By Senator Tom Brewer
One of the bills that I will bring to the floor this session concerns public power and private renewable energy generators. LB 399 has been prioritized by Senator Bostelman. This bill is about how privately-owned intermittent generators of “renewable” energy fit into our unique public power system we have in Nebraska. This is a subject I’ve worked on my entire eight years in the legislature. After scores of meetings with public power and the Power Review Board (PRB) last fall and numerous amendments, I believe this bill helps find the right fit for renewable energy so Nebraskans can enjoy the benefits of both.
Nebraska is not just the only state with a Unicameral Legislature; we are the only state whose electrical utilities are 100% publicly owned. Both of these ideas were made popular by the same man, Senator George Norris. A few public power districts exist in other states alongside for-profit electrical utilities, but not in Nebraska.
In 1933 this legislature created public power. The bill created an entirely new echelon of state government with an elected board for our electrical utilities in Nebraska. They would run the generators, and the long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines. At the substation level, the local rural electric association or municipality handles the distribution of electricity to customers. With several exceptions, that’s basically how we do it in Nebraska.
We decided that we were not going to follow the for-profit model of delivering electricity to Nebraskans. Nebraska does not have a public utility commission for electricity. We have a Power Review Board instead. No other state has one of those. The way we do electricity in Nebraska is profoundly different from how it’s done everywhere else. Foreign-owned renewable energy companies like to take advantage of Nebraska law, so they are lobbying against LB 399. Nowhere else in the country do private, out-of-state and international renewable developers, have such a lax system to build their facilities.
The intent of this bill is to give the public a voice in the process of building intermittent renewable energy facilities in rural Nebraska. The private, out-of-state developers are required to make two extra certifications in the existing process we already have in the law. The bill requires a public hearing in a county where the project is located, and it requires the private developer to have a power purchase agreement with one of our public utilities. Under our unique Nebraska system, we cannot allow private generators to compete against our public utilities.
In terms of residential reliability, public power in Nebraska is number one in the nation. In terms of cost, it comes in at number five. Public power in Nebraska is doing a lot of things right for our State.
Regardless of the direction the legislature may decide to go over the question of intermittent renewable energy in the future, we need to be careful to not lose sight of the fact our State does electrical generation, transmission, and distribution very differently than the rest of the country. Back in 1933 the legislature had no idea our unique public power system we developed almost a century ago would someday have to accommodate out-of-state, privately owned, intermittent generators. LB 399 protects our unique Public Power system, and gives the citizens who are forced to live next to these facilities one evening to ask questions of the private company who will become their new neighbor.
Please contact my office with any comments, questions, or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.