To power Nebraska, cut federal red tape on energy interconnection

Electric transmission lines are shown near Clark, South Dakota. (Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

Five years ago, as I prepared to leave my Army uniform behind, I faced two life-defining decisions. First: where to raise my young family. My wife and I knew we wanted our girls to grow up where we had, surrounded by family and Nebraska’s “Good Life.”

The second proved harder: What career would let me serve? In energy work, something clicked. As a soldier who’d served in places where reliable power wasn’t guaranteed, I understood the fundamental link between energy and prosperity.

But Nebraska’s energy future faces a critical threat: Washington’s broken interconnection process. If we want to power our homes and family farms and next-generation AI data centers, we need to drag this decades-old