Renner Barsella, renner.barsella@sierraclub.org
OMAHA - Today, the Omaha Public Power District announced a new strategic directive for the utility that will guide their environmental stewardship for the coming decade. The policy, which also addresses the mix of energy types the utility will use, will now be publicly presented to the full OPPD board.
In response, John Crabtree of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign released the following statement:
"For more than a year we have been encouraged by OPPD's work to establish meaningful goals and benchmarks for environmental stewardship and clean energy development in coming years. Unfortunately, the proposed revisions to Strategic Directive #7 that are coming forward today are simply not good enough.”
“Hundreds of OPPD customer-owners have asked OPPD to set an ambitious goal of obtaining 100 percent of retail energy sales from clean energy. Instead, this proposal would remove that benchmark entirely. The proposed carbon intensity metric that would replace that clean energy goal is confusing at best, and misleading at worst.”
“The OPPD board should send this proposal back to committee, establish a meaningful, ambitious 100 percent clean energy goal, along with a simple commitment to reduce carbon emissions -- goals that Omaha and OPPD customer-owners will recognize, value and support.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.