At the November 17, 2022, Board meeting I asked OPPD’s Directors to do the right thing. The requests were simple and in the best interests of OPPD’s customer-owners.[1] As a government entity without a profit motive, OPPD stands in a unique relationship with its customer-owners that the Board continues to ignore.
USA Today reports that 20% of all Americans are behind in their utility bills.[2] The cause is certainly the high inflation caused by the Democrat party. MUD has warned its customers that they will likely pay 18% more this winter.[3] For many people, this is a crisis. Do they eat or pay their utility bills?
Thankfully, OPPD has an Energy Assistance Program to help its customer-owners. But the program is tiny compared to the need this winter. OPPD CEO L. Javier Fernandez told the Board that its program only spent $303,000 in 2021.[4] OPPD, on the other hand, had $412 million in self-reported cash liquidity as of September 30, 2022.[5] I asked the Board to contribute $10 million of its money to help its customer-owners in their time of need. Two percent of OPPD’s liquidity is not material.
Currently, OPPD is committed to achieving net zero carbon by 2050. OPPD’s consultant told it that this will require building 3,000 MW of solar, 3,800 MW of wind and 800 MW of battery storage at the cost of at least $28 billion.[6]
OPPD is asking its customer-owners to greatly sacrifice in order to save the planet from global warming by 2100. I asked the Board to do the small – and right thing – of lowering the temperatures in OPPD’s buildings to 67 degrees. Since leaders lead and walk the walk and not just talk the talk, I requested that the Directors and top managers to do the same in their homes. That’s the least that can be done right now considering that China is building a new coal-fired power plant every two weeks. If the existence of life on Earth is really at stake, action by any means necessary is essential.
OPPD has gross revenue of about $1 billion, but it is proposing to spend $28 billion to achieve net zero carbon. Common sense dictates that this will result in a giant increase in electric utility bills for OPPD’s customer-owners. But we don’t have to rely solely on common sense. The Minnesota-based Center for the American Experiment has developed a sophisticated model to study the true cost of net zero carbon. It turns out that the cost of net zero carbon is quite high.
The states of Minnesota and Wisconsin are both planning to achieve net zero carbon. This will result in the tripling of electric rates, loss of jobs and state GDP and, worst of all, blackouts in the winter.[7]
Nebraskans have traditionally demanded that their government entities be prudent in spending. The fact is that in the last decade, $3.8 trillion has been spent world-wide to reduce fossil fuel consumption and it has declined by only 1%.[8]
In light of this evidence, I asked the OPPD Board to repeal its net zero carbon policy. The Board works for its customer-owners. OPPD is not a private company. The right thing to do is to end OPPD’s pursuit of expensive and unreliable solar and wind energy.
[1] Proposed resolutions enclosed.
[2] USA Today, August 24, 2022.
[3] Omaha World-Herald, October 30, 2022.
[4] CEO’s comments to the OPPD Board, YouTube video at 24:49, November 17, 2022.
[5] OPPD website, Self-liquidity worksheet.
[6] E3, Inc. draft final report of 2021 to OPPD Board regarding Pathways to Decarbonization. The $28 billion recommendation appears at page 61.
[7] See attached.
[8] Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs head of commodities, on CNBC’s Squawk Box on October 3, 2022. Squawk Box on Twitter: “”At the end of last year, overall fossil fuels represented 81% of energy consumption. 10 years ago, they were at 82%,” says Jeff Currie. “$3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuels from 82% to 81% of the overall energy consumption.” https://t.co/VhQN0S9oo9″ / Twitter
The Art of Twenty-First Century Wisdom: An Internet Oracle 