Pickens seeks to help Nebraska increase wind power

Texas oilman-turned-wind power advocate T. Boone Pickens brought his alternative energy campaign to Lincoln Tuesday. (Editor’s note: Pickens has invested $10 billion in his own wind power project in the Texas panhandle.) Nebraska ranks sixth nationally in wind potential but only 20th in using wind to generate electricity. Gov. Dave Heineman and others involved in the development of wind energy said Nebraska is beginning to overcome some of the hurdles that have kept it out of the top 10.

In fact, the governor said Nebraska could climb into the top 10 within the next decade — an ambitious goal that would require more than a seven-fold increase in the state’s wind-generating capacity. Representatives from the state’s two largest utilities, OPPD and the Nebraska Public Power District, said there are substantial obstacles to wind power — including the fact that the ideal sites for wind farms are in north-central and western areas of Nebraska, far from the state’s population centers.

Also, they said, the need for electricity peaks in summer, when winds are calmest in Nebraska. There also are reliability concerns — NPPD’s 60 megawatt wind farm at Ainsworth, which went online in 2005, has been troubled by cracked blades and turbine problems in recent months. Other obstacles are building enough transmission lines to transfer electricity to customers and adapting the nation’s energy grid to handle the unstable stream of power generated by the wind.

Not everyone likes the big transmission lines, the represenatives noted, and more and more people are beginning to dislike the wind towers. Because Nebraska’s utilities are publicly owned and pay no taxes, federal tax incentives provided to develop wind farms are not available to them. Other federal incentive programs for public utilities are underfunded, those interviewed said. Under the Community Based Energy Act passed by the Nebraska Legislature last spring, private utility firms may develop wind farms with local farmers and farm groups and qualify for tax credits.

Nebraska is in the Midst of Farm Country’s Boom

The farm economy in the Great Plains states are a bright spot in the otherwise gloomy national economic picture. In states like Nebraska, the housing market is holding up just fine, the banks are making plenty of loans, and employers keep adding jobs. Retail spending in the middle of the country was strong even before the $600 tax rebates this spring, and low interest rates and a tax provision in the economic stimulus bill are helping to goose already booming sales of farm equipment and pickup trucks.

The price of farmland in Nebraska has doubled in the past three years, primarily reflecting the boom in commodity prices. The increase also reflects the impact of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve that enabled buyers to bid up land with borrowed money. But if crop prices drop toward historical norms, it could mean sharp decreases in land prices that would devastate some farmers.

The availability of loans to farmers is the strongest it has been in five years, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, even as banks nationwide are becoming reluctant to lend money. The reason: There wasn’t much overbuilding of housing here, so most regional banks are not saddled with the same bad mortgage and construction loans as their counterparts on the coasts. The good times are not uniform across the region; livestock producers have been pummeled by high prices for feed and fuel.

In Blair, Neb., however, long-vacant storefronts have been turned into furniture shops and restaurants in the past couple of years, and Wal-Mart is looking to open a store just down the way. The billion-dollar Cargill plant that turns grains of corn into high-fructose corn syrup and ethanol just announced another $100 million expansion, adding a Danish company that makes enzymes out of corn — a reflection of booming global demand for all types of commodities.

That prosperity also shows itself on Lyle Schjodt’s farm a few miles outside Blair, where he farms 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans, 150 head of cattle, and 1,200 hogs. He still has the first tractor he ever bought, back in 1968, in a shed. “I’ve been farming for 39 years, and I haven’t seen a better year than this one,” he said. Schjodt is upgrading his equipment; he just ordered a $120,000 Case IH planter, a massive red device that deposits seed corn every seven inches in 30-inch-wide rows. He bought a new $50,000 Ford F-350 back in the spring, too. Nationally, truck sales are battered by skyrocketing fuel costs. But auto sales are up 8% in the Omaha area so far this year, according to sales tax receipts.

Nebraska eyes more limits on Republican River water

State and local water officials are considering new irrigation restrictions in the Republican River basin in the wake of a lawsuit that has undercut Nebraska’s efforts to comply with a three-state river compact. Talks between state and local officials started recently, prompted by a lawsuit nine residents of the basin won in May.

They challenged a key part of a new state law that was the cornerstone of a plan to send Kansas more water. “Without LB701, we have to look at … regulations,” Jasper Fanning, manager of the Imperial-based Upper Republican Natural Resources District, said Wednesday. The law known as LB701, passed by the Legislature last year, gave natural resources districts in the heavily irrigated river basin the authority to set property taxes. But in ruling for the nine residents of the basin, a Lancaster County District Court said the taxes were unconstitutional.

Brian Dunnigan, acting director of the state Department of Natural Resources, said he expects his office and the natural resources districts will have a plan in place by the end of the year. Shortly afterward, lawmakers may again take up the issue of how to collect money for compliance because of the court ruling on property taxes. Kansas contends Nebraska used about 80,000 acre-feet, or roughly 26 billion gallons, more than it was allowed in 2005 and 2006. Kansas has demanded more than $72 million for the overuse in addition to a shutdown of wells that irrigate nearly half of the 1.2 million acres in Nebraska’s portion of the river basin.

Nebraska Cattlemen oppose ethanol mandates

According to Nebraska Cattlemen leaders, the ethanol hearing hosted Monday by Senators Ben Nelson and Tom Harkin in Omaha was a great opportunity to hear all sides of the energy debate. But Michael Kelsey, Nebraska Cattlemen executive vice president, said the state’s largest industry, beef, was not been invited to speak.

According to Kelsey, “renewable fuels are very important to the Midwest, and the nation as a whole,” but the Cattlemen believe that “mandating production and usage has never been good over the long term for any industry, for several reasons.” Mandates promote inefficiency and set an artificial demand, Kelsey said. “The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) next year will require approximately 3.5 billion bushels of corn, which is nearly 30% of what is currently grown in the U.S., Kelsey said. “Remember that the RFS is a mandate, meaning the 3.5 billion bushels of corn must be used to produce fuel and cannot be used for food, feed or export.” Kelsey added that the RFS does not promote a working relationship between industries, but instead forces a relationship.

Nebraska unemployment lowest in nation

The national unemployment rate in July rose to 5.7% from 5.5% in June. The highest unemployment rates can be found in Ohio (7.2%); California (7.3%); Illinois (7.3%); Rhode Island (7.7%); Mississippi (7.9%); and Michigan (8.5%). Nebraska had the lowest jobless rate at 3.4%.

Last call for Neb. Community Improvement Program project entries

What does it take to become a top overall community? The Nebraska Community Improvement Program (NCIP) has the answers. For 45 years, NCIP, a program of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, has assisted communities with meeting challenges and building on strengths and resources to form a vision for the future.

The program recognizes communities annually for their improvement efforts during the past year, with an emphasis on the achievements of grassroots volunteers. By participating in NCIP and involving citizens in planning efforts, communities have successfully accomplished many projects.

For more information, visit www.neded.org or contact Lindsay Papenhausen at 800-426-6505 or [email protected].

New Nebraska program aims to help first-time home buyers

The Nebraska Department of Economic Development has provided more than $1 million to help first time home buyers in central Nebraska. The Housing Development Corporation in Hastings received a $388,000 grant. With the money it is creating a new program it is called the Regional Workforce Initiative. It will allow employees, from various companies, to apply for money to purchase a home.

They must be from low–income families. Applicants could get up to $15,000. The Housing Development Corp. hopes the grant will help retain and recruit employees to central Nebraska.

Focus on youth should solve Nebraska’s labor issues, expert says

or being a community that says it needs its young people to stick around, Grand Island has a funny way of showing it. That’s what Mike Henke, general manager of the Grand Island human resources firm Associated Staffing, concluded after talking to groups of Grand Island high-schoolers. Many high-schoolers say they want to leave the state because there’s nothing to do.

“As a community, we’ve kind of run them out of the things that they love to do,” Henke told the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce Executives on Thursday. “Then we’re shocked when they want to leave.” Henke was speaking to a group of about 20 chamber officials at the Nebraska Chamber Executives’ summer/fall conference at Grand Island’s Midtown Holiday Inn. He said that, for many Nebraska towns, that workforce crisis largely hinges on two aspects: The inability to find workers for entry-level, mostly unskilled labor positions and what’s often called the “brain drain” — the inability to attract the state’s young professionals to come back home.

Those problems are helping lead to a labor shortage that’s expected to get worse as baby boomers retire, Henke said. In response, Henke advised towns to be aggressive about marketing themselves to prospective residents and employees. This generation of young adults tends to choose a community to live in first and a job second, he said. That puts the onus on towns to sell themselves through an active Web site comprehensively listing those cool things to do or communications with a database of high school graduates, he said. Businesses themselves aren’t exempt, either. Henke said the old mentality of “here’s your job — take it or leave it” is dead, replaced by companies that provide loads of perks and bonuses to attract and keep the best employees. “I hate the ‘woe-is-me’ attitude in some communities in the state,” Henke said. “We have so much to offer.”

Nebraskans buying cars hit hard by taxes, fees

An Omaha World-Herald review has found that Nebraska residents, on average, pay more in taxes and fees when they buy a car here than they would in any neighboring state but Kansas. It’s worse in Omaha and several other Nebraska cities because of a local sales tax and a wheel tax that many residents of nearby states avoid. Omaha, in fact, charges the ninth-highest combination of automobile and gasoline taxes of 50 major U.S. cities in a District of Columbia tax study.

Omaha ranks higher than any other Great Plains city in the study — 11 spots ahead of its nearest rival, Wichita, Kan. State officials, car dealers and car owners agree it’s the totality of these taxes and fees — not just the high cost of registration — that has led thousands of Nebraskans to cross the state’s borders and illegally register their cars and pay taxes in nearby states. Some say the Nebraska Legislature needs to address the matter soon by lowering auto taxes, making it tougher to evade those taxes, or both. “All I can tell you is this: These people aren’t going to Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming because they like the color of the license plates,” said Loy Todd, director of the Nebraska New Car and Truck Dealers Association.

If an Omahan bought a 2008 Ford Explorer in South Dakota and illegally registered it there earlier this year, he paid about $1,400 less in combined sales taxes, registration costs and fees than he would have in Omaha. And that’s just in the first year.

Across the border in Iowa, buy a Chevy Silverado pickup truck and pay about $1,000 less in taxes and registration fees than you would in Nebraska, in part because Iowa charges far less to register a pickup truck than it does a car. Several loopholes in Nebraska law also make it easier to evade car taxes, said Beverly Neth, director of the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles.

Nebraska negotiating with Yahoo on data center

A person close to Gov. Dave Heineman confirmed on Aug. 2 that state and local officials are negotiating with Yahoo to build a data center in the Omaha metropolitan area. Negotiators are “at a very serious stage,” and Yahoo might decide within five or six weeks, the person said. The governor’s office declined last week to comment further on whether the state is talking to Yahoo, or whether Heineman would seek additional tax incentives to lure the company here.

A spokesman for the Internet search engine, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., declined to say whether it is talking to Nebraska officials. Nebraska’s business incentives package allows it to compete successfully for computer data centers and other sought-after business developments, State Tax Commissioner Doug Ewald said. But Ewald said he had received no application from Yahoo for incentives under the Nebraska Advantage program, which rewards companies for multimillion-dollar capital investments and the creation of high-paying jobs. And not much can happen until he does, Ewald said.

The Legislature modified the Nebraska Advantage program this year to create an additional level of incentives called the Super Advantage. The new level awards incentives if a company meets one of two thresholds: $10 million investment and creation of 75 new high-salary jobs; or a $100 million investment and 50 new high-salary jobs.