Rod Bremby Archives - Voice For Liberty

Jul

KDHE, Sunflower Electric, Earthjustice, Center for Climate Strategies: different peas in the same pod

Evidence that a business seeking regulatory approval of its project enjoyed an apparently close relationship with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment should not be surprising. Reporting in the Kansas City Star leads with "Hundreds of emails document that officials of a Kansas power plant enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Kansas regulators who issued them a building permit in December." (Kansas agency, utility worked closely on permit for plant) A press release from Earthjustice, the legal advocacy arm of the Sierra Club, proclaimed "A new report reveals Sunflower Electric (Sunflower) enjoyed a cozy relationship with Kansas regulators during…

Nov

By Bob Weeks

Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Friday November 5, 2010

Political attacks on tap at Pachyderm. Wichita State University political science professor Mel Kahn will be the presenter at today's (November 5) meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club. The always-interesting professor will speak on the topic "Do Political Attacks Help or Harm our Republic?" This seems like a timely topic given the recent general and primary elections. The public is welcome at Wichita Pachyderm meetings. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club. Hold the celebration "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds, in fact, that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is at least somewhat likely that…

Jun

By Bob Weeks

Earthjustice meddles in Kansas again

The radical environmentalist group Earthjustice is again meddling in Kansas energy policy. They've sent a "warning letter" to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. You can read it at Proposed Kansas Coal Plant Draws Warning Letter. Earthjustice opposes the building of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas. Our former governor Kathleen Sebelius, because she opposed the plant, was a darling of Earthjustice. See Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius at Earthjustice. Earthjustice is simply misinformed in many ways. For example, the press release states: "The truth is building a new, dirty coal plant really only serves the interest of a few…

Feb

By Bob Weeks

Drinkwine editorial on Kansas carbon emissions overlooks evidence

Frank Drinkwine of the Kansas Sierra Club has an editorial in today's Wichita Eagle that ignores some important facts. (Frank Drinkwine: Bremby has and needs authority to protect air, February 5, 2009 Wichita Eagle.) Setting aside for the moment the climate change hysteria that Drinkwine relies on (and we really shouldn't set that aside), he's wrong when he ascribes pure motives to Red Bremby, Kansas Health and Environment Secretary. It's apparent that when Bremby denied the permit for the expansion of the Holcomb station power plant his motivation was political. In February 2008, according to Associated Press reporting, Rod Bremby…

Jan

By Bob Weeks

Another Misleading Question by GPACE

Yesterday we saw how the website of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy contains a list of ten questions for Sunflower supporters. My post GPACE "Sunflower" Questions Misleading showed how these questions are designed to influence public opinion in a very misleading manner. One of the ways some of the questions are misleading is that they're based on a false premise (or two). Here's question number eight, which provides another example: "How is it a good idea for the part-time, partisan Kansas Legislature to be responsible for thousands of annual permit requests and for enforcing compliance, in addition to…

Oct

By Bob Weeks

Untruths about carbon and its regulation at the Wichita Eagle

The Wichita Eagle's recent editorial by Rhonda Holman takes a few Kansas legislators to task for statements regarding regulatory uncertainly in Kansas (No 'regulatory uncertainty' in Kansas, October 28, 2008 Wichita Eagle). She claims their statements "don't reflect reality" and that their untruths are harming Kansas' ability to bring in business. I want to remind Ms. Holman of reporting in the Topeka Capital-Journal from earlier this year which investigated some of the issues surrounding the denial of the permit for the expansion of Holcomb Station. As reported in my post Rod Bremby’s Action Drove Away the Refinery, the Secretary of…

Jul

By Bob Weeks

Kansas environmental policy is full of uncertainty

In a January 17, 2008 Wichita Eagle editorial, Nancy Jackson of the Climate and Energy Project of the Land Institute claims that Roderick L. Bremby, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, did not create regulatory uncertainty when he denied the permit for the expansion of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas. A dubious claim made in this editorial is how "Neither Bremby nor Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is 'out front' on this issue [carbon emissions]." Jackson claims that Bremby was just following an inevitable trend towards more regulation of carbon emissions. But this is in direct opposition to…

Jul

By Bob Weeks

Earthjustice in Kansas: The Press Release

I've recently learned that the radical environmentalist group Earthjustice played a role in the rejection of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas. I didn't learn that from any Kansas news source, but only from Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and only then long after the permit for the plant was denied. See Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius at Earthjustice. Now I see Earthjustice's press release Kansas Rejects Massive Sunflower Coal-Fired Power Plant. What did Earthjustice do in Kansas, and how did they do it? These are things Kansans need to know. To that end, I've filed a request under the Kansas Open…

May

By Bob Weeks

Rod Bremby’s Action Drove Away the Refinery

In The Wichita Eagle (Roderick L. Bremby: Neufeld Disregards Truth About Air Permits, May 17, 2008) the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment takes issue with Kansas House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, a Republican from Ingalls. The point of contention is that Neufeld claims that if not for Bremby, Kansas might have landed a large oil refinery. Bremby disagrees with Neufeld's assertion that Bremby's actions have created "regulatory uncertainty" in Kansas. There's some uncertainty as to whether Kansas was really in the running for the oil refinery, or if we were just a fallback state. There's also controversy…