Omaha wasting wind potential
May 20, 2013 | By
Barbara Vergetis Lundin
Residents of Omaha, Nebraska are not taking pollution from coal-fired power plants sitting down.
Nearly 1,000 signatures from North Omaha residents, health professionals and students have been submitted to the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), calling on the utility to address the community's public health concerns by phasing out coal burning at the North Omaha power plant. Pollution from OPPD's North Omaha coal-fired power plant has
been linked to 240 asthma attacks, 22 heart attacks and 14
premature deaths annually, as well as more than $100 million
each year in health- and environmental-related costs which are
passed on to taxpayers, according to the Clean Air Task Force. Just 2.9 percent of Nebraska's energy comes from wind, even though the state is ranked fourth in the nation for wind energy potential, according to a report by the American Wind Energy Association. "If OPPD is looking to keep rates low for customers in Omaha, they only need to look across the state line to Iowa," said David Corbin, a retired professor from the University of Nebraska – Omaha Public Health Department. "MidAmerican Energy has doubled down on wind energy, and their customers enjoy cleaner air and lower rates. Burning coal at the North Omaha coal plant hurts residents twofold: on their medical bills and on their electric bills." Facebook recently decided to build a new data center in Iowa rather than Nebraska due, in part, to Iowa's renewable energy options. MidAmerican Energy, which currently gets a quarter of its energy from wind, recently announced it would invest $1.9 billion in wind energy development in Iowa. MidAmerican will supply the power for Facebook's new Iowa data center. For more: Related Articles:
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