Coal Wars: Navajo Nation sues the feds, Kansas to konk old King Koal?

The Navajo Nation and a private power company in Texas are suing the E.P.A. Not because they've been turned down, they simply can't get an answer. The Navajo's utility company and Texas-based Sithe Global Power applied for a permit back in 2004. They want to build a coal-powered generating plant on Navajo land. The federal law apparently give the EPA a year to respond.

Hello, it's 2008, so now the Navajo and Sithe and seething, and they're suing. They want an answer. The EPA, of course, says it;'been really busy. Too many public responses to the permit request hagve just slowed the EPA to less than its usual crawl.

KANSAS & KOAL

Meanwhile the verbal tussles continue in Kansas over coal-fired plants planned there. First the two plants were denied a permit by the state's environmental chief. Then the legislature struck back, passing a law to force the state to allow the plants to be built. Now the governor says she'll veto that bill.

To add coal dust to the flames, four Republican pols now say Kansas lost out on an even larger energy plant because of the cold-shoulder to coal. Not so, says the governor's side. The plant was always going to be bult in South Dakota anyway.