Editorial, submitted by Director Marvin Fishler

I am a member of Southern Public Power District’s board of Directors, having served in this capacity for 11 years. I take a strong interest in the political activities on the state and national level. Today I find myself very concerned about how potential national policies will affect the cost of your electricity.

One of the policies currently under discussion nationally is a carbon cap-and-trade program, which would place a “cap” on the emissions of carbon dioxide. The emission of carbon dioxide from electric power generating plants is a key part of legislation dealing with global warming. Those who use fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas—such as power generating plants—would be mandated to acquire allowances for emitting carbon dioxide through a trade program down to a federally set cap. Initially, all carbon dioxide emissions would be taxed up to this cap level. Such a program would significantly raise the price of electric generation from coal, natural gas and oil. The result unfortunately is a hidden tax that would significantly increase the rates that you must pay for electricity—potentially tripling rates for some customers across the United States. Take a look at your next bill from Southern to see what that would mean!

To further examine the issue, and specifically how it would affect Nebraskans, consider that 65 percent of our state’s generation is currently produced from coal. This means that the cost to produce well over half of our generation would take a direct hit from a cap-and-trade bill. Add to that the increases expected in natural gas—which produces an additional 2.4 percent of our electric generation and the resulting increases to your electric bill will be significant.

The Institute for Energy Research has also acknowledged that a cap-and-trade program is designed to unfairly target rural economies. Their studies show that either a carbon tax or cap and trade program would transfer wealth from rural areas—where people drive more and use more energy—to more densely populated urban areas.

Although clean air is an important issue, the potential harm of a cap-and-trade program or any kind of carbon tax is a concern to me. I want all electric consumers to ask themselves some important questions: Is NOW the time to enact climate change legislation? Can we afford to pay for the resulting increases to our electric bills? Do we want Wall Street to trade these carbon credits?

We need to speak out to our elected representatives in Washington about this issue. I urge you to join me in participating in the Our Energy, Our Future campaign. We need the voices of Nebraskans to join with over 1 million voices from across the nation to speak out. Our message must be that while addressing global warming issues, “we must keep our electric rates affordable”. I urge you to log on to www.southernpd.com/oeof and express your concerns to Congressman Adrian Smith or Jeff Fortenberry, and Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns.

Marvin Fishler, Central City