Nebraska unveils state's first Climate Action Plan, aims to reduce emissions by over 30%
Nebraska unveils state's first Climate Action Plan, aims to reduce emissions by over 30%
Monday, March 11, 2024
Andrew Wegley
Nebraska submitted the state's first Climate Action Plan to federal regulators earlier this month, outlining voluntary and incentive-based programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants in the state.
The 84-page Priority Climate Action Plan, which the state submitted March 1 to the EPA, focuses on first-step efforts to reduce emissions in six economic sectors as state officials work to develop a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan targeting long-term emission reductions.
Nebraska's Department of Environment and Energy — which received a $3 million federal grant to develop the priority plan and the comprehensive plan, due in August 2025 — proposed more than a dozen measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gases across economic sectors including agriculture, energy production, transportation, industry, commercial and residential buildings, and waste and wastewater.
The plan comes as Nebraska greenhouse gas emissions rank 26th highest in the country, though the state's per-capita emissions are the sixth highest in the U.S.
If fully implemented, the proposals outlined in the Priority Climate Action Plan could reduce the state's emissions by 25.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 — a reduction of more than 30% of the state's net greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.
The plan takes particular aim at Nebraska's agricultural industry, the state's leading economic industry that accounted for 42% of Nebraska's total emissions in 2021 and faces a "significant threat" from climate change and accompanying water scarcity, according to the plan.
The Department of Environment and Energy proposed incentivizing regenerative agriculture practices and the use of precision agriculture equipment in an effort to reduce the industry's greenhouse gas emissions, which are the fifth highest in the country in recent years.
One proposed program, which would be piloted in a multi-county area in south-central Nebraska, would aim to address the "social, technical and complex economic barriers" to regenerative farming buy-in through intensive outreach.
Increased participation in regenerative farming would drive improvements in nitrogen management and boost "carbon sequestration rates" through cover crops, no-till farming practices and reduced reliance on chemical fertilizer, according to the plan.
The department also proposed incentivizing participation in precision farming, which generally utilizes technology like soil sampling, satellite imagery and real-time sensors to track growing conditions of specific crops, allowing farmers to use "GPS-programmed technologies" and "chemically engineered interventions" to aid particular crops.
Another proposal calls for incentivizing corn and soybean farmers to participate in Nebraska's Carbon Intensity Score Registry, which would track the carbon emissions generated during crop production.
Farmers would receive a "small incentive payment" for logging their carbon intensity scores on the state registry, which would in turn help producers better understand carbon intensity scores as a performance metric that could inform crop management decisions and motivate them to seek out regenerative and precision agriculture opportunities.
Altogether, the proposals would reduce nitrate saturation from excess fertilization across the agricultural land — which combined with ranch land makes up roughly 90% of Nebraska’s total land area — while increasing soil fertility and moisture retention.
And, more urgently, state climate planners expect "rapid, widespread adoption of the key strategies" outlined to achieve "substantial reductions in" greenhouse gas and other air pollutant emissions as early as 2026.
The agriculture-related proposals account for more than 86% of potential emission reductions the plan hopes to achieve by 2030.
Other incentive programs proposed in the plan include promoting energy efficiency and electrification upgrades for nonresidential buildings like manufacturing facilities, incentives to reduce food waste, incentives for irrigation well conversion from diesel to electric, along with funding for solar projects on unused or contaminated land or atop ag and industrial facilities or parking lot canopies.
Now that the state has submitted its Priority Climate Action Plan, it can apply for competitive federal grant dollars to implement the emission-reduction measures outlined in the plan.
The public release of Nebraska's climate plan comes nearly three years after the city of Lincoln adopted its own climate action plan and a year after officials in Omaha announced they would draft one.
The state’s three largest electrical utilities — Lincoln Electric System, Nebraska Public Power District and the Omaha Public Power District — have already set net-zero carbon emission targets for their electricity generation.
In 2021, 44.1% of the electricity used in Nebraska was generated from sources other than fossil fuels, according to the plan.
Still, renewable energy remains a divisive subject in Nebraska, particularly in the state's rural areas, where residents have packed public meetings to lodge opposition to proposed wind farms and solar farms.
