The Red Team

Some of you know that I worked as a contractor for electric utilities most of my adult life. Both as an employee of a contractor and as an independent self-employed contractor involved in wood pole maintenance. The definition of a contractor is: “A gambler who never gets to cut, shuffle or deal.” It’s not quite that bad, but it was always entrepreneurial work. The public power companies in Nebraska, especially the big ones, are bureaucratic. It’s inevitable when you are big and have no discrete owner. Bureaucracies are risk averse.

We find ourselves living in interesting times. Consequential decisions about future electrical generation are being made right now. The estimated load needed to build-out data centers for AI is overwhelming. Our estimates of how much additional electricity we need to generate over the next ten to twenty years are being adjusted upwards substantially every three months. The cost, or savings to ratepayers will be beyond consequential. Economists estimate that energy typically accounts for roughly 5–10% of GDP directly, but when indirect effects are included, energy influences 20–40% of the cost structure of the economy.

An entrepreneur like me sees great opportunity for Public Power in Nebraska. Most of the people working for Public Power in Nebraska are much more cautious. I am going to start publishing a newsletter directed to all the electric power elected board members in the state. It will be called The Red Team. I have decided to send it to all my Abbott’s Almanac subscribers as well. Please skip over these electric utility posts if the topic is not of general interest to you. In this place and time, we are the media. I hope I am doing something helpful and constructive. I imagine it’s a public service. With AI helping me, it’s a sacrifice think I can afford. And never forget what the great man of English letters, Samuel Johnson, wrote: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."