{"id":23718,"date":"2018-03-26T14:23:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T20:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23718"},"modified":"2019-01-08T10:10:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T16:10:19","slug":"increased-game-law-damages-records-exemption-for-public-power-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23718","title":{"rendered":"Increased game law damages, records exemption for public power advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators gave first-round approval March 26 to a bill that was amended to include several bills related to natural resources, including a provision that would allow public power utilities to withhold information that could give competitors an advantage.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Bruce Bostelman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As introduced by Brainard Sen. Bruce Bostelman, LB1008 would increase the amounts of liquidated damages for a person who illegally sells, purchases, takes or possesses certain wildlife.<\/p>\n

It would increase damages for:
\n\u2022 mountain sheep from $15,000 to $25,000;
\n\u2022 elk with a minimum of 12 points from $5,000 to $10,000 and from $1,500 to $3,000 for all other elk;
\n\u2022 whitetail deer with a minimum of eight points and a spread between beams of at least 16 inches from $5,000 to $10,000;
\n\u2022 all other antlered whitetail deer from $1,000 to $2,000;
\n\u2022 antlerless whitetail deer and whitetail doe deer from $250 to $500;
\n\u2022 mule deer with a minimum of eight total points and a spread between beams of at least 22 inches from $5,000 to $10,000 and for all other mule deer from $1,000 to $2,000;
\n\u2022 mountain lions, lynx, bobcats, river otters or raw pelt from $500 to $5,000; and
\n\u2022 wild turkeys from $100 to $500.<\/p>\n

A Natural Resources Committee amendment, adopted 38-4, added provisions of four other bills heard by the committee this session.<\/p>\n

LB713, introduced by Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, would increase compensation of those serving on the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates the oil and natural gas exploration and production industry in the state. As amended by the committee, it would raise the per diem for commissioners from $50 to $400 and would increase the annual compensation cap from $2,000 to $4,000.<\/p>\n

LB820, introduced by Venango Sen. Dan Hughes, would authorize the Nebraska Power Review Board to assess a $500 fine on a private electric supplier that begins construction on a renewable energy generation facility less than 30 days before notifying the board of its intent.<\/p>\n

LB762, also sponsored by Hughes, would extend the sunset date for the state\u2019s scrap tire grant program from 2019 to 2024.<\/p>\n

The amendment also includes LB822, which the committee replaced with an amendment that would authorize the public power industry and the Nebraska Power Review Board to withhold competitive or proprietary information that would give an advantage to business competitors.<\/p>\n

The amendment defines such information as that which \u201ca reasonable person, knowledgeable of the electric utility industry, could conclude gives an advantage to business competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes introduced the amendment, which received a public hearing on March 7, in response to a Nebraska Supreme Court opinion from Feb. 23. The justices reversed a Platte County District Court\u2019s decision that would have allowed the Nebraska Public Power District to withhold proprietary information from a potential competitor that had requested documents showing cost and revenue information for each of NPPD\u2019s generation facilities.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court wrote that, in order to withhold the information, NPPD had to show that releasing it would give an advantage to competitors and serve no public interest. It overturned the lower court\u2019s decision because NPPD did not prove the second element of that two-pronged test.<\/p>\n

Both courts interpreted relevant public records statutes differently, Hughes said, and both speculated on the Legislature\u2019s intent. He said the Supreme Court has indicated the Legislature should clarify whether it wants the public power industry to provide private competitors with information they would need to underbid public utilities in the Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities and power generation companies that oversees electricity infrastructure in Nebraska and 13 other states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t clearly put our intent into statute,\u201d Hughes said, \u201cNebraska ratepayers will be negatively impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes said the amendment would allow utilities to protect information that could give competitors an advantage while ensuring that the public would have access to a utility\u2019s other records.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon opposed the public power provision. Brewer said he has not received information he requested from NPPD regarding its planned R-Project, a 225-mile high-voltage transmission line that will be routed in part through the Sandhills region.<\/p>\n

\u201cA senator can request information and not get it now,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen when we give them the ability to hide additional information?\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewer filed an amendment that would prohibit the construction of wind energy projects in counties that have not adopted zoning regulations that address a project\u2019s impact on property values and the environment, among other factors.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion supported the committee amendment. Without it, he said, the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling would require the state\u2019s public power utilities to release proprietary information to private competitors, which would ultimately hurt ratepayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a common-sense fix to keep the playing field level for public utilities and investor-owned utilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg agreed, saying that the state would never require a private company or nonprofit to divulge its business secrets. He opposed Brewer\u2019s amendment, which he said would be a de facto moratorium on wind energy development in counties without specific zoning regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any place in this for the state telling counties what they have to do,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tyson Larson of O\u2019Neill opposed the portion of the committee amendment dealing with public power. He acknowledged that certain information\u2014such as a contract between a public utility and a private company\u2014should be confidential, but he said public utilities\u2019 generation costs should be available to ratepayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as shareholders own public power,\u201d he said, \u201cand we have a right to know where that money is going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes filed a motion to invoke cloture, or cease debate and vote on the bill. The motion succeeded 35-4. Thirty-three votes were needed.<\/p>\n

The Brewer amendment failed on a vote of 8-28. Senators then voted 42-2 to advance the bill to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators gave first-round approval March 26 to a bill that was amended to include several bills related to natural resources, including a provision that would allow public power utilities to withhold information that could give competitors an advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[183],"class_list":["post-23718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-resources","tag-sen-bruce-bostelman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/LB1008Bostelman3-26-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23718"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24422,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23718\/revisions\/24422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}