COLUMBUS- Another of Nebraska’s major utilities is taking a look at decarbonization and will be asking its customers to weigh in.

The Nebraska Public Power District will hold five public meetings over the next two weeks on whether it should pursue decarbonization, CEO Tom Kent said Friday. The meetings are part of a larger effort to gauge customer sentiment, he said.

Decarbonization is the process by which a utility reduces its carbon footprint, in part by reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases. Often, this involves a fuels shift, away from coal, for example, toward wind or solar.

The first meeting is Wednesday in Norfolk, and the final meeting is Aug. 18 in Kearney. The utility has already taken some stakeholder input and will post a survey on its website from Wednesday until Sept. 1.

The meetings will include a detailed presentation by the Electric Power Research Group on the business risks of decarbonizing or not, Kent said.

Scientists have long known that digging up fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — and releasing their carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would change the planet’s climate. One reason scientists have become more urgent in their calls for action is that the release of carbon dioxide has a decades-long delayed effect on climate.

Kent said NPPD already has lowered its emissions.

The utility’s 2020 generations emissions on a carbon intensity basis declined 39% from 2005 levels, he said.

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