Opinion

Nebraska had only been a state for 70 years when the very first session of the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature was held in January 1937. Every school kid in Nebraska is taught about our one-of-a-kind system of State government. Most of them also tour the capitol building at this time of year. As another mob of school kids trooped past our office door, the inevitable always happens. They see the buffalo head I have displayed in our office. Much to the frustration of their chaperons, they all want to see “Buffy” and our office is suddenly filled with wide-eyed fourth-graders brimming with questions. This has to be the most photographed buffalo mount in the state. They make you forget the often vulgar nature of politics, and remind you that we do things here that are going to out-live us. They inspire me, so I decided to write about them today.

Dear Editor, Recently, I had the privilege of visiting the Valentine Public Library and cannot begin to tell you how impressed I was; its welcoming, ascetically pleasing and comprehensively offering of services. You are incredibly lucky to have such a library in your city.

Not long ago the Secretary of Agriculture announced a bold initiative that would cut the environmental footprint of US agriculture in half by the year 2050. The date was February 20, 2020. The cabinet official was the Trump administration’s Sonny Perdue. Governor Pete Ricketts had little if anything to say about the ambitious “New Innovation Initiative for USDA” at the time, even though its objectives included radical goals for “conserving sensitive and marginal lands to enhance carbon sinks”. The governor’s wait-and-see approach at that time seemed prudent as details of the Initiative were to be hammered out through stakeholder input.

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) will meet with Third District constituents during a mobile office on Tuesday, August 3, in Mullen.

Nebraska is a renewable fuels powerhouse, leading the country in ethanol-blended fuel. Higher ethanol blends are not just good for our state’s economy – they also benefit the consumer, making fuel cheaper and giving more options at the pump. However, up until 2019, blends with more than 10 percent ethanol, or E10, could not be sold during the summer months because they did not have a Reid Vapor Pressure, also known as RVP, volatility waiver.

On January 27, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed his “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” In this order, President Biden set a “goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.” At the time of the signing, very little information was released by the Biden-Harris Administration. We only had the few paragraphs of text in the order and a short fact sheet from the Department of Interior stating “that only 12 percent of lands are permanently protected.”

The term-limited seated Governor has become a very vocal critic of the Biden Administration policies – to the point of releasing press statements in opposition to some of them. Probably not unprecedented, but it’s obvious that Republican Pete Ricketts has his eye on the prize, whatever that may be.

As we emerge from the pandemic and the economy begins to rebound, I’m focused on ensuring the industries that provide Nebraska jobs can continue to grow and thrive. The ethanol industry is one of those.

We are in “the interim” on the Legislative calendar. It is that time between legislative sessions. Most Senators have jobs, farms, ranches and businesses to attend to. It’s time to go home and reconnect with family too. It’s important to remember we have a part-time citizen legislature. Each of the 49 Senators are ordinary citizens with families, lives and professions. Many have re-election campaigns to run as well.

There was a commercial on television in which some athletes and cartoon characters admonished kids to get out and do something active; to get some exercise. They told them about a website they could go to for ideas on what to do.