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Neb. legislators weighing bill to keep public utilities' costs private

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Neb. legislators weighing bill to keep public utilities' costs private

Nebraska legislators are working to prevent the state's public power utilities from having to divulge confidential information following a recent court ruling that said Nebraska Public Power District could not keep its electric generating costs private.

A court in February found the Nebraska Public Power District, or NPPD, failed to show that it was entitled to withhold cost and revenue information of its generating units as requested by a private company that wants to produce and sell electricity in Nebraska. Release such information could put NPPD at a competitive disadvantage.

Courtney Dentlinger, NPPD's government affairs manager, described the decision to the public power utility's board of directors on March 8 as "very disconcerting for all of public power and, quite frankly, for most state agencies and political subdivisions with respect to how the court has interpreted whether or not propriety and commercial information can be protected."

The court said while NPPD showed that releasing the information would give an advantage to competitors, it did not demonstrate that the information would serve no public purpose. The court also said the legislature had not excluded a public power district's competitive information from public scrutiny.

After the court's decision was issued, public power officials met with state Sen. Jim Scheer, speaker of the legislature, and state Sen. Dan Hughes, chair of the Natural Resources Committee, to find a legislative solution this session, Dentlinger said.

Hughes in late February offered an amendment to Legislative Bill 822 to prevent the required disclosure of "proprietary or commercial information," but some Nebraska media representatives found objectionable. Following a March 7 hearing on the amendment, public power officials and media representatives agreed to compromise language, said Shelley Sahling-Zart, vice president and general counsel of the Lincoln Electric System.

That language, added to L.B. 1008 by the committee on March 8, allows the public power industry and the Nebraska Power Review Board to withhold competitive or proprietary information, which would give an advantage to business competitors. The amendment defines competitive information as "information which a reasonable person, knowledgeable of the electric utility industry, could conclude gives an advantage to business competitors."

Sahling-Zart said the amendment will protect Nebraska's public power utilities from having to divulge competitive information such as generation unit-specific costs that would undermine their ability to effectively compete in the wholesale power markets.

Getting the bill through will require some maneuvering.

The legislature is about two-thirds of the way through its session, Dentlinger said, and from this point forward likely will only debate "priority" bills. Senators can designate one bill as their priority bill, which guarantees a floor debate. Committees can designate two priority bills.

L.B. 1008 is one of the Natural Resource Committee's priority bills.

Once on the floor, the bill will need 33 votes to pass because it contains an emergency clause to take effect immediately, Dentlinger said. The legislative session is scheduled to end April 18.