The AP reports, “Nebraska has joined several other states in filing a challenge to the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases are great enough to threaten public health and should face restrictions.”
According to the news service, “Nebraska and 11 other states have followed suit,” as Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning “says the EPA has no authority to impose such strict emissions regulations,” which he says would “hamper Nebraska’s agriculture industry and small businesses.”
JournalStar.com reports that state leaders are still pondering whether to accept a portion of available federal stimulus funding — “about $43.6 million that could be used to help pay for unemployment benefits.” The drawback? Accepting the federal funding comes with a federal mandate to expand unemployment insurance benefits, which would almost certainly lead to “higher future costs” — all of which would be shouldered by Nebraska businesses. According to the Journal Star, “the state can get the money by improving the state’s unemployment benefits in two of four specific categories.” The article notes that “labor leaders support the improved benefits and don’t see any reason to dawdle. … State business interests are still weighing the options, looking for a route that won’t lead to higher unemployment taxes in the future.” According to the story, “Gov. Dave Heineman, who must ask for the money, says he’s not interested in this stimulus funding if it requires an eventual tax increase. … (L)abor and business interests have at least another year to come up with a solution.” Ron Sedlacek, General Counsel for the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry told the Journal Star, “It would be a simple decision if the only issue was putting money into the unemployment trust fund.” But accepting the federal money with strings attached “could lead to a permanent tax increase. And seeking the money will require changes in state law, he noted.
The Nebraska Energy Office is proposing that the Legislature do something it has yet to do. Require the state’s utilities to generate a minimum amount of electricity from renewable sources. The proposed plan, which provides a vision but is nonbinding, continues Nebraska’s heavy emphasis on ethanol as a transportation fuel and calls for more aggressive efforts to construct energy-efficient buildings.
Hundreds of Nebraskans contributed suggestions that were incorporated into the draft plan, said Jerry Loos, spokesman for the Nebraska Energy Office. The 22-page plan is available for public review, and final suggestions are due by Jan. 23. A so-called renewable portfolio standard – or minimum requirement for electricity to be generated from renewable energy sources has never made it out of the Legislature.
Renewable sources can include solar, wind, methane gas and hydropower dams. Don Preister, a former state senator who championed a minimum standard and made several attempts to get one passed, said he’s glad to see the idea in the plan. NPPD’s board will discuss the renewable portfolio standard today at a committee meeting. OPPD is still going over the proposed plan and is developing its own goal for renewable energy. Preister said he believes that 25% of Nebraska’s electricity can be generated from renewable sources by 2025.
Nebraska utilities have been at a tax disadvantage compared with other utilities when it comes to the development of renewable energy because the state’s utilities are publicly owned and don’t benefit from tax credits that the government uses to encourage investor owned utilities to build such things as wind farms.
Development and operation of Nebraska’s wind resources could bring as many as 36,500 construction jobs to the state. A study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says wind development in Nebraska could create 20,600 to 36,500 construction jobs between 2011 and 2020.
And the study says the resulting wind farms could provide 2,200 to 4,000 long-term operations and maintenance jobs. The construction of windmills that would provide 7,800 megawatts of power could add an estimated $7.8 billion to $14.1 billion to Nebraska’s economy, and, under current technology, provide power for about 1.8 million homes.
A compressor station that will boost the movement of natural gas eastward on the Rockies Express Pipeline has brought jobs to the Bertrand area. The compressor station, which has been under construction since late June, employs 145 people, most of whom moved into the area.
Local people also have been employed, said Allen Fore, a spokesperson for Rockies Express. Workers have been renting housing as far away as Sumner and in communities in Buffalo, Phelps, and Kearney counties. The pipeline company also will pay property taxes to the counties it runs through.
When complete, the cost of the Bertrand station is estimated to reach $55 million. It will become part of a pipeline system that begins at the natural gas fields of Colorado and Wyoming, slices through southern Nebraska into northeastern Kansas, then across Missouri, Illinois, an Indiana, to extreme eastern Ohio.
“This is the largest pipeline in the country,” Fore said.
The National Corn Growers Association – under the leadership of its president Bob Dickey of Laurel, Neb. – responded strongly Tuesday to ethanol critics who launched another wave of attacks on corn and ethanol.
“These same ethanol critics are the ones who virtually promised to reduce food prices immediately, and have failed to do so, even though corn prices and energy prices are down by more than half in the last few weeks,” Dickey said. “Food prices remain at a very high level.
It’s ironic that food companies are reporting record profits, and food prices are higher – for smaller packages of food items, in many cases.”
TransCanada Corp. says it has enough contracts with oil shippers to proceed with a second Keystone pipeline that would move crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Keystone XL pipeline would enter the U.S. in Montana and run through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma on its 1,980 mile route to Texas.
TransCanada, the Calgary-based company, will start seeking regulatory approval in the U.S. and Canada for Keystone XL, after securing contracts for the new pipeline for 380,000 barrels of oil per day, for an average term of 17 years. The second Keystone pipeline would not be completed until at least 2012. The first Keystone pipeline, also planned through Nebraska, is under construction.
The Nebraska portion of construction will go through 10 Nebraska counties, including Butler, Seward and Saline, and cross 210 miles
Nebraskans filling their gas tanks have seen their bills cut in half compared to what they were paying at the pump three months ago. And that could benefit shoppers this holiday season as lower gas prices means more disposable income for gift buying, according to the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce.
Gasoline pumps across Grand Island had E10 selling at $2.07 per gallon, according to Nebraska AAA. Cindy Johnson, executive director of the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce, said the gas price decline could make a difference for retail sales. For many retailers, Johnson said, the holiday buying season accounts for as much as 40% of their annual business.
But the lower fuel prices will impact the nation’s ethanol industry, said Steve Sorum of the Nebraska Ethanol Board. Sorum said the relationship between the prices of ethanol and gasoline has shifted “180 degrees” in the last two weeks. “While ethanol has been priced 30 to 40 cents below gasoline for much of the last two years, just recently it shifted,” he said. And that could put ethanol in a competitive price disadvantage with gasoline.
The Nebraska Energy Office has scheduled nine meetings across the state, seeking suggestions for a new energy plan. The comment session for Lincoln and Omaha area will be 9-11 a.m. Nov. 6 at Mahoney State Park near Ashland at the Riverview Lodge. Other comment sessions are are scheduled in Broken Bow, Scottsbluff, Chadron, Valentine, Norfolk, McCook and Hastings.
There is also one scheduled 9-11 a.m. Nov. 7 in Nebraska City at Steinhart Lodge. The agency will accept written comments through Nov. 21. They can be submitted online at: energy@nebraska.gov or delivered to the Nebraska Energy Office by 5 p.m. Nov. 21.
As the Nebraska Energy Office opens its new energy plan up for comment, it’s looking for something much more open-ended than just the rubber-stamp treatment. The office is planning to open public comment today on its first energy plan since 1991. The office hopes to have this plan, begun earlier this year, on Gov. Dave Heineman’s desk by January.
The key component to this plan is the public input it receives between now and Nov. 21, when the public comment period will end. A spokesman for the state energy office said the plan was spurred by Heineman and several state legislators, who had been asking about a new plan. Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton said she’s glad to see the office working on a plan, something she said is necessary to help the state realize its potential as a leader in energy issues. The state energy office’s Web site is http://www.neo.ne.gov/.
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