Are You Prepared To Pay More For Electricity?

Last week, President Obama announced plans to confront the growing threat of climate change.  He wants to cut carbon pollution by reducing the use of coal to produce electricity.  ”Carbon pollution is contributing to a higher risk of asthma attacks and more frequent and severe storms, floods, heat waves, and wildfires, driving up food prices and threatening our communities.” 

Almost 2/3 of Nebraska’s energy is produced by coal.  Mr. President, what will happen to our electricity prices if you are successful in reducing the use of generating units that use our cheapest resource?  Won’t that drive up food prices and threaten our communities? 

A researcher just published a new study that says chlorofluorocarbons are to blame for global warming since the 1970’s.  By demonstrating the link between CFCs, ozone depletion and temperature changes in the Antarctic, Professor Qing-Bin Lu was able to draw almost perfect correlation between rising global surface temperatures and CFCs in the atmosphere.  Please see May 30^th’s complete article at www.sciencedaily.com.

My point is….one study says this, another says that.   Think of it this way:  there’s a strong correlation between the crowing of a rooster and sunrise.  It doesn’t mean his crowing made the sun come up.  However, if locked in a dark room, one might use the rooster’s crow as an indicator that sunrise has occurred.   We believe a study that best fits our own value system.  We see things not as THEY ARE, but as WE ARE. 

What if the science is not as solid as some would have us believe (we are locked in a dark room).  The correlation between CO2 levels and temperature has been disputed on both sides over the past  40 years.  How sound is the science?  If Dr. Lu has found an independent variable that correlates much better with global temperatures than does carbon, I think we should consider it a valid predictor (the rooster crowing at sunrise) until someone can find a better one.

Ask yourself what will happen if you open your electric bill and it’s three times more than it used to be for the same amount of kilowatt hours AFTER Obama pushed his climate agenda all the way through congress.  Will you blame Dawson Power? 

I’m not against a greener planet.  I’m against pushing an agenda so hard and so fast, that we can’t recover from the negative financial impact it creates on our families, our farms, our communities, and Nebraska.  The price of electricity affects EVERYTHING.  

Gwen Kautz, General Manager

The POWER to Kill

Part of our job at Dawson PPD is to educate people about electrical safety.  Sounds simple enough, but that’s the sort of thing that nags at you late at night when you can’t sleep.  It is a fine line… Do too much educating and you become the dreaded hall monitor with your pointer finger waving in the air.  On the other hand, if you don’t push safety education enough, someone may lose their life.

The other day I read an article about two high school students in Illinois who lost their lives trying to save a raccoon that had crawled into a piece of irrigation pipe.  They raised the pipe in hopes of freeing the rodent, but when it came into contact with a power line they were electrocuted.  In that instant, life changed.  Two families lost their sons.  Classmates lost their friends and had to face the harsh reality that “it COULD actually happen to them.”  Had the young men not heard about safety near power lines or was it a momentary lapse in judgment with a catastrophic consequence?  We (the employees of Dawson PPD) don’t want a similar accident to happen here.

We love to be able to teach electrical safety to people of all ages.  We’ve talked to county roads department employees and students all across ‘Dawsonland.’  Perhaps one of our favorite opportunities is the Farm Safety Day Camp in North Platte where we can teach 400 kids about electrical safety.  As we explain electrical safety, we tell the kids to pass the message on to their friends and families.

Several years ago, I talked to a young man who had heard the electrical safety message at a farm safety event.  His name was Patrick.  While doing spring field work, Patrick got a little too close to a power line with the farm equipment he was using.  He knew that he was safe in the tractor that he was driving.  He stayed in the tractor until a lineman came and made sure the line was no longer energized. We know that Patrick got the message.  He shared his story with others in hopes that it would keep them safe too.  Although we would rather that people didn’t run into power lines or our poles, we need more people like Patrick that know what to do if it does happen.   

So, please don’t “tune out” when Dawson PPD promotes electrical safety.  We’ll try not to nag… but this stuff is important.  It can be the difference between life and death.

Marsha Banzhaf, Public Relations Coordinator
Dawson Public Power District