By Carey Gillam

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) - If there is one lesson Kansas officials have learned by rejecting a proposed expansion of a coal-fired power plant last month, it is this: Hell hath no fury like business interests scorned.

Six weeks ago Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby made Kansas the first U.S. state to reject a coal-fired power plant solely because of health risks associated with carbon dioxide emissions. Since then, the state has become ground zero for a nationwide battle pitting environmental concerns against powerful economic and political interests.

Kansas is now facing lawsuits from Sunflower Electric Power Corp and industry groups while angry state lawmakers are determined to overturn the denial of the $3.6 billion power plant project, with some even threatening to dismantle the state department of health and environment.

The energy industry also is pouring money into the state to try to overturn the October 18 ruling, which killed Sunflower's plan to add two 700-megawatt units to its operations in western Kansas, a cash-strapped rural area.

"Everybody agrees that motherhood, apple pie and caring about the environment are fantastic," said Bob Kreutzer, head of the newly formed Kansans for Affordable Energy. "But we've got to make sure we always have electricity and that is why we need big power plants."

Coal-fired power plants make roughly half the electricity generated in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But in the past 18 months, about a dozen states including Texas, Florida and Oklahoma also have rejected plans for 22 new coal-fired power plants.

Unlike Kansas' health and emissions concerns, those states cited mainly technical reasons for the rejections as officials increasingly acknowledge growing public concerns about climate change.

Environment groups seized on the Kansas decision as a potent precedent they hope will influence more states to reject new coal-fired power plants, whose emissions globally are among the biggest man-made sources of greenhouse gases.