Jan 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Nancy Gaarder Omaha World-Herald, Neb.


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 proposal is among a number of ideas contained in the first update in more than 15 years of the state's long-term energy plan. 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. But more than half the states in the nation have such minimum standards, and a national minimum is gaining traction in Washington, D.C.

"The momentum is there," Loos said. "How you define the RPS is the key."

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. The state's utilities have been the chief obstacle, he said.

"It is important that we have something," he said. "It's what that something is and how it's implemented that will make a difference."

Preister said he expects that a renewable minimum will make it into the final version of the state plan, "but it will probably be low, so there wouldn't be a lot of objection to it."

The Nebraska Public Power District's board will discuss the renewable portfolio standard today at a committee meeting. In December, though, the utility restated its opposition to mandates if they don't include guaranteed, adequate incentives to meet the standards in a cost-effective manner.

The state's proposed plan encourages the use of financial incentives to make renewable energy more attractive and suggests ways the Legislature can remove barriers to the development of renewable energy.

About 1 percent of Nebraska's electricity is generated from renewable sources, not including hydropower dams.

NPPD has set its own goal of 10 percent renewable sources of energy by 2020. That figure doesn't include existing hydropower from dams.

The Omaha Public Power District is still going over the proposed plan and is developing its own goal for renewable energy.

"We haven't had a chance to formulate a response yet," said OPPD spokesman Mike Jones. "We're still digesting it and still trying to decide."

Preister said he believes that 25 percent of Nebraska's electricity can realistically 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. Because they don't pay federal income taxes, they don't benefit from tax credits that the government uses to encourage investor-owned utilities to build such things as wind farms.

Additionally, many of the states that have renewable minimums regulate utilities differently from Nebraska and have made various concessions to utilities to entice them to develop that energy.

Without those tax credits and enticements, which often go hand-in-hand with mandates, many of the wind farms across the country wouldn't exist.

--Contact the writer: 444-1102, nancy.gaarder@owh.com

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