Public Power - July/August 2008 - (Page 13)

6 over $4 and diesel has gone even higher, it’s impacting our daily lives in a very profound way. As a matter a fact, it may be having a greater impact than anything done so far at the federal level to get Americans to drive more fuel-efficient cars. Nebraska is a leader in development of wind energy. How important is wind to state energy needs and what kind of future do you see for wind energy in Nebraska? It’s part of our renewable energy future. It’s part of our ability to play a role and reduce carbon emissions. We’ve been a leader on ethanol and we want to be a leader relative to wind energy. It’s been predicted Nebraska has the fifth or sixth largest potential capacity for wind 8 role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Nebraska is home to two nuclear power plants. After a three-decade hiatus in new orders for nuclear plants, some U.S. utilities are moving forward with plans to build new nuclear reactors for the first time in 30 years. Do you see an expansion of nuclear generating capacity in Nebraska’s future? I think so and I hope so. Everyone talks about cleaner, greener energy and reducing our carbon footprint across America. Nuclear power does that. Yet, there are those who argue for cleaner, greener energy and then they’ll say they are opposed to nuclear power—you can’t have it both ways. I think we need 10 centivize efficiency and conservation, but also state governments should lead by example. You’ve had some severe tornados hit your state in the last month, which some scientists might assert were caused by global climate change. In what ways have the utilities in Nebraska cooperated with the state’s emergency management agency to restore power to residents and assure reliability in the instance of future storms? This is one area that I can say in Nebraska that we are very, very proud of the way we work. We have a great relationship between all emergency management levels from the state down to the local level with FEMA [Federal We’ve been really, really pleased with the expansion of ethanol. energy in America. We want to take advantage of that. I was just at a recent groundbreaking for a wind energy project in Nebraska that will double our capacity. This industry is in its infancy. Ethanol, I would argue, is a little bit further down the road. You’ve said the Nebraska Energy Office will spend part of its time dispersing federal grants for energy efficiency and to upgrade buildings and transportation structures. Does Nebraska’s status as an all-publicpower state create challenges when seeking federal incentives for energy projects? Because we are a public power state, we didn’t have the ability to take advantage of the financial incentives, which are basically for the private power industry. This last year we passed our community-based energy development legislation, which allows us to develop public-private partnerships to take advantage of those [federal] financial credits. So I think you are going to see Nebraska move forward with a rapid expansion of wind energy. Again, it is one more way all of us can play a small www.APPAnet.org 7 9 to expand nuclear power in America and if the nuclear power companies felt they could get through the permitting process in a reasonable financial manner, you would see an expansion of nuclear generating capacity both in Nebraska and America. My sense is we need to do that. Energy efficiency appears to be a key part of your energy strategy. What goals do you have for expanding the role of efficiency and conservation in your state? We’re going to try to do a number of things in that regard: first of all, we’ve strengthened our energy codes for building residential and commercial properties; providing tax credits for energy conservation improvements and I think that is generally the route we want to take. I’ve issued an executive order, for example, requiring all state vehicles to use ethanol. This is one more example where we are trying to lead the way. In addition, we’re going to do an energy audit of major state buildings in the Lincoln area and see how we can become more efficient in that regard. I think it is important that we not only in- Emergency Management Agency] at the federal level and with all of our utilities and public power companies. They work with us very, very closely. We went through a dramatic ice storm in the beginning of January 2007 and in some cases we were without power in certain communities for a week or so. Everybody worked together, providing generators, restoring power as quickly as possible. We have a very cooperative and collaborative relationship throughout our emergency management structures, both public and private, but especially with the utility industry. They’ve always moved expeditiously to resolve any issues and they’ve always been part of our energy strategy discussions. Almost every time we are involved in some sort of crisis – tornado, severe storms, loss of power, whatever it may be –almost uniformly the CEO of the utility involved is standing by my side at a news conference as we explain what’s going on, how we’re going to restore power, how we’re moving forward. And I know that doesn’t happen in a lot of states, but that’s the kind of relationship we have in this state. ❚ JULY-AUGUST 2008 13 http://www.APPAnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - July/August 2008

Public Power- July/August 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions Solar Energy Rising Sacramento's Solar Shares Gainesville Crowns a Conservation Idol By the Numbers Curbing Costs of Outages Reliability Green Energy Hometown Connections Customer Service Parting Shot

Public Power - July/August 2008

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