NPPD Response to Brewer Letter

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 Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is responsible for satisfying NEPA's public-involvement requirements. Thus, the Service decides whether and where to hold public meetings to solicit public input on its Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for the Project. The applicable NEPA regulations provide the Service with discretion to conduct public meetings by means of electronic communication. 40 C.F.R. § 1506.6(c). 

For the Project, the Service has determined that two in-person meetings and one virtual meeting, in addition to soliciting written comments during the 60-day public comment period, will provide sufficient opportunities for public participation and feedback. Since compliance with NEPA is the federal agency's obligation, permit applicants, such as NPPD, do not direct how the agency should fulfill that obligation. 

 2. The leading killer of this extremely endangered species is collisions with powerlines. USFWS studies with GPS-tracked whooping cranes (you have been provided) clearly show and assess a number of these birds will be killed by the R-Line. It is the greatest threat to any endangered species along the route, yet you appear to have only applied for an ITP for a threatened beetle. Why has NPPD gone to the trouble of preparing a brand new supplemental environmental impact statement, and not applied to the USFWS for a Whooping Crane Incidental Take Permit (ITP) for this species? 

Page 2
February 26, 2024

The Service recommends applying for an ITP, which is a voluntary permit, when take of a listed species is reasonably certain to occur.' Using the best available data, NPPD and the Service have conducted multiple risk analyses related to the potential take of the whooping crane. These analyses have concluded that take of the whooping crane is not reasonably certain to occur as a result of the Project. As the Service explained on page 3.7-20 of the DSEIS, The Service's review of the various methods and best available science continues to conclude that the risk of whooping crane collision is low (less than 0.5 whooping cranes over the 50-year life of the proposed action). NPPD concludes in the Revised HCP that the likelihood of whooping crane collisions with the proposed transmission line is extremely low (NPPD 2023). The Service concludes that there is no scientifically reliable evidence that take of whooping cranes from collision with the proposed transmission line is reasonably certain to occur, and that effects from the proposed transmission line would be long term and low intensity.

Because take of the whooping crane from the R-Project is not reasonably certain to occur, NPPD has not applied for take authorization for the whooping crane in its application for an ITP. Note that NPPD has committed to mark the entire transmission line with bird flight diverters to further minimize the already-low risk of whooping crane collision with the Project.

Even though NPPD has not modified its permit application to seek take authorization for the
whooping crane, because such take is not reasonably certain to occur, the Service was nonetheless required to supplement the original Environmental Impact Statement to respond to the court's remand and to address new information and minor modifications to the Project.

3. Will NPPD board members attend these public meetings and be available to answer
questions from constituents?

The public meetings will be conducted by the Service to give the public an opportunity to provide oral or written comments on the DSEIS and Revised Habitat Conservation Plan for the Service to consider as it is evaluating NPPD's ITP application. The Service's NEPA public meetings are not intended to be question-and-answer sessions about the Project. Instead, they are intended to give the public another mechanism to provide input to the Service in addition to submitting written comments through the regulations.gov website. Thus, the Service will be responsible for presenting information and soliciting public input. Note that these public meetings are part of the Service's NEPA process for NPPD's application for an ITP, so they are focused on the environmental impacts of the proposed action, not the need for and the location of the underlying Project, over which the Service has no authority.

[footnote] See U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, Habitat Conservation Planning and Incidental Take Permit Processing Handbook at 3-2 (Dec. 2016) ("A landowner or project proponent should be advised to develop an HCP and seek an incidental take permit if they are conducting (or planning to conduct) any type of activity in an area where ESA-listed species are known to occur and where their activity or activities are reasonably certain to result in incidental take .... Avoid processing applications submitted purely 'as insurance' when take of ESA-listed species is not anticipated.")

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February 26, 2024

While NEPA public meetings are not discussion forums, the Service will be willing to answer basic, clarifying questions about the proposed action and environmental analysis. Thus, a few NPPD staff members will attend these meetings to be available to help the Service answer any of these basic questions that NPPD would be in a better position to answer. Since it is a public meeting, any Board member cnan attend the public meeting; however, due to the nature of the technical material contained in the DSEIS and Revised Habitat Conservation Plan, it would be unusual for a Board member to have knowledge about those type of specific details.

Sincerely,
[signed] Thomas Kent
cc: Honorable Governor Jim Pillen
Honorable Senator Deb Fischer
Honorable Senator Pete Ricketts
Honorable Congressman Adrian Smith

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