Nebraska AG sues OPPD over plan to convert north Omaha coal plant

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced Thursday that he has filed a lawsuit against Omaha Public Power District over its plan to change a north Omaha coal plant over to natural gas.

In a news release, Hilgers said the move conflicts with the core mission of public power providers in Nebraska as set forth by the Legislature, which requires them to prioritize affordability and reliability.

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

He said in the release that OPPD’s own calculations show continuing to burn coal would save OPPD more than $40 million over the next five years and nearly $440 million over the next 15; savings that could be used to stabilize rates or even be passed along to consumers.

In a press conference he held later Thursday he went into further detail on how that money will be saved.

"This North Omaha, their projected cost of the North Omaha decommissioning is going to cost $400 million plus over maybe 15 years," Hilgers told reporters. " There is no, absolutely no reason to think, and it would defy reality in economics to suggest that taking 200 plus megawatts offline, given this demand environment we're in will do anything other than increase the cost to ratepayers."

OPPD's given reasons for the decommissions and conversions are twofold: meeting their 2050 net-zero carbon emissions goal and the coal plants affecting the surrounding community's air quality, to which there have been complaints about.

Hilgers disagreed that the air quality in North Omaha has been adversely affected, saying "if you look at the air quality standards ... [North Omaha] is in the great zone, under 50, under this metric is great. As of this morning, we were at 29."

Studies, such a 2023 National Institute of Health study, indicate that emission from coal plants are harmful and do lead to a decline in health.

The nearest reading from the EPA is from the center of Omaha. The reading for Pm2.5, the pollutant that coal puts out, as of Thursday afternoon was 38. The EPA site did not have a Pm2.5 reading for North Omaha, where the coal plant is.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop OPPD from doing the conversion, “because that plan is based on political objectives that deviate from its founding mission," Hilgers said.

OPPD converted part of the plant to natural gas in 2016 and had originally planned to stop burning coal at the plant altogether by 2023, but it later pushed that deadline to 2026.

A spokesperson for the utility said it does not comment on pending litigation.