Public Power Makes Nebraska Attractive to Business

Everything is bigger in Texas including the deregulation melt down of the electricity market. When Texas lead the pack in deregulating its electricity market (pre-Enron implosion), Texas rate payers had some of the cheapest electricity in the nation. Recently, on a hot Texas day, electricity was selling for 40 times the national average of $4/kilowatt per the 7.17.2008 Wall Street Journal Today consumers shopping for an electricity provider would sign a contract costing them 13-27 cents per kilowatt hour when our national average is 9-10 cents. To make the mess even worse 5 Texas electricity 'retailers' have failed leaving customers high and dry (and paying more). Even large industrial companies are feeling the pain and looking to move to states with cheaper stable supplies of electricity. Thanks to our Nebraska publicly owned power companies we just might be able to lure some of those business to Nebraska!

Motorini, The Omaha Scooter Club

When I was in Italy I was warned to be careful of the Motorini of Rome(people riding motor bikes & scooters). I was cautioned that they come up fast on pedestrians and I didn't want to wind up in an Italian hospital instead of being on vaction. Now, with the price of gas much higher that what we are used to, I certainly see a lot more people on foot and riding scooters around MidTown. A neat site of like minded people have created an Omaha Scooter Club. Looks like they are having fun and using less gas at the same time. Check it out.

71st Lowest out of 100 Most Ozone Friendly Cities

No surprise here right? Men's Health magzine ranked Omaha 71st (C-) when it came to gas consumption, miles driven, air quality, vehicle efficiency, public transit quality and public transit usage. Lincoln, NE was ranked 28th. A friend who recently moved to Minneapolis used to say that the motto for most Nebraskan's was, "Its so close we will all drive(seperately)!" One encouraging sign in MidTown is the I have seen many more people walking, waiting for buses and riding scooters around than ever before.