More than seven years ago, Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) agreed to shut down these plants and create alternate sources to generate and provide electricity.
Now OPPD states it cannot shut down the coal-burning plant in 2023 as promised, maybe by 2026, and they are careful not to say an exact date. They did not keep their 2014 promise, of nine years ago, and they refuse to guarantee a shutdown three years from now in 2026. How can the North Omaha Community be assured of anything close to 2026?
On, December 8, 2022, Preston Love stated, “I share an important issue affecting all of Omaha but critically affecting North Omaha residents. Coal burning creates toxic air and many other public health issues. According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, coal plants are responsible for 42% of U.S. mercury emissions, a toxic heavy metal that can damage the nervous, digestive, and immune systems, and is a serious threat to a child’s development.”
The OPPD plants-via its large smokestacks in North Omaha-are in our backyard and are spewing the toxic chemicals directly into our community. The magnitude of costs to North Omaha residents and health disparities is enormous and should be chronicled.1
Along with many North Omaha residents and leaders, Preston Love helped to form an ad hoc committee of environmental and health experts, advocates, and community representatives to deal directly with OPPD. The purpose of the Committee: Force real, meaningful community updates and dialogue; Develop jointly, a plan of action with measurable time milestones; Develop a meaningful dialogue and accountability as to the new OPPD target date, and; To assess the health and economic damage laid on North Omaha and its residents in the past and going forward until coal burning is ceased at the North Omaha plant.
In response to the formation of the North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee, OPPD agreed to meet with the committee, and host community discussions. To satisfy the request of the Committee, OPPD immediately held several meetings in continuing conversations with the North Omaha community as to the date for changing two coal-powered units at the North Omaha Station to natural gas shifts to 2026 instead of the end of this year, 2023. For OPPD, it was important to share the challenges they face in bringing the new generators online. These issues include workforce and supply chain.
“We want the community to understand the why. We don’t want folks to become electrical engineers. We don’t want them to understand all the nuances. But we want them to understand that there are specific processes and steps that have to occur to ensure safe and reliable operations, and those steps are delayed,” said VP of Systems Transformation Brad Underwood.2
After OPPD’s initial gestures of supposedly meaningful interactions, OPPD quickly resorted to a combination of restrained communications, indifference, and mediocrity, which is business-as-usual for anything having a severe impact on North Omaha. Feeling that OPPD’s incompetence and negligence were no longer a featured “headline” for local mainstream print and broadcast media and that the roaring fire caused by community activists had been reduced to a simmer; OPPD is back to business-as-usual as a perpetrator of environmental racism and economic injustice which is the habitual customaries with anything that affects North Omaha.
Instead of continued dialogue/conversations/discussions with the North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee, and residents of the North Omaha community regarding the OPPD North Omaha Coal Plant, OPPD is spending millions on their New Near Term Generation proposal. OPPD has launched a major media relations campaign, hosting (paying for) full-page ads in the Omaha World-Herald, plus television ads, and social media advertisements to promote their “Near Term Generation” proposal.
The New Near Term Generation proposal is supposed to add a significant amount of more gas and renewable energy to the OPPD system over the next 10 years. However, it is hard to believe this, since OPPD has not fulfilled its last renewable energy commitment, set in 2019. Not fulfilling its promises is an OPPD pattern.
Instead of launching a million-dollar media relations campaign on the “proposed” OPPD New Term Generation proposal, why doesn’t OPPD launch a million-dollar health and wellness plan for “actual” victims of its coal plants in North Omaha?
Residents of North Omaha have been forced to breathe pollution from the North Omaha Station’s coal-fired plants for generations;
Residents of North Omaha, which has a large minority community have had to bear extreme economic loss due to health/medical issues related to diseases created by the pollution that has most likely been perpetrated by the continuous production of pollution from the North Omaha Coal Plants;
While people who do not live in North Omaha, residents in-state and out-of-state, reap the benefits of low-cost and reliable power that OPPD has been generating from its coal plants but have not incurred any of the related health risks.
OPPD is planning on spending $2 billion on the New Term generation. Why doesn’t OPPD, spend a portion on investing in energy efficiency in North Omaha? One (1) percent of those billions ($20 million) could be used to help the people of North Omaha reduce their energy bills and make their homes more comfortable and safer from the coal pollution generated by its coal plants. Where is the investment in target solar projects in North Omaha?
OPPD has a program that is supposed to help low-income customers reduce their energy burden. However, it has failed to reach the goals they set for their own program, which is another example of unkept promises from OPPD.
OPPD residential customers will be facing 10 % or more rate increases as a result of this $2 billion investment in New Near Generation. How will OPPD address this increased burden placed on low-income customers?
The North Omaha Community is not going to allow the issue of another unkept promise to be swept under the rug. It is not going to be business as usual.
The North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee is continuing its efforts to educate and bring attention to the problems of OPPD’s smoking North Omaha Coal Plant. The Committee has acquired five and looking to acquire five more Purple Air Monitors and will strategically place these monitors throughout North Omaha to obtain data, compile and publish the data obtained. Thereby, helping North Omaha residents, and clients of OPPD to know when the quality of air is good or bad, and the risks of going out versus staying inside. We need this type of knowledge to protect our children, our elders, and particularly those with respiratory health concerns.
The Committee has gone from the initial start-up membership of 7-8 members to more than 75 members/organizations. The Committee has begun to involve environmental agencies/persons, community leaders/representatives, social injustice activists, and educators. In addition, we are extremely excited that we now have young members from OPS and other metro STEM programs participating and being actively involved in the study of the Purple Aire Monitors.
The Committee is planning on beginning a North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee newsletter in the very new future.
Cheryl Weston, North Omaha Community Advocate for the betterment of North Omaha
1 Community leader and activist Preston Love Jr. ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD, December 8, 2022
2 Molly Hudson, KMTV, February 21, 2023
On, December 8, 2022, Preston Love stated, “I share an important issue affecting all of Omaha but critically affecting North Omaha residents. Coal burning creates toxic air and many other public health issues. According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, coal plants are responsible for 42% of U.S. mercury emissions, a toxic heavy metal that can damage the nervous, digestive, and immune systems, and is a serious threat to a child’s development.”
The OPPD plants-via its large smokestacks in North Omaha-are in our backyard and are spewing the toxic chemicals directly into our community. The magnitude of costs to North Omaha residents and health disparities is enormous and should be chronicled.1
Along with many North Omaha residents and leaders, Preston Love helped to form an ad hoc committee of environmental and health experts, advocates, and community representatives to deal directly with OPPD. The purpose of the Committee: Force real, meaningful community updates and dialogue; Develop jointly, a plan of action with measurable time milestones; Develop a meaningful dialogue and accountability as to the new OPPD target date, and; To assess the health and economic damage laid on North Omaha and its residents in the past and going forward until coal burning is ceased at the North Omaha plant.
In response to the formation of the North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee, OPPD agreed to meet with the committee, and host community discussions. To satisfy the request of the Committee, OPPD immediately held several meetings in continuing conversations with the North Omaha community as to the date for changing two coal-powered units at the North Omaha Station to natural gas shifts to 2026 instead of the end of this year, 2023. For OPPD, it was important to share the challenges they face in bringing the new generators online. These issues include workforce and supply chain.
“We want the community to understand the why. We don’t want folks to become electrical engineers. We don’t want them to understand all the nuances. But we want them to understand that there are specific processes and steps that have to occur to ensure safe and reliable operations, and those steps are delayed,” said VP of Systems Transformation Brad Underwood.2
After OPPD’s initial gestures of supposedly meaningful interactions, OPPD quickly resorted to a combination of restrained communications, indifference, and mediocrity, which is business-as-usual for anything having a severe impact on North Omaha. Feeling that OPPD’s incompetence and negligence were no longer a featured “headline” for local mainstream print and broadcast media and that the roaring fire caused by community activists had been reduced to a simmer; OPPD is back to business-as-usual as a perpetrator of environmental racism and economic injustice which is the habitual customaries with anything that affects North Omaha.
Instead of continued dialogue/conversations/discussions with the North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee, and residents of the North Omaha community regarding the OPPD North Omaha Coal Plant, OPPD is spending millions on their New Near Term Generation proposal. OPPD has launched a major media relations campaign, hosting (paying for) full-page ads in the Omaha World-Herald, plus television ads, and social media advertisements to promote their “Near Term Generation” proposal.
The New Near Term Generation proposal is supposed to add a significant amount of more gas and renewable energy to the OPPD system over the next 10 years. However, it is hard to believe this, since OPPD has not fulfilled its last renewable energy commitment, set in 2019. Not fulfilling its promises is an OPPD pattern.
Instead of launching a million-dollar media relations campaign on the “proposed” OPPD New Term Generation proposal, why doesn’t OPPD launch a million-dollar health and wellness plan for “actual” victims of its coal plants in North Omaha?
Residents of North Omaha have been forced to breathe pollution from the North Omaha Station’s coal-fired plants for generations;
Residents of North Omaha, which has a large minority community have had to bear extreme economic loss due to health/medical issues related to diseases created by the pollution that has most likely been perpetrated by the continuous production of pollution from the North Omaha Coal Plants;
While people who do not live in North Omaha, residents in-state and out-of-state, reap the benefits of low-cost and reliable power that OPPD has been generating from its coal plants but have not incurred any of the related health risks.
OPPD is planning on spending $2 billion on the New Term generation. Why doesn’t OPPD, spend a portion on investing in energy efficiency in North Omaha? One (1) percent of those billions ($20 million) could be used to help the people of North Omaha reduce their energy bills and make their homes more comfortable and safer from the coal pollution generated by its coal plants. Where is the investment in target solar projects in North Omaha?
OPPD has a program that is supposed to help low-income customers reduce their energy burden. However, it has failed to reach the goals they set for their own program, which is another example of unkept promises from OPPD.
OPPD residential customers will be facing 10 % or more rate increases as a result of this $2 billion investment in New Near Generation. How will OPPD address this increased burden placed on low-income customers?
The North Omaha Community is not going to allow the issue of another unkept promise to be swept under the rug. It is not going to be business as usual.
The North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee is continuing its efforts to educate and bring attention to the problems of OPPD’s smoking North Omaha Coal Plant. The Committee has acquired five and looking to acquire five more Purple Air Monitors and will strategically place these monitors throughout North Omaha to obtain data, compile and publish the data obtained. Thereby, helping North Omaha residents, and clients of OPPD to know when the quality of air is good or bad, and the risks of going out versus staying inside. We need this type of knowledge to protect our children, our elders, and particularly those with respiratory health concerns.
The Committee has gone from the initial start-up membership of 7-8 members to more than 75 members/organizations. The Committee has begun to involve environmental agencies/persons, community leaders/representatives, social injustice activists, and educators. In addition, we are extremely excited that we now have young members from OPS and other metro STEM programs participating and being actively involved in the study of the Purple Aire Monitors.
The Committee is planning on beginning a North Omaha Ad Hoc Committee newsletter in the very new future.
Cheryl Weston, North Omaha Community Advocate for the betterment of North Omaha
1 Community leader and activist Preston Love Jr. ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD, December 8, 2022
2 Molly Hudson, KMTV, February 21, 2023
