No one budged.

Try as they might, House leaders couldn't muster the four votes needed Thursday to override Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' veto of a legislative effort to push through the planned expansion of the Sunflower Electric Power Corp. Holcomb facility.

The latest failed attempt at an override may have been disappointing to a region understandably eager for the economic impact of the project, but it wasn't surprising. While the Senate has the votes, convincing enough lawmakers to fall in line with House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, and other project supporters has been difficult all along.

Another effort was possible Friday night in the Legislature, and there's reason to believe supporters of the expansion will keep trying until the last day of the session.

If Kansans weighed in, the hunch is many would say enough is enough when it comes to legislative attempts to push through the plant expansion. But project supporters aren't quitting, nor should they.

The need for additional power to meet growing electricity demand in Kansas and beyond, and negative fallout of an arbitrary ruling related to the project by Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby mean they must press on.

In denying an air-quality permit needed to add two new, coal-fired power plants to the Holcomb facility, Bremby cited the threat of additional emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas linked to global warming, even though there are no state or federal restrictions on CO2.

Bremby's move sparked six separate legal challenges from a variety of sources: Sunflower, project partner Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association of Colorado, the Finney County Commission and the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce.

Should time run out in the Legislature, we can expect supporters of the Sunflower expansion to turn their energy in another direction -- the courts. Indeed, this battle is far from over.

And Kansans, weary as they may be of the debate, must keep the big picture in mind: the need for energy policy that addresses growing electricity demand, access to affordable energy and the pursuit of alternative sources such as wind -- and that an expanded Sunflower facility can help move the state closer to that goal.