The High Cost of Net Zero Carbon

September 21, 2022

By David D. Begley

The September 18, 2022 Midlands’ Voice op-ed by oncologist Dr. Jean L. Grem was certainly interesting; mostly because it was devoid of facts.[1] Missing from her essay is what it will cost the citizens of Omaha to achieve net zero carbon by 2050.

We do, however, have a good idea of what it will cost OPPD to convert our existing power supply to wind, solar and batteries: $28 billion. Not unsurprisly, OPPD’s consultant wildly low-balled what this expenditure of ratepayer money meant for our electric rates. A realistic report on the actual cost of net zero carbon was just published by Minnesota’s Center for the American Experiment.[2] The math is astonishing.

The cost to Minnesota’s utilities will be $313 billion in constant 2022 dollars. If NPPD joins OPPD, it is reasonable to expect both utilities will spend $100 billion.  

Consumers will be hit very hard with rates expected to triple. Triple! Jobs will be lost (79,000 in Minnesota) and the state’s GDP would be cut by 3.2%. And, of course, the inherent unreliability of solar and wind means that forced blackouts are a near certainty.

The bottom-line is that net zero carbon would create incredible hardships on Nebraskans; especially on the middle class.

As I told the Omaha City Council on August 13, 2022, there’s nothing Omaha can do to change the planet’s climate.[3] China has 1.4 billion people; Omaha doesn’t even have 500,000. China is building and is planning to build 328 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants. OPPD’s total electricity production is 2.6 gigawatts.  

Dr. Grem is free to recommend a plant-based diet to her patients, but the facts are that agriculture is Nebraska’s number one industry and beef production is our natural advantage. Americans still have the liberty to choose what they eat although today’s Left wants to force a change.

Any person examining this issue should realize that the climatistas have been predicting doom for decades and have been dead wrong the entire time. Why are they right now?

The Omaha World-Herald has reported that a climate action plan would cost between $200,000 to $300,000. A bidder on that job will probably be Omaha’s Verdis Group. It wrote Lincoln’s. One of the owners of Verdis Group is OPPD director and Democrat Craig Moody. To me, this all looks like a Chicago-style payoff by the Democrats on the City Council to another Democrat.

The funding of a proposed climate action plan for Omaha is a foolish waste of money and it should be rejected.

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[1] https://omaha.com/opinion/columnists/midlands-voices-city-officials-should-follow-festersen-s-lead-on-climate/article_a68a4040-35ed-11ed-938f-ffa6fdbb9114.html

[2] The-High-Cost-of-100-Percent-Carbon-Free-Electricity-by-2040-in-Minnesota.pdf (americanexperiment.org)

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQvDQ4C4TI (I appear at 1:29:30.)

It is imperative that OPPD’s Pathways to Decarbonization program be stopped.

July 31, 2022

By David D. Begley

The July 28, 2022 Midlands Voices piece by the Citizens’ Climate Change Lobby regarding OPPD’s decarbonization policy left out many important facts that OPPD ratepayers would be surprised to learn.[1]

In 2019, OPPD adopted a goal to achieve net zero carbon by 2050.[2] OPPD then created its Pathways to Decarbonization program. As part of that program, OPPD hired E3, Inc. to prepare a report that cost about $1.5 million.[3] In February of this year, the consultant’s report was delivered.

In order to achieve net zero carbon, OPPD was told to build 3,800 megawatts of new wind power and 3,000 megawatts of new solar polar. The cost to save the planet did not come cheap as it would require OPPD to spend at least $28 billion by 2050.[4] Readers should know that OPPD only has about $1 billion in annual revenues. If OPPD continues down this foolish and expensive pathway, electric rates will necessarily skyrocket. OPPD’s misguided policy is the single biggest threat to the Nebraska economy as every person and business within OPPD’s service area is required, by law, to buy electricity from the OPPD monopoly.

Germany has been implementing net zero carbon policies for a number of years and electricity there is three times more expensive than in America.[5] McKinsey & Company estimates that the global energy transition would require a capital expenditure of $3.5 trillion per year.[6] This pipe dream of a net zero carbon would require a land area roughly twice the size of California.[7] Nebraska would have to become the Chinese solar panel state instead of the Cornhusker State.

Right now, ESI Energy, LLC (a subsidiary of NextEra Energy) is attempting to build a 3,200-acre industrial solar development for $300 million in Cass County. There is strong local opposition to this project, in part, because this company was recently fined $8 million and placed on probation in federal court for killing American eagles.[8] About 80% of solar panels and solar panel materials come from China.[9] At the June OPPD Board meeting, I asked that OPPD adopt policies of not doing business with criminals and entities that benefit from slave labor. My request has not yet been adopted.

The climate lobby has been predicting a climate apocalypse for decades. In 2007, Al Gore predicted that the Artic Sea would be ice free by 2014. He was wrong.[10] Why would anyone believe their predictions about the global temperature in 2100 after a long record of failed predictions about future events?

Solar and wind interests have been subsidized for decades by American taxpayers. The Des Moines Register reported that Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy received $10 billion in federal income tax credits from 2004 to 2018.[11]

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act would continue the federal handouts with $370 billion in free money.[12] This includes an immediate investment tax credit of 30% for solar and wind projects and a production tax credit.[13] The subsidy is for another decade. Arguably, the federal government would write a check to OPPD for all the expensive and unreliable solar and wind projects it builds.[14]

With regard to delaying the closure of the coal units of North Omaha Station, I’m confident that OPPD’s engineers told the Board that there was a substantial risk of forced blackouts if the initial unrealistic timeline had to be honored.

Nebraskans shouldn’t be crucified by OPPD on a cross of wind turbine blades. It is imperative for the economic health of Nebraska that OPPD’s Pathways to Decarbonization be stopped.

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[1] Midlands Voices: It is ‘imperative’ OPPD decarbonizes day-to-day energy usage | Columnists | omaha.com

[2] OPPD policy SD-7.

[3] Letter from OPPD’s lawyers (Fraser Stryker) to David D. Begley.

[4] 886b7c9cf03e393f928a5a6b481dadf9_E3_final_Pathways_to_Decarbonization_report.pdf (amazonaws.com)

2022-5-may-board-minutes.pdf (oppd.com)

[5] What German households pay for power | Clean Energy Wire.

SAS Output (eia.gov)

[6] The Net-Zero Transition. What it would cost, what it could bring, McKinsey & Co., January 2022.

[7] Q&A: Renewable resistance – American Experiment

[8] 2022-6-june-board-minutes.pdf (oppd.com)

[9] Climate package opens window for a resurgence of U.S. solar production – The Washington Post

[10] FACT CHECK: Did Al Gore Predict Earth’s Ice Caps Would Melt by 2014? (snopes.com)

[11] MidAmerican’s wind capacity will be enough to cover all consumers’ use (desmoinesregister.com)

[12] Analysis of Climate and Energy Provisions in the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” — Progressive Caucus Center

[13] Summary of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 | Blogs | Renewable Energy Outlook | Foley & Lardner LLP

[14] Id.

Nebraska is the Cornhusker State; not the Chinese solar panel state

Norfolk Mayor Josh Manning declared that “the fuel is free” at the dedication of the 70-acre industrial solar development west of town.[1] The Mayor should know that there is no free lunch. He should also appreciate that the 8.5-megawatt development produces no power in the winter and at night. It is unreliable. To make matters even worse, on bright sunny days there is a distinct possibility of negative pricing where NPPD pays entities to take excess power off of its hands.[2]

Ratepayers might be surprised to learn that NPPD has a policy of net carbon zero by 2050.[3] Moreover, NPPD hasn’t told its customer-owners the true cost of wind and solar. Germany has pursued net carbon zero for a number of years and its electricity price is three times the US average.[4] McKinsey & Company estimates that the global energy transition would require an additional capital expenditure of $3.5 trillion per year. That’s equal to half of all global corporate profits.[5]

Nebraskans fully appreciate that our land is our most valuable resource. Will Rogers famously said, “Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff.” Why would productive Nebraska land be used for inefficient electricity production? The Greens never tell people that their net carbon zero dream would require a land area roughly twice the size of California.[6]

NPPD bragged that it was able to take delivery on its Chinese solar panels before supply chain disruptions.[7] The disruptions were probably due to the fact the Department of Commerce moved against Asian manufacturers who were avoiding US tariffs on Chinese goods.[8] Now that the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is law, it will remain difficult to take delivery on solar panels.[9]  US policy prevents the purchase of products made by slaves. Nebraskans have always cared about human rights. Article I, section 2 of our constitution prohibits slavery.[10]

The extremely generous federal income tax credit is what drives American companies to do business with entities that benefit from slave labor. We should have learned during the pandemic that handing our economy over to the Chinese is the height of foolishness.

Nebraska is the Cornhusker State; not the Chinese solar panel state. NPPD should abandon its anti-American net carbon zero policy. We have plenty of American nuclear, coal and natural gas to power our economy and at reasonable rates. Let’s keep the low rates that public power promises.

David D. Begley

Omaha.

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[1] https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/06/23/norfolk-celebrates-completion-of-nebraskas-largest-solar-power-farm/

[2] 12.3 The Curious Case of the Negative Prices | EBF 483: Introduction to Electricity Markets (psu.edu)

[3] News Release: NPPD Board approves net-zero carbon goal by 2050

[4] What German households pay for power | Clean Energy Wire.

SAS Output (eia.gov)

[5] The Net-Zero Transition. What it would cost, what it could bring, McKinsey & Co., January 2022.

[6] Q&A: Renewable resistance – American Experiment

[7] Note 1 supra.

[8] https://www.utilitydive.com/news/commerce-department-kicks-off-1-year-solar-tariff-investigation-on-panels-i/621153/

[9] https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/20/china-us-law-against-uyghur-forced-labor-takes-effect

[10] Nebraska Legislature

Will OPPD do the Right Thing?

By David D. Begley

In speeches, President Obama frequently commented on policy issues by stating, “That’s not who we are.” As a lifelong Nebraskan, I have a good idea about what my fellow Nebraskans value. We want integrity in our government. We also want our elected officials to mostly reflect our values and opinions. Right now, the OPPD Board is not doing either.  

Platteview Solar, LLC, a subsidiary of Community Energy, Inc., is currently building an 81MW solar facility on 500 leased acres in Saunders County near Yutan.[1] OPPD has a power purchase agreement with Platteview Solar, LLC. By legal means, I tried to get a copy of the agreement between the solar facility developer and OPPD but was unsuccessful. I was particularly interested in learning if there was a provision in the contract requiring OPPD to pay other entities money to take electricity off of its hands when there is a surplus. It’s called negative pricing.[2] This bizarre economic arrangement is common in such deals.  

During public meetings about the Yutan project, my rallying cry was, “Nebraska is the Cornhusker State; not the Chinese solar panel state.”  China is America’s number one adversary. It is bad enough that China dominates the solar panel market and gets the revenue, but the worst of it is that Chinese slaves are integral to the manufacturing of solar panels. That’s a gross abuse of human rights. Nebraskans care about human rights.

An American solar panel manufacturer filed a complaint with the Department of Commerce over this state of affairs.[3] Remarkably, the Biden Commerce Department eventually acted pursuant to what is known as antidumping rules. These rules prohibit China from circumventing tariffs and import rules by shipping solar products to other countries like Vietnam.

The Commerce Department’s action created a firestorm in the solar industry. It turns out that something like 75% of US solar panels are essentially made in China. And that probably means slave labor. While it is unknown to me exactly which company will supply the Yutan solar project with solar panels, the odds suggest a China connection.

On June 6, 2022, the Biden Administration caved to pressure from the Green lobby.[4] It paused, for two years, tariffs on solar panels from Asia.

A subsidiary of NextEra Energy has proposed a 3,200-acre solar development near Murray.[5] Cass County has imposed a moratorium on the project. What is worth noting here is that NextEra Energy was recently fined $8 million dollars by the federal court in Wyoming for killing American eagles over a number of years. The company was also sentenced to sixty months of probation.[6] There’s no other way to slice it other than to say that NextEra Energy is a criminal enterprise.

One may ask why an American company would kill American eagles? The simple answer is money. Wind and solar developments generate generous federal income tax credits. That supercharges the economic returns for these so-called Green projects. The real green, however, shows up in the bonuses and stock options that corporate executives make on these deals. In other words, greed drives all of these solar and wind projects. Saving the planet is just the cover story of what is really going on here.

On June 16, 2022, I will present the OPPD Board with a proposed resolution asking it to do the right thing. I’ll ask OPPD not to do business with big time criminals and entities that benefit from slave labor. This means ignoring Joe Biden’s recent Executive Order. Two-thirds of Nebraskans disapprove of Joe Biden’s job performance.[7] Nebraskans expect their local government officials to act in the interests of Nebraskans and ignore corrupt orders from the federal government.

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[1] OPPD inks agreement with developer for solar farm in Saunders County; it would be Nebraska’s largest | Local News | omaha.com

[2] The causes and effects of negative power prices | Clean Energy Wire

[3] BREAKING: Dept. of Commerce to move forward with solar anticircumvention investigation – pv magazine USA (pv-magazine-usa.com)

[4] BREAKING: Biden Admin to pause new solar tariffs for two years – pv magazine USA (pv-magazine-usa.com)

[5] Cass County solar farm plans unveiled | News | kmaland.com

[6] Wind energy company pleads guilty after at least 150 eagles killed in U.S. (nbcnews.com)

[7] https://civiqs.com/results/approve_president_biden?uncertainty=true&annotations=true&zoomIn=true&home_state=Nebraska

Sheryl Sandberg is running for President

Biden isn’t running again. Zuckerberg won’t allow it. He’s dispatched Sheryl Sandberg to take that job.

SS is set to remarry. Her new husband is a former “journalist” who runs a branding company. The branding has already started. SS is upset about the repeal of Roe and Casey. She will do something and make a difference.

SS is most certainly a Green. The Planet must be saved. SS will be the historic first woman president and break the glass ceiling that Hillary couldn’t. She’s also relatively young and business competent with no history of votes on the Senate floor.

What’s not to like if you are a Dem?

The two main purposes of the Second Amendment

Recently America has suffered more mass shootings in New York, Texas and Oklahoma. It seems as if these terrible events are growing in frequency. People demand solutions and politicians will inevitably propose various gun control laws. Other proposed solutions might include increasing security at schools and, perhaps, more mental health services.

But before we go down the gun control path, it is beneficial to consider two fundamental purposes of the Second Amendment.

Self-defense. The saying “when seconds counts, the police are minutes away” is true if you live in rural Cherry County, Nebraska or Charleston, West Virginia. Just last week a guy showed up with a rifle at a Charleston party and started shooting. A woman with a handgun shot him before he killed anyone. If this woman wouldn’t have been armed, many innocents would have been killed. Recall the Rodney King and George Floyd riots. The cops lost control of many areas. Private gun ownership was the only way people could protect themselves and their property.

This leads the discussion to concealed carry. If a criminal suspects that other people at his proposed crime scene had guns, he’d be much less likely to commit the murders. The criminal might have a death wish, but they usually want to take out innocents before they go. That’s their sickness. It’s not pleasant to think about, but if teachers and other school staff have guns the likelihood of school shootings goes down.

Criminals will always find a way to get guns. Disarming the law-abiding is a bad idea.

Significant and wide-spread gun ownership is a check on the government. The people in Hong Kong and Shanghai would certainly like a Second Amendment right about now. The Chinese government breached its agreement with the UK and just took over Hong Kong. That same Chinese government recently locked people in their residences over its insane zero covid policy. Supposedly, people were starving in their homes although it is hard to know given the censorship in China. If the Chinese populace was armed, there is no way the Chinese government would be in power today.

If you believe – like the Founders – that our rights are given to us by God and not the government, then the Second Amendment is essential.

The Left loves to use the term “gun violence.” Like most of the slogans and phrases from the Left, it is wrong, imprecise and misleading. A gun doesn’t commit violence by itself. A person uses a gun to commit violence. Human agency is essential.

And let’s be honest. The Left has turned America into a morally decedent and failing society. The Left’s call to restrict gun ownership is really a way to coverup for its failures.

Trump-backed Candidate Beaten in Nebraska.

By David D. Begley

            Yesterday, Jim Pillen beat Charles W. Herbster in the Republican primary for Governor. The media will probably spin this as a defeat for Donald Trump since he had endorsed Herbster and Trump was 55-0 with his endorsements. I strongly disagree.

            Jim Pillen is an exceptionally impressive guy and he worked extremely hard on his campaign. Herbster? Not so much.

            People who follow sports know that there is a difference between a team losing and getting beaten. Pillen beat Herbster. Pillen was the clear underdog at the beginning and he out-smarted and out-worked Herbster even though Herbster had plenty of advantages on paper. As is often said, “The game isn’t played on paper.”

             Pillen held events in all 93 Nebraska counties. Nebraska is a giant state and he covered the full length and breadth of the state. He put 70,000 miles on his pickup truck in one year. He sought out people in Omaha and Lincoln and privately met with them. At the Election Day event, Jim credited his work ethic to his parents. His parents didn’t even own the farm where he grew up.  

            Pillen was endorsed by legendary football coach Tom Osborne and the popular and successful current Governor Pete Ricketts. Tom Osborne has to be the most beloved Nebraskan ever. Jim Pillen not only played football for the Cornhuskers, he was a star on the field and in the classroom.

            Dr. Tom (as we call him in Nebraska) not only did TV commercials for Pillen, he flew across the state on a very windy Monday in a small plane. Tom is 85 and that had to have been taxing.  

            Osborne is a funny guy. At an Omaha event the day before the election, he stated that he was the only person present who had run for Governor and lost.

            At that same event, Coach Osborne noted that Pillen was a two time All-Big Eight first teamer and an Academic All-American who was taking many of the same courses as the pre-med students were. Pillen could have “coasted” through college, but he had the smarts and ambition and knew that football fame was fleeting.

            After he graduated from UNL, Pillen earned his doctorate at Kansas State as a veterinarian. He later continued his parents’ hog farming operation and grew it into one of the largest ones in the country. In a super smart move, he also opened up a pig genetics business. This is a value-added field with a big upside. I’ve looked at the numbers of the public companies in this business segment and they are impressive. Pillen had the foresight to act and invest.

            By way of disclosure, I contributed to his campaign, held an event for him and walked in three parades with him. (Parades are a real Nebraska thing.) I’ve met his wife and daughter (a Creighton Law alum) and really like them.

            My distinct impression of Herbster is that he’s a really rich guy who wanted to be governor because he can. The Trump endorsement was essentially his main campaign issue. He spent over $11 million of his own money. It certainly looked as if he was trying to buy the seat. He ended up spending $150 per vote. Yeow!

            Pillen is also rich as he spent $1 million of his own money, but he also received financial support from 2,600 people. He wasn’t buying the seat.

            Herbster also used the campaign phrase, “Make Nebraska Great Again.” Other than in college football, Nebraska is currently great. As a lifelong Nebraskan, I resent the notion that Nebraska is anything other than a great place. Republicans have run the state for decades. Herbster is asserting that they’ve done a poor job. Governor Ricketts has done an excellent job, but there is more to be done.  

            The source of Herbster’s wealth is Conklin Company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Herbster is from the southeast part of the state. His home county – or at least Lincoln – could have been the HQ of his company, but he picked Missouri instead. Many people resented that.

            Herbster was certainly hurt by sexual assault allegations made against him, but I don’t think it was decisive. Pillen’s margin of victory was 10,000 votes or 4%. A sitting state Senator alleged that Herbster reached up her dress at a GOP event. Many people saw this. Other women said he grabbed their butts. Two women have been identified by name.

            Herbster’s main campaign consultant was Kellyanne Conway. She’s obviously has made a fortune on this campaign. In the last weeks of the campaign, Herbster ran ads stating that Governor Ricketts conspired with the state Senator to take down Herbster just like the Left did against Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh. That’s crazy.

            Herbster also ran ads accusing Pillen of not stopping Critical Race Theory at the University of Nebraska where Pillen is a Regent. In fact, Pillen offered a resolution banning CRT and it nearly passed. It looked to me that some Regents went wobbly on the issue when the Athletic Department and Chancellor pressured them; the idea being that banning CRT would hurt football recruiting. I later learned that UNL has seventeen people working in its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department; doing what I don’t know.

            I’m personally thrilled that Jim Pillen won. I’m confident he will be in favor of stopping OPPD from spending $28 billion by 2050 in order to build out more wind and solar. My two mantras are:

            Nebraska is the Cornhusker State; not the Chinese solar panel state.

            Do not crucify Nebraskans on a cross of wind turbine blades.

            Pillen was the better man and the better candidate. He really is the best of Nebraska. Pillen beat Trump and Herbster, just like when Pillen’s Cornhuskers beat the thought-to-be-unbeatable Oklahoma Sooners in 1978.        

Handing the ChiComs the Keys to Our Economy

December 29, 2021

            One would think that American politicians and American business would have learned one thing from the devastation of the Wuhan virus and that it is it an exceptionally bad idea to be economically dependent upon China and the murderers that run the CCP.

            Early on in the pandemic we found out that much of our personal protective equipment was manufactured in China. China – wisely protecting its own self-interest – stocked up on PPE before we placed our orders. Somehow, we muddled through but China made big bucks and there were temporary shortages in the US.  

            We then learned that many vital medicines are made in China. Thankfully, I’m not aware of many problems in this area. Less vital products, however, got stuck at sea. A long supply chain isn’t good for America.

            Two of our most important industries are transportation and utilities. Both are vital to our prosperity and both are primarily sourced in North America. Utilities are uniquely all-American at this time. But the Green Agenda of the Dems and the greed and shortsightedness of some American businesspeople are driving us into an unforced error of epic proportions.

            Currently, there is a big push towards electric vehicles (EVs). Certainly, there is a demand for EVs amongst virtue signaling rich people but I’m not convinced there is mass demand. There is the range problem which is even more acute in the wide expanse of cold climate Northern Plains states like Nebraska. In the winter, I couldn’t drive a Tesla across Nebraska without stopping for a time-consuming charge.

            Wall Street, however, is projecting that EVs will dominate the future of transportation. Tesla famously has a market capitalization of one trillion dollars which is multiples of the Big Three automakers. Rivian, a start-up EV truck manufacturer, has a current market capitalization of $90 billion compared to Ford’s $83 billion.

            Auto executives have uniformly committed to the EV market. Ford, for example, has pledged to have half of its global production to be EVs in eight short years. This decision is driven by both economics and government subsidies. If an automaker has a higher sticker price, it has a better gross margin. Federal income tax credits allowed Tesla to get off the ground and rocket into the market cap lead. The BBB bill had generous tax subsidies for EVs and even more free money for car buyers if their EV was made by a union shop. The tax credit masks the high price to the consumer and, in effect, means the middle class is subsidizing the rich all in the name of the saving the planet. BBB also had money for government-built electric charging stations.

            EVs need lithium for batteries and rare earth elements for other components. China is the largest producer of lithium and manufactures 80% of all lithium batteries. The International Energy Association reported that the average EV needs over two pounds of rare earth elements.  On December 3, 2021, it was announced that the CCP was consolidating its rare earth companies into one entity. With China owning 85% of the global rare earth mineral supply, it’s hello monopoly and cartel pricing.

            Many US utilities are committing to net carbon zero by 2050. In Nebraska, both Omaha Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District have done so. In order to achieve that goal, there will have to be a radical transformation to solar and wind power. For OPPD, I calculated that it would have to spend (and borrow) $41 billion. That, of course, means much higher power prices.

            For wind power, the IEA predicts that the demand for rare earth minerals in wind turbines will more than triple by 2040. On the solar front, much of the world’s polysilicon is mined by Uyghur slaves in China. Human rights? Who cares!

            I’ve told the OPPD Board of Directors that we ratepayers must not be crucified on a cross of wind turbine blades. If the EV and Green Power trends continue, America will be handing over the keys to our economy to the ChiComs. This is an incredibly stupid idea and puts America last.

David D. Begley

The Seven Deadly Sins of Today’s Liberals

I used to be a liberal back in undergrad and law school at Creighton University. Like Churchill, I “woke” up when I became older. So, I have a fairly good understanding of the liberal mind and what liberalism used to be like. Below is my take on the the main sins of today’s liberalism.

1. CAGW. Catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. Libs assert that CAGW is a “snarl” word used by global warming denialists. Let’s examine the phrase “global warming denialist.” The only other context I have seen the word “denialist” used was for people who denied the historic event of the Holocaust. Those denialists are truly nuts, but the Left wants to transfer that lunacy onto people who are skeptics of global warming.

It first needs to be recognized what CAGW is. It is a prediction about events in the far distant future based upon flawed models and corrupt data. As a matter of law, fraud can never be premised on a future event so Al Gore can’t be sued. But there is a historical record of how wrong the warmists have been in predicting the end of the world as we know it. The facts show that they have been wrong for over 50 years, so why are they right now? The Libs can never answer that question.

I well recall when James Hanson from NASA spoke to a large group of students at Creighton University. One female undergrad was quite frightened by the picture of doom (including a slide of the Statue of Liberty underwater!) and asked Hanson “when Earth will be uninhabitable.” As I wrote on Power Line on April 30, 2016, “Hansen assured her that would not happen in her lifetime but it was still an emergency. Act now!” Fraud, pure and simple.

One thing that people need to realize is that the entire CAGW scam is premised on money. The politicians enact federal income tax credits. The beneficiaries of the tax credits – the solar, wind and EV industries and rich people who buy the tax shelters – then make big contributions to the politicians. The academy gets giant government grants to keep pushing the flawed models. It’s a daisy chain of corruption.

But first it must be noted that Net Zero Carbon has been tried in Europe and it has been an expensive and spectacular failure. Germany has electricity rates that are three times as much as the US average. McKinsey issued a report in October 2021 that it will cost the Germans six trillion euros to achieve Net Zero Carbon.

Using OPPD’s own numbers and that of the EIA, I estimated that it will cost OPPD $41 billion to achieve net carbon zero. To my great astonishment, OPPD is committed to Net Carbon Zero but had no advance estimate of what it would cost ratepayers. For the Green Zealots on the OPPD Board, no amount of money is too much to save the planet.

The real insanity here is that the poor and middle class will be paying much more for power but rich people like Omaha’s Warren Buffett can buy partnership interests in wind and solar developments and claim a 26% federal income tax credit in year one. Fair? Moral?

My battle cry on this issue has been, “Do not crucify Americans on a cross of wind turbine blades!”

2. Race and, in particular, Critical Race Theory. The Left wants to divide us into tribes, conquer us and then become the permanent ruling class. I’m convinced that tribalism is hard-wired into the human brain. Think Nebraska v. Iowa in football or Creighton v. Nebraska in basketball. In sports, it is fun and harmless to be in different tribes.

But the identity politics of today’s tribalism is different because, frankly, it promotes hate.

A prime example of this is the 1619 Project of Notre Dame alum Nicole Hannah-Jones. Her “scholarship” on the origins of America and our Revolutionary War has been thoroughly debunked but she has persisted in her error. Why? It’s too lucrative!

CRT can be summarized as dividing us into the Oppressor class (whites) against the Victim class (people of color). It is very much contrary to the color-blind meritocracy that America has become.

University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen tried to stop CRT, but was unsuccessful. The Academy is too deeply invested in it. When the debate was raging I went to UNL’s website and learned that about 17 people work in the diversity and inclusion office on the Lincoln campus. Scam.

Bill Clinton was a master of both identity politics and CAGW. I’ll never forget when he was campaigning in Omaha for his wife and said that if Hillary got elected she would place solar and wind developments on Indian reservations and “we will all get rich.” His rich liberal friends certainly would get even richer by avoiding federal income taxes but the people in that room were not tax shelter buyers. That I can tell you.

3. Transsexuality. This didn’t really exist ten years ago but it is now a cause celebre for the Left. Certainly there are a small number of people who really have this mental illness, but now it is a fad that is moving into the masses; even in Omaha. The fad is particularly acute with young females. Abgail Shrier wrote a book about this and has been vilified to an extraordinary degree.

The real harm here is that some young people are being given powerful drugs and, in some cases, even surgery when they are minors. It seems clear to me that this should be prohibited by law until a person reaches age 21. If a person can’t buy a drink until age 21 and can’t vote until age 18, it seems to be common sense that young people (even with parental consent) shouldn’t be able to undergo irreversible changes to their bodies. Whatever happened to the liberal idea of protecting children? Liberals and progressives gave us child labor laws, but look where they are now.

My youngest daughter was the captain of her high school swimming team. Sports are a great thing for girls and young women. If biological males are allowed to compete against women, all the gains by first wave feminists will be lost.

4. Censorship. Back when I was a liberal, I appreciated Free Speech. Freedom of Speech is a core American value. It sharpens the mind and helps critical thinking. The liberals at Cal Berkeley really created the Free Speech movement in America.

Today the Left censors speech that it disagrees with. Alex Berenson got kicked off of Twitter because he published detailed and factual posts about covid. Amazon bans books. Facebook is also big into censorship and labelling dissenting views as misinformation.

In the 2020 election, the media and social media censored and covered up the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Many people who voted for Biden had no idea that Joe has been bribed by foreign countries. That is totally astounding to me.

Another aspect of this is the authoritarianism of today’s Liberals. This has been a key feature in all the covid mandates.

5. Open borders. Nebraska has a population of 1.8 million. Over two million people have illegally entered this country in 2021. The first duty of American politicians is to the American people. Our country has no legal or moral duty to let foreigners enter this country illegally. We won’t have a country if this continues.

The other aspect of open borders is the free flow of deadly drugs. Deaths from fentanyl have reached record numbers and that’s because it is easy for the drug cartels to move them into the US since the borders are open.

The press, of course, ignores all of the above and liberals seem to be happy with the death and destruction of Americans and America.

6. Crime. Liberals have installed Democrat county attorneys in key urban jurisdictions. In California, retail theft has been decriminalized. One of the main elements of “criminal justice reform” is the reduction or elimination of cash bail. The results have been deadly and predictable. America has seen a crime wave that we have never seen before.

The Democrat candidates for county attorney in Omaha and Lincoln are proponents of criminal justice reform; whatever that means. All I know is that both cities will be turned into Chicago if they win.

7. The Personal is Political. This phrase was popular back in the 60s and it has been revived. The Left doesn’t seem to understand that many rational and educated people have good reasons to disagree with their political views. We conservatives think that today’s liberals are misguided (at best) and, if their policies are enacted America will suffer. We conservatives want what is best for the US and, in particular, for our children and grandchildren.

The Left, on the other hand, asserts that we conservatives are bad people who are full of hate. Nothing could be further from the truth.

To show how widespread this problem is, here’s something that happened to me this year. The daughter of the woman I was dating told her Mom, “I’d rather you become a lesbian than continue to date Dave Begley.” Well, we did break up but politics wasn’t the reason. And the Mom has not become a lesbian.

A prime example of this is the vile and disgusting movie “The Brain Washing of My Dad.” The premise is that the producer’s father was a liberal (like the rest of the family) until he started listening to talk radio and watching Fox News. Then he became a mean and nasty conservative. His views were abhorrent and socially unacceptable. But at least his family didn’t disown him.

Like most movies, it has a happy ending. When dad became older, his wife hid the TV remote from him. He then reverted to his former sweet and loving liberal self. Family harmony restored! But the money-grubbing daughter omitted the fact that her dad was senile at that point as certainly a sentient person could find the TV remote.

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I don’t have much hope that Liberals will change. Their political views are a religion to them notwithstanding how harmful and reprehensible they are. The thing of it is that they control the popular culture, the media (social and traditional) and the academy. My view is that conservatives will have to fight especially hard in the future in order to keep our freedoms and our wonderful country.

David D. Begley

Do not crucify OPPD ratepayers on a cross of wind turbine blades.

Omaha Public Power District has sales of $1 billion. It has over $5 billion in assets. It supplies electricity – an essential commodity – to over 800,000 people in eastern Nebraska. It is a large and important Nebraska enterprise.

          On October 27, 2021, a management-prepared report detailed how OPPD is going to achieve the Board’s goal of net carbon zero by 2050. In order to do this, OPPD would have to radically change its power mix and its way of doing business.

          I’m confident that I’m one of the few customer-owners that read the OPPD report. Much to my astonishment, there was no dollar estimate of how much it is going to cost to achieve the net carbon zero goal. This is simply astounding. As the saying goes, this is no way to run a railroad.

          I can’t imagine a single billion-dollar corporation proposing to undertake such a dramatic change without an up-front cost estimate. But OPPD is not a corporation; it is a governmental subdivision. As such, the Board of Directors is publicly elected. And sad to say, the majority of the eight-person Board is comprised of Green Zealots who have no concern what it will cost OPPD ratepayers in order to save the planet.

          And make no mistake about it. OPPD will radically transform its power mix. OPPD now gets 5 MW and 973 MW, respectively, from solar and wind. By 2050, that could increase to 18,718 MW and 6,573 MW of unreliable solar and wind.[1] Direct and indirect land usage could be 913 square miles.[2]

          Right now, OPPD’s Board is proposing to undertake a massive change without the foggiest notion of the cost.

          At the September 2021 OPPD Board meeting I specifically told the directors that they needed to look at how Green energy has failed in Europe. Germany has been pursuing a net carbon zero policy for a number of years and as a result Germany’s electricity costs are three times the average in the United States. It is fair to say that OPPD’s ratepayers don’t want a 200% increase. This is the worst type of regressive tax as everyone needs electricity. The OPPD report, however, projected only a 16% increase in rates by 2050.[3] This is not realistic.

          In an October 2021 report, the consulting company McKinsey estimated that Germany would need to spend an additional 6 trillion euros in order to achieve its net carbon zero goal by 2045.[4]

          It is the ultimate liberal folly for the OPPD Board to think that whatever OPPD does will make one bit of difference in saving the planet. OPPD generates 2.7 megawatts of electricity. China is currently planning or building coal-fired power plants that will generate 247 gigawatts of power.[5]

          I asked the Board to include a realistic estimate of the cost to ratepayers of going Green. The duty of the OPPD Board is to provide reliable and low-cost power; not to save the planet regardless of the cost. I urge other customer-owners to contact the elected directors and ask that due diligence be performed before OPPD starts spending billions of our money.

          To paraphrase William Jennings Bryan, Nebraska’s only nominee for the presidency, do not crucify OPPD ratepayers on a cross of wind turbine blades.

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[1] Pathways to Decarbonization slides, October 27, 2021, at 79-80.

[2] Id. at 39.

[3] Id. at 26.

[4] http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/net-zero-germany-chances-and-challenges-on-the-path-to-climate-neutrality-by-2045

[5] Despite Pledges to Cut Emissions, China Goes on a Coal Spree – Yale E360