Missouri’s Own Coal Battle

The push for a new coal-fired power plant in western Kansas has ignited a fierce debate about energy policy in Kansas. Now a similar proposal in the 805-person town of Norborne, Missouri, is setting the stage for a fossil-fuel showdown in the Show-Me State.

Last month, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources issued preliminary approval for a new coal-fired power plant in the small city 60 miles northeast of Kansas City. The project would be built by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., a Springfield-based company that provides power to 56 local and regional cooperatives in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma. The new plant would be 780 megawatts — about half the size of the Sunflower Electric Power Corporation proposed plant, which was rejected by Kansas officials last month. On Tuesday, supporters and opponents packed a lively public hearing that pushed the capacity of the city’s community center.

At 5:30 p.m., AECI’s trailer was still lighted up, and a half-dozen company officials were huddled around a table framed by the front window. Just down the street, a homemade sign warning, “Dirty Coal: Do you want to be downwind?” hung from a chain-link fence outside a modest white home. Across the road, a banner inscribed “Concerned Citizens of Carroll County” stood in front of the entrance to the Home Savings and Loan of Norborne. In the basement, dozens of citizens from surrounding towns and as far away as St. Louis put on black-and-white T-shirts denouncing coal-fired power and lined up with placards with messages such as “Don’t turn Missouri into Bejing.”