Nebraska has yet to even begin to reach its potential as an industry producer.
With the completion of the Aurora West ethanol plant in Aurora later this year, Nebraska will be producing more than 2 billion gallons of ethanol annually — second best in the nation behind Iowa.
State entrepreneurs and public officials are beginning to make the dream of Nebraska tapping into its huge wind energy potential (fourth best in the United States) with both small and large scale wind power projects.
What’s next?
There the huge potential of cellulosic ethanol from biomatter other than corn kernels, soydiesel from the soybeans and there’s solar energy.
Solar panels can already be seen on many individual houses and small businesses in Nebraska. Recently, at Husker Harvest Days, Nebraska Power, at its booth, displayed a solar panel that powered a pump that provides water for livestock.
The Grand Island based company began carrying solar panels for both the farm and for residential use in June, according to John Niedfelt of Nebraska Power, which also sells small scale wind power generators.
Niedfelt said interest in the solar power panels at Husker Harvest Days has been strong.
“There’s a lot of interest in solar,” Niedfelt said. “A lot of people who are looking at renewables are looking at how to reduce their energy bill. Not everyone has a good location for wind, so there’s an equal amount of interest in solar.”
And then there’s Cornell University energy expert Frank DiSalvo who boldly predicts, “Ultimately, most of the energy on the planet is going to come directly from the sun.”
“More energy than we use in one year is hitting the planet every hour of the day from the sun,” he said.
During a recent public lecture, DiSalvo said that how this country borrows money for oil ­‑ with no intention of paying off the debt ‑ generates the worst business plan ever.
But, he said, there is light at the end of the energy tunnel, he predicted, and it will come from the sun.
Here’s a fact that everyone should realize and already know — fossil fuel resources cannot provide the world with adequate energy indefinitely, according to DiSalvo.
There’s a lot of talk about oil from tar sand and other sources that are environmental degrading to this planet. The ramifications of the oil spill in the Gulf will haunt that area for decades. Gas exploration in areas of the United States is damaging groundwater resources. Global warming is disrupting food production and eventually will  cause massive shifts in human population that will pose huge security risk for the U.S. and other developed countries is the result of man’s over dependence on fossil fuels.
“We have to solve this problem, sooner rather than later,” DiSalvo said.
And for DiSalvo, the answer lies in renewable energy sources and a sustainable approach that will not compromise future generations.
To achieve this, DiSalvo said public policy needs to consider the “interrelationships of energy, economic development and the environment.”
According to DiSalvo, the heavy reliance on such fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal will eventually cause “serious economic and environmental problems as resources dwindle and prices rise.”
And we don’t need to go any further than this country for an example of what DiSalvo is talking about.
“We buy oil by essentially borrowing money,” he said. “Then we burn the oil, and because we have both a trade and federal budget deficit, we have no intention of paying it off, so we pay interest on it forever That is the worst business plan ever.”
But, unfortunately, today much of the public only seems to be concerned about the short-term and not the long-term consequences of that policy DiSalvo is talking about that will hasten the economic decline of the United States and any other developed or developing country, such as China and India.
And here’s another horrible truth of the rapid decline of the planet’s environment, especially since oil has become a dominant energy in the last 150 years.
According to DiSalvo, using fossil fuels is also largely inefficient; when they are burned, almost two-thirds of their energy potential is lost to the environment as heat, and their use incurs damage to the environment.
“Ultimately, most of the energy on the planet is going to come directly from the sun,” said DiSalvo. “More energy than we use in one year is hitting the planet every hour of the day from the sun.”
However, he said solar energy is now expensive, ways to store and transport it have yet to be developed, and creating large-scale solar energy systems will inevitably present economic and environmental challenges.
“It’s our choice as to which impacts we want to have and how much we can minimize them,” said DiSalvo.
DiSalvo also emphasized that challenges in sustainability are much more than technical.
“The cultural, social, political and behavioral dimensions in addressing sustainability will be central to determine possible futures for us and the planet,” he said.
But DiSalvo is confident that progress toward sustainable energy will occur by “mid-century”.
To achieve that goal, DiSalvo said it will require capital, time and human and political investment, but “together we can definitely do it.”
What will propel the United States to continue its international leadership in the 21th century is not war, but a huge massive investment in building an alternative energy infrastructure. The truth is that private industry is not capable of attaining the goal in and of itself. The government must take the upfront financial risks to get this done.
And it starts right in Nebraska as this state has an important legacy on how government can take leadership in a massive public works policy in Sen. George Norris.
This week rural electrification partners will host the 75th anniversary celebration of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) at the Keystone Business Center in McCook on Sept. 26 from 2-4 p.m.
The first community to receive power through the REA system was Tecumseh. McCook is home to Norris who helped craft the REA legislation.
This 75th anniversary needs to be remembered that government plays a positive role in improving the quality of life for its citizens. What this country did in the 1930s can be achieved again in the next 20 years in transforming a fossil fuel based economy to an alternative energy based economy.

A new analysis from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) shows that:

* At nearly one of four weather stations in the contiguous United States — 278 out of 1,218 — the average nighttime low temperatures for June, July and August 2010 were hotter than at any time since 1895.

* Considering all 513 weather stations east of the Mississippi, 40 percent reported their hottest average nighttime low temperatures on record and more than 80 percent reported average nighttime low temperatures among their five hottest on record in summer 2010.

* More than half of all U.S. weathers stations recorded average nighttime low temperatures among their five hottest on record.

* Record nighttime temperatures were set at stations in 37 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“Summer 2010 was the hottest on record in many locations in the United States,” said Dan Lashof, director, Climate Center, Natural Resources Defense Council. ” Not only was it hot during the day, but it didn’t cool off at night. While one hot summer does not prove that global warming is happening, the long-term global trend does, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, among others. The long, hot summer of 2010 follows the hottest decade on record and more record high temperatures can be expected in the future as heat-trapping pollution continues to build up in our atmosphere.”

Kim Knowlton, senior scientist, Health and Environment Program, Natural Resources Defense Council, said: “Hot, stagnant nights can prove even more harmful than daytime highs as vulnerable populations –particularly the elderly and low-income individuals without air conditioning — are unable to cool down and get relief from the stress of day-time heat that persists into the evening.”

The NRDC analysis highlights the following states:

* In Maryland, 12 of the 16 stations in the Historical Climatology Network reported their hottest average nighttime low temperatures on record in summer 2010. All 16 Maryland stations reported average nighttime low temperatures among their five hottest on record in summer 2010.

* In Florida, nearly all — 21 of 22 — weather stations reported average nighttime low temperatures among their five hottest on record in summer 2010.

* The Midwest also experienced very warm nighttime temperatures. In Illinois and Indiana, 92 percent and 86 percent of the stations, respectively, reported average nighttime low temperatures among their five hottest on record in summer 2010.

* The Western United States was not as hot as the Eastern half of the country. Nonetheless, seven stations in Arizona reported average temperatures for this summer among their five hottest on record, and 11 stations in New Mexico reported average nighttime low temperatures among their five hottest.

 The NRDC analysis also points out that: “Record-high temperatures are not the only weather extremes we have seen in 2010. Because the atmosphere can hold more moisture as it warms, there is more rapid evaporation when it is dry and more intense rainfall when it is wet. The result is an increase in severe droughts and floods. As we have seen in Russia, Pakistan, China, and the United States, the results have been tragic. Russia has seen hundreds of wildfires and thousands of deaths in Moscow during its worst heat wave on record. In Pakistan more than a thousand people have been killed, and a million more displaced by floods. Flooding this year has also killed more than a thousand people in China, and more than 50 in Iowa and Tennessee.”

To read the full analysis, please go to

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/hottestsummer/.

Sen. Mike Johanns expressed disappointed that the “Senate is still unable to extend the biodiesel tax credit more than eight months after it expired.”  This week’s Senate vote to extend the lapsed biodiesel tax credit failed by a vote of 41-58.

“I am disappointed the Senate is still unable to extend the biodiesel tax credit more than eight months after it expired,” Johanns said. “Extending the biodiesel tax credit is a common sense step that would advance our goal of energy independence and provide a boost to rural economies. Washington’s inability to extend this tax credit has been devastating to the biodiesel industry, costing thousands of jobs and countless hours of production. Unfortunately, rather than encouraging investment in renewable fuels, today’s vote only provides more uncertainty to our farmers and biodiesel producers.”

Extending the biodiesel tax credit would be a big plus for Nebraska and the state’s effort to build a soydiesel fuel plant. It makes sense, soybean production in Nebraska is forecast at a record high 294 million bushels, up 4 percent from last month and 13 percent above last year. Yield is forecast at 55 bushels per acre, up 2 bushels from August and .5 bushel above the 2009 record high. Acres for harvest, at 5.35 million, are unchanged from last month and up 12 percent from a year ago. Instead of shipping all those soybeans out of state for further processing, building soy biodiesel plant in Nebraska would capture some of that added value, along with creating jobs and strengthening the state’s economy.

According to Farm Service Agency State Director Dan Steinkruger, the USDA has determined Nebraska can accept over 95 percent of the 200,690 acres offered or 189,515 acres.  These CRP contracts will go into effect Friday, October 1, 2010.”

 Under CRP, farmers and ranchers plant grasses and trees in crop fields and along streams or rivers.  The plantings reduce soil and nutrients from washing into waterways, reduce soil erosion that may otherwise contribute to poor air and water quality, and provide valuable habitat for wildlife.  Plant cover established on the acreage accepted into the CRP will reduce nutrient and sediment runoff in our nation’s rivers and streams.  The CRP has restored more than two million acres of wetlands and associated buffers and reduced soil erosion by more than 400 million tons per year.

Steinkruger said Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices will now notify all farmers and ranchers of the results.  All signatures must be on CRP contracts by September 30, 2010 for FSA to approve them before the end of the federal fiscal year.  USDA will develop final conservation plans for the acreage documenting the conservation practices on the CRP acreage before December 2010.

“This is the first CRP general sign-up since 2006.  We are able to maintain close to 1.1 million acres in CRP, in Nebraska.  We maintain and gain wildlife and pollinator habitat across the state,” Steinkruger said.