Lawrence Journal-World:



In an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Denver-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association described as “remote” the chances that it will ever build the plant, and it said the company is writing off as a loss more than $93 million it has already spent on the project.

That statement came just five months after the Kansas Supreme Court cleared the way to proceed with construction, rejecting a challenge from environmental groups to an air permit issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

The plant had been in the works for more than a decade, however, and by the time that court decision came down, there were new federal regulations in place making it more difficult to build new coal-fired power plants, and the economics of renewable energy had changed significantly.

Tri-State and Sunflower Electric Cooperative based in Hays first proposed to expand an existing coal-fired plant in Holcomb in 2007

In its filing with the SEC, Tri-State said its board of directors had not yet decided how it plans to recover the $93 million loss, but it said it would not attempt to recover it through rates it charges its customers.

More: Holcomb power plant unlikely to be built, company says; $93 million already spent