FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 12, 2026

Bold’s Jane Kleeb Delivers Testimony in Support of LB 1111 to Regulate Data Centers in Nebraska

Lincoln – On the crucial issue of data centers, and their potential impact on our water and utility bills, Bold founder Jane Kleeb will appear at the Capitol on Thursday to testify and encourage Nebraskans to support LB 1111, a bill to regulate data centers built in Nebraska that introduced by Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, with Senators Terrell McKinney and Ashlei Spivey signed on as co-sponsors.

The bill would put in place regulations on data centers that require them to pay the full cost of providing new electricity services, including any necessary new infrastructure, so that cost is not passed on to individual ratepayer customers. LB 1111 would also require that power suppliers make available to the public the name of the project, developers and owners, location of any proposed data center, its proposed size and electricity demand, as well as details on the customer types and term lengths of contracts with proposed data center customers. The bill also requests that the projects have a decommissioning plan and a Community Benefits Agreement.

Bold Nebraska founder Jane Kleeb will deliver public testimony in support of LB 1111 at today’s hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in Room 1023 at the Nebraska State Capitol. Bold is also encouraging Nebraskans to submit comments and contact Senators to support LB 1111.

Testimony of Jane Kleeb in support of LB 1111

Chair Brandt and Members of the Natural Resources Committee:

My name is Jane Kleeb. I am the Founder and Executive Director of Bold and I live in Hastings. I testify today in support of LB 1111.

Right from the beginning, I want to be clear that Bold is not advocating that data centers can not be built. First and foremost, we do not believe any corporation should have access to the use of eminent domain for their private gain.

That holds true for data centers.

Bold is advocating for guardrails on an industry that is growing fast, using resources, has very little transparency and is leaving very little money behind for those that live near these massive projects let alone our counties and the state.

We can lead the nation in providing a clear path, which I believe LB 1111 does, on basic steps a data center must take including community benefit agreements and dividends like Bold did with the recent Tallgrass project here in Nebraska or the Flikertail project in North Dakota.

Bold is deeply concerned about the electricity sales and rate data which shows skyrocketing demand for electricity by commercial customers, including data centers. Over the past three years, commercial electricity sales have increased by an astonishing 34%, for the first time exceeding both residential and industrial sales. During this same period, electricity rates for commercial customers decreased by five percent while rates for residential customers increased by seven percent. That’s a twelve percent spread.

Since 1990, when the federal government began collecting this data, there has never been as large an increase in demand in any sector, and there has never been as large a divergence between residential and commercial electricity rates. These circumstances are unprecedented.

Something big is happening. And that something big is data centers.

While the state’s public utilities might have an explanation for jacking up residential rates while lowering commercial rates, it seems likely that these remarkable changes are the result of data center construction and operation. My understanding is that there are now approximately 40 data centers operating, under construction, or planned in Nebraska, including at least three hyperscale centers in the Omaha area. We have heard rumors that this number is closer to 80.

Why are data centers building in Nebraska? One factor is our low electricity prices. The federal data shows that Nebraska’s commercial electricity rates are significantly lower than all of its neighboring states.

Operating in Nebraska substantially reduces data center electricity bills. The only state that comes close to our commercial rates is Wyoming, and it, too, has experienced a major spike in commercial sector electricity demand.

We enjoy low rates in part because utilities in Nebraska are 100 percent publicly owned, meaning our rates don’t include profit and return on investment for billionaires. Our state’s leaders wisely decided that utilities should be publicly owned.

If current trends continue, this legacy of affordable public power could be squandered to serve the interests of data centers. They will demand construction of expensive new generation and transmission infrastructure and seek to load the cost of these facilities onto the backs of hardworking Nebraskans. Low-cost electricity could end.

LB 1111 would require that data centers pay the full freight for their energy costs and prevent the transfer of these costs to other types of ratepayers. That’s only fair. LB 1111 also facilitates self-generation by data centers, including via renewable energy, as this will help ensure that data centers bear the costs if (or when) their industry booms and busts. It also requires decommissioning plans, just as are required for renewable energy facilities, so local communities are not left with disintegrating eyesores, and it requires that data centers negotiate community benefit agreements that help mitigate local impacts.

Nebraskans are deeply concerned about the potential impacts of data centers on electricity costs, water, and local communities. They distrust the billionaire class and politicians who allow our tax dollars and our land to be used by them.

I ask the Committee to protect Nebraskans by incorporating the policies contained in LB 1111 into state law.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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