owner Sunflower was unable to repay. Now Tri-State and Sunflower want to throw good money after bad with an expensive and unnecessary expansion of the dirty Holcomb plant.³

Sunflower still owes taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for the original Holcomb plant, and now they want to team up with Tri-State to waste Kansas' water and pollute Kansas' air with an unneeded expansion that will provide electricity to an out-of-state utility. We can't allow that to happen.

With a strong outpouring of opposition, we can put major pressure on the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association to scrap its plans to expand the dirty Holcomb coal plant.

Tell the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association: Give it up! Kansans don't want the Holcomb coal plant to be expanded.

1. Clean Air Advocates Cheer Court Decision on Kansas Coal Plant Expansion, Earthjustice, 1/31/12
2. Wind Energy Making New Inroads, Building on Success, American Wind Energy Association, 1/26/12
3. Where's the Outrage Over Coal Boondogles?, Earthjustice, 2/12/12