On June 26, 2008, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius spoke at an event hosted by Earthjustice (motto: “Because the earth needs a good lawyer”). By the next day, Earthjustice already had a self-congratulatory professionally-produced video available at Earthjustice & Kansas Governor Talk Clean Energy.
Evidently, Earthjustice, previously known as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, was involved in the events leading up to the denial of the permit for Sunflower Electric Power Corporation’s Holcomb Station coal-fired electricity generating plant expansion.
Now, I read the Wichita Eagle, Topeka Capital-Journal, and Lawrence Journal-World regularly, and until last week, I had never heard mention of this group being active in Kansas. A Google search showed no news media coverage, either. It appears, then, that there was a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering before the denial of the permit for Holcomb Station, and not covered by Kansas news media.
But now that the permit has been denied and the Kansas Legislature failed to produce legislation that would survive the Governor’s veto, the activity of Earthjustice in Kansas, clearly a group with a radical environmentalist agenda, can be admitted.
I received a copy of the Governor’s prepared remarks to Earthjustice, and in them she thanks the group for their involvement. How did they help Kansas? According to the Governor, Earthjustice “Provided litigation and public support, helped shape the media messaging and outreach, and rallied supporters and engaged the public to get involved.” Somehow this group did this without being noticed by Kansas news media.
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