FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 9, 2025

Bold Land Justice Director Terrell McKinney Blasts Nebraska AG Hilgers Lawsuit Targeting OPPD North Omaha Coal Plant Retirement

Omaha – In response to Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers’ filing of a lawsuit today against Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) regarding its planned refueling and retirement of electric generation units at North Omaha Station, Terrell McKinney, Land Justice Director at Bold Alliance, issued the following statement:

“Instead of wasting taxpayer money on yet another frivolous lawsuit, Attorney General Hilgers should focus on how Nebraska will regulate the massive energy demands of new data centers. These projects are driving up costs and leaving Nebraskans footing the bill for new energy infrastructure. We expect and deserve power that doesn’t pollute the air we breathe,” said Terrell McKinney, Bold’s Land Justice Director. “Nebraskans are tired of broken promises — we want a real transition to cleaner, cheaper energy, including more wind and solar. These renewable sources don’t rely on eminent domain to seize land — they protect our land and water. It’s time for Hilgers to stop acting like a dictator, and let our public power utilities do their job: providing affordable, reliable, and clean energy for the people who actually own it.”

Bold launched a campaign earlier this year to demand that OPPD keep its promise to the North Omaha community, and close the North Omaha coal plant by 2026.

A recent survey conducted by Bold found that North Omaha residents have deep concerns about unhealthy air, little to no progress on environmental problems, and being excluded from decisions on pollution and energy that shape their future. They’re dealing with asthma, allergies, 
and other health issues linked to pollution from the plant, and 93% of respondents to the survey said their neighborhood’s environmental health is staying the same or getting worse.

Community advocates have attended previous months’ OPPD Board meetings to speak out and deliver public comments asking the Board members to keep their promise. A Bold petition to the OPPD Board urging them to keep their promise and close the coal plant has gathered more than 400 signatures.

About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop carbon pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. We believe that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unproven and overly expensive and wastefully incentivized approach to climate change, and that the carbon pipelines needed for CCS are poorly planned, under-regulated, and risky infrastructure. These huge and complex projects should not move forward until counties, states and the federal government prove first that they are a better climate solution than renewable energy, and second that safety, planning, and routing standards are in place to avoid inefficient chaotic development driven by wasteful federal spending. (https://boldalliance.org)

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Nebraska AG Hilgers OPPD Lawsuit 

BACKGROUND:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 9, 2025

Attorney General Mike Hilgers Initiates Legal Action Against OPPD for Proposed Changes

Today, Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed a lawsuit against Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) regarding its planned refueling and retirement of electric generation units at North Omaha Station. OPPD freely admits that the planned refueling and retirement is being pursued for reasons that directly conflict with the core mission of public power established by the Legislature. Public power providers are supposed to prioritize affordability of the electricity they produce and reliability of the electric grid they oversee. OPPD’s proposal for North Omaha Station furthers neither. Instead, in a time of rapidly increasing demand for electricity, OPPD’s proposal will threaten grid reliability and create conditions where OPPD ratepayers will likely be subjected to higher costs.

“Public power providers should not achieve their self-imposed environmental goals by raising prices for Nebraska consumers,” said Attorney General Hilgers. “The proposed changes at North Omaha Station do not align with the fundamental objectives outlined by the Legislature, undermining the promise of public power.”

Currently, North Omaha Station houses five generation units, two of which still utilize coal, while the three others primarily run on natural gas. OPPD plans to retire the three natural gas units, reducing the station’s total output by about 40%. And it plans to refuel the remaining two units from coal to natural gas. It is pursuing this plan even though, by its own calculations, maintaining the status quo at North Omaha Station will save OPPD more than $40 million over the next five years and nearly $440 million over the next fifteen; savings that could be used to stabilize rates or even be passed along to consumers. As OPPD’s President and CEO has explained, the current plan is motivated “primarily by environmental considerations,” even though North Omaha Station complies with all applicable state and federal environmental regulations.

Attorney General Hilgers emphasized that this lawsuit is not about dictating or micromanaging OPPD’s operational strategies. Instead, it seeks to ensure that OPPD adheres to its well-established, legislatively mandated public power mission: delivering reliable and affordable electricity to Nebraskans.

“We are calling on the Court to issue an injunction that halts OPPD’s current plan to refuel and retire units at North Omaha Station because that plan is based on political objectives that deviate from its founding mission,” Hilgers stated.

The Attorney General’s Office is committed to addressing this crucial issue in court, advocating for the rights of consumers, and upholding the standards set forth by Nebraska’s public power statutes.

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