Sandhills Voice

Thomas J. Kent  President & Chief Executive Officer  Phone: 402-563-5575 FAX: 402-563-5145  E-Mail Address:tjkent@nppd.com  February 26,2024  Sent via Hand Delivery  Senator Tom Brewer District 43  State Capitol PO Box 94694 Lincoln, NE 68509 RE: Your letter to Tom Kent dated February 22, 2024 Dear Senator Brewer:  This letter responds to your letter dated February 22, 2024, requesting information from Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) about the R-Project Transmission Line Project (Project).  Specifically, you posed three questions to NPPD regarding the Project. NPPD's responses to those questions are as follows.  1. Will NPPD request the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to schedule four in-person public meetings, scheduled on Saturday's [sic] to maximize public participation in the following towns near the route of the line: North Platte, Thedford, Burwell and Clearwater?  As the lead federal agency for the National E...

"We manage Merritt Reservoir to allow legal harvest of fish.  Some of the fish species are protected by size limit restrictions and most are managed by our bag limits.  Fishing tournaments are no exception to the regulations.  I have not had any reports of any illegal activities regarding the fishing tournament.  Most tournaments are regulated very closely and any over bag limits or violations of size limits would not be allowed.  Nebraska has a very restrictive bag limit when compared to the other mid-western states when it comes to panfish.  We do not normally stock panfish at Merritt, this is do to the fact that there is enough natural reproduction to keep the populations at our management goals and still allow for harvest of fish by our anglers," according to Dean Rosenthal fisheries division administrator at Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. These are the results of the Cork Thornton Memorial Ice Fishing Tournament that occurred January 30th, as prov...

Senator Tom Brewer, 43rd District 2-23-2024 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently announced that is seeking Public Comment on the new and improved Habitat Conservation Plan and Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the R-Project powerline. I strongly encourage all Nebraskans to oppose this powerline and contact their Public Power board member. The tragic and unnecessary destruction of the most environmentally sensitive and beautiful part of Nebraska Is the wrong choice. The letter I received from USFWS announced three public meetings about the R-Project. One in North Platte on Tuesday the 27 th of February at 5:00pm. The next meeting is scheduled for Broken Bow. It’s on Thursday the 29 th at 1:00pm. The last meeting is a “virtual” meeting on line. This is unacceptable. Scheduling public meetings, in towns far from the route of the power line, at 1:00pm in the middle of the work week, is deliberately discouraging the public from Participating. Yesterday I d...

Public comment is being accepted on the supplemental EIS for the revised proposal to construct an industrial powerline through the Sandhills. In addition to an introduction, the document is available at www.regulations.ov. Emi bynter docket number FWS-R6-ES-2014-0048. Scroll down the page and find the draft supplement document ( https://www.regulations.gov/document/FWS-R6-ES-2014-0048-0271) select it and a PDF document will be provided for review and consideration. The Flatwater Free Press has prepared a story on the process underway ( https://flatwaterfreepress.org/power-play-project-to-move-power-through-nebraska-sandhills-has-stalled-for-12-years/) and featured area ranchers Lemoyne Dailey and Brett Stephen. Both strongly oppose the powerline project. There have been a few other news reports. Further reporting occurred following the public hearkngs on February 27 at  North Platte and on the 29th at Broken Bow. The public comment period ends April 9th, 2024.