LINCOLN- On Friday, Gov. Jim Pillen signed an emergency order allowing power plants, which are facing higher demand due to last week's heat wave, to discharge hotter water from their facilities. In a press release, Pillen said the order is meant to allow Nebraska's power plants to "safely" exceed temperature limits while also allowing them to meet more "extreme" demands for power.

The order will remain in effect through September 15th. In another heat-related announcement, Pillen recently thanked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for answering Nebraska's call for higher reimbursements for local cattle producers who lost animals due to the hot, humid weather present in the state this month.

Vilsack informed Pillen last week that the USDA would increase payments through the Livestock Indemnity Program from $1,244 per head to $1,618. Following this, Pillen urged cattle producers to report, in detail, their losses to their respective Farm Services Agency offices. While one Nebraska-based FSA office reported that official losses were estimated at about 1% per local feedlot, rumors have been swirling that some cattle producers lost closer to one hundred animals during the heatwave.

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