The newly created Nebraska Data Center Task Force includes 17 members with a range of business and political affiliations related to data center development.

Gov. Jim Pillen announced his appointments to the task force Wednesday, Aug. 19. The task force stems from the governor’s recent executive order barring new data center projects from receiving tax incentives under the ImagiNE Act program.

According to 10/11 NOW, Nebraska data center projects have received an estimated $519 million in property tax breaks since the program’s inception in 2021.

The 17-member task force is charged with helping evaluate the impact of data centers on water resources, power grids, and local infrastructure. It will also help county officials craft zoning guidelines and policy frameworks to manage data center growth. Under Pillen’s order, the task force will provide guidance to the Legislature and report to the state Department of Water, Environment and Energy.

The slate of appointments was swiftly condemned by some local advocates opposing data center development across the state, including Jayden Speed, a former legislative candidate and organizer of Cass County Data Center Watch. Speed told Courier Nebraska he was “disappointed” by the roster.

“If you look at the names of the individuals appointed, it’s really a who’s who of those that stand to gain a lot of money from data center development in the state. I don’t think anyone on that task force will question data center development, look at the real negative impacts, and listen to the concerns of community members,” Speed said. “I think their recommendations will be heavily skewed to benefit developers and data center companies.”

Following the announcement of his task force appointments, Pillen opened his Aug. 21 column: “Nebraska is open for business!”

“The task force will be instrumental in drafting legislation that provides further protections when it comes to data centers,” Pillen continued. “At the very least, it will involve imposing additional taxes. After all, data companies should be willing to invest in the communities where they operate and help support the infrastructure and resources that allow them to be there.”

The task force is anticipated to have its first meeting in September 2026. At this time, it is unknown if that meeting will be open to the public. The task force does have a website domain [dwee.nebraska.gov/data-center-task-force] but nothing appears on it at this time.

Nebraska Data Center Task Force Members

1. Mark Hewett – Berkshire Hathaway Energy

Mark Hewett serves as president, CEO, and director of Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE)—an energy holding company based in Des Moines, Iowa. It is wholly a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, following a 2024 acquisition. BHE controls a ranging portfolio of utility and energy businesses, supplying electricity and natural gas to more than 5 million customers across the US, UK, and Canada.

Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, has notable investments in big-tech companies like Apple and Alphabet, the parent company of Google—which operates two data centers in Nebraska with one more being built in Lincoln. The trillion dollar company also owns an aerospace manufacturing company benefiting from increased demand from AI companies for gas-powered turbines.

BHE reported “unprecedented load growth” requests from technology firms in 2025, and announced capital expenditure plans of $33.3 billion over the 2026-2028 period to meet the infrastructure needs for AI data center build-out.

Greg Abel, the current CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has said he prefers that AI data centers (sometimes called “hyperscalers”) bear the full cost of their immense energy demands without shifting rate burdens onto utility customers.

2. Chris Leitner – Tenaska

Chris Leitner serves as the president and CEO of Tenaska—an Omaha-based private energy company founded in 1987 and ranked last year the 50th largest private company in the US.

Earlier this year, Flatwater Free Press reported that Tenaska was partnering with Google to build a 2,000-acre natural gas power plant and data center in southeast Nebraska.

As reported by WOWT, the company optioned 1,354 acres in Cass County along Highway 75 south of Murray and Beaver Lake in June. Following widely oppositional community input, the Cass County board of commissioners unanimously approved a 12-month moratorium on data center projects.

The company is also behind proposals in Gage and Otoe counties, the latter of which passed a one-year moratorium, while the former is set to consider the idea in early September. 

Tenaska manages a power-generation fleet capacity of 6,622 megawatts in natural gas, wind, and solar across 16 facilities in 8 states.

According to campaign finance disclosures, Tenaska has made seven direct contributions to Jim Pillen since July 5, 2022, totaling $110,000. The company’s most recent contribution was $50,000 on Dec. 30, 2025. Pillen’s campaign also received a $50,000 contribution from “Google LLC and its Affiliates” on July 2, 2026.

3. David Miles – Kiewit Infrastructure Group

David Miles serves as president of Kiewit Infrastructure Group—one of the largest construction and engineering companies in the county, headquartered in downtown Omaha. The company employs over 34,000 people globally and recorded $18.2 billion in revenue in 2025.

Kiewit has a long history of government contract work, both federally and in Nebraska. Locally, the firm served as construction manager for Omaha’s $325 million RiverFront redevelopment project, collaborated with the Omaha Public Power District to build new natural gas generation units and built the $115 million Kiewit Hall for the College of Engineering on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s city campus.

Vicki Kramer, current Director of the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT), worked for Kiewit before her current role in Pillen’s administration.

According to campaign finance disclosures, the Kiewit Corporation made four direct campaign contributions to Pillen between September 2022 and December 2025—totaling $55,000.

Kiewit is also a major data center contractor. The company is currently in the process of transforming a retired Pennsylvania power plant into a 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center campus.

4. Mike Miller – HDR

Mike Miller serves as the broadband group leader at HDR—an Omaha-based design and engineering firm that boasts over 15,000 employees across 200 locations in 15 countries. 

According to the architecture news outlet BD+C, HDR is the second-largest data center engineering firm in the country, generating an estimated $177,521,000 in revenue from data center facilities in 2024.

In 2022, Nebraska passed legislation opening the door to more private-sector involvement in public transportation projects. NDOT then brought in HDR to help update the state’s guidelines for how those projects should move forward. HDR was also selected this year by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents to serve as one of the lead architects of record for NU’s massive $600 million renovation plan for Memorial Stadium.

Campaign finance databases show an “HDR Inc Employee Owner” donated directly to Pillen, a former NU Regent, twice in 2022, totalling $7,500.

In 2021, HDR faced public backlash and eventually a federal lawsuit for using a proprietary surveillance program—dubbed STRATA—to monitor online activist groups opposing their ongoing infrastructure and jail-building projects at the time.

5. Tony Cotton

Tony Cotton is a retired US Air Force four-star general who last served as the 12th commander of the US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska.

He is a board member of HDR.

6. Javier Fernandez – OPPD

Javier Fernandez serves as the president and CEO of the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD)—the public, nonprofit utility that provides electricity to about 893,000 people. OPPD’s eight-member, officially nonpartisan board of directors are elected to represent Omaha and 13 surrounding counties for six-year terms. Fernandez has held the role since 2021 and first joined OPPD in 2017.

Fernandez also serves as president of the Nebraska Power Association board and as a board member for Ameritas, a mutual financial services and insurance company headquartered in Lincoln. Ameritas’ wealth management arm holds stock in companies tied to data center infrastructure, including Monolithic Power Systems and NVIDIA.

As reported by Nebraska Public Media, data centers consumed 1% of the electricity sold by OPPD in 2018. In 2024, data centers used 21%. By 2035, data centers are projected to account for 41% of OPPD’s electricity sales.

For the first time in over two decades, OPPD commissioned two new power plants in September 2025. Fernandez told WOWT that data centers and AI, among general manufacturing sector growth, were key drivers for construction.

7. Tom Kent – NPPD

Tom Kent serves as the president and CEO of the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD)— the state’s largest publicly-owned electric utility, serving over 500,000 people in 84 out of Nebraska’s 93 counties. It’s governed by an 11-member board of directors, on which members are elected to serve six-year terms. Kent first joined NPPD in 1990 and was appointed to lead the district by the board in 2020.

NPPD’s website says Nebraska is “ideal for energy-intensive data centers,” citing the state’s central location, reliable power grid, strong fiber network, relatively low risk of major natural disasters, business-friendly tax incentives, and access to renewable energy.

Kent told PublicPower.org that data centers are drawn to Nebraska because “public power is generally thought of as easier to work with and can be more responsive because we often have less regulatory hurdles,” while also acknowledging resident concerns about water quality and electric rates.

Earlier this month, it was announced that NPPD and OPPD would be among the founding members of the SAFERai.power initiative, a risk-mitigation effort launched by the Electric Power Research Institute—a nonprofit research firm for the electricity industry that Kent serves as a board member for.

8. Emeka Anyanwu – LES

Emeka Anyanwu serves as the CEO of the Lincoln Electric System (LES)—a publicly owned, nonprofit electric utility that provides electricity to about 275,000 people in Lincoln and the surrounding area. The nine members of the utility’s board are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council of Lincoln. Anyanwu was approved for the role and began at the start of 2024.

In 2023, Google announced its plans to build its third data center in Nebraska, which ended up settling near northeast Lincoln on N. 56th and I-80 where it remains under construction.

In September 2025, LES received $300,000 from Google to expand energy-efficiency upgrades for affordable housing in Lincoln, with funding aimed at rental units in a city rehabilitation program. 

Anyanwu also serves on the board of directors for the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, which celebrated Google’s data center announcement. While testifying on a bill pertaining to large-scale electric users in 2026 before the legislature’s Natural Resources Committee, Anyanwu told lawmakers that LES maintains a “good relationship” with Google and Meta.

On Aug. 21, LES and Google announced an agreement aimed at bringing up to 202 megawatts of solar energy into the regions power supply to help support the tech giant’s data center near Lincoln.

9. Rick Nelson – Nebraska Rural Electric Association

Rick Nelson serves as the general manager of the Nebraska Rural Electric Association (NREA)—a private, nonprofit trade association and lobbying group that represents 35 rural electric systems operating over 97,000 miles of electrical line across the state. Nelson was named general manager by the organization’s executive committee in 2022. He also led the Custer Public Power District until late 2025.

In a December 2025 column, Nelson argued that Nebraska’s current debate over data centers and other large new electric loads echoes an earlier era when deep-well irrigation raised similar fears about power shortages and rising costs. He suggested that the state successfully adapted then, and can do the same now.

NREA is a member of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a trade organization expressly in favor of environmental policies that “rely on incentives” and encourage “voluntary” conservation efforts.

A note on public power

Nebraska is the only state in the nation where 100% of retail electric utility services are provided by publicly owned entities, like the power districts listed above. Because these entities are owned by the community, rather than outside stockholders, they operate on a nonprofit, cost-of-service basis.

In 2026, state lawmakers debated and ultimately passed legislation—LB 1261—which creates a pathway for very large industrial customers, like data centers, to bring or develop private power generation while still operating within Nebraska’s public power system.

The bill, introduced at Gov. Pillen’s request, generally prohibits public power utilities from exercising eminent domain to acquire privately owned electric generation facilities if they meet certain conditions:

• The facility must serve a single-user entity with a new electric load exceeding 1,000 megawatts at a single site.
• They must be physically located on, or adjacent to, that large industrial customer. 
• Projects are subject to formal approval from the Nebraska Power Review Board.
• Parties must execute a long-term contract with the local public power district, and the facility can only be used to serve that specific industrial partner.

Under the legislation, industrial customers would be required to pay for all costs, grid upgrade fees, and congestion charges resulting from their project.

The private-energy carveout outlined in the bill applies to state contracts through Dec. 31, 2031.

When the bill came before the legislature’s Natural Resources committee, representatives for NPPD, OPPD, LES, NREA, and Tenaska testified in support of the measure. Gov. Pillen celebrated the bill’s signing in early June.

10. Micaela Wuehler – Lincoln County

Micaela Wuehler serves as the District 3 representative on the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners—which consists of five members.

The Lincoln County board has assumed center stage in Nebraska’s evolving relationship with data center projects, as a recall effort was launched against three of the board’s commissioners in July following a controversial 2-3 vote on a data center moratorium.

The recall targets those commissioners who voted no:

• Joe Hewgley – District 1
• Chris Bruns – District 4
• Jerry Woodruff – District 5

In late July, Wuehler said data centers have become a major issue for county officials nationwide, not just in Nebraska. After attending a National Association of Counties conference in New Orleans, she said sessions on data centers drew heavy interest from officials comparing notes on land use, infrastructure, and community impacts. Wuehler said she brought back best-practice materials and plans to compare them with Nebraska’s land-use “toolbox” to see what local officials may need to add or adjust.

After Courier Nebraska detailed some affiliations of Nebraska Data Center Task Force members, Wuehler responded by saying she would “fill the void” and “be that member asking the tough questions and working to ensure the recommendations are protective to our people, land, water, wildlife and Nebraska way of life.”

11. Angi Burmeister – Sarpy County

Angi Burmeister serves as the District 3 representative on the Sarpy County Board of Commissioners—which consists of five members.

Social media giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, operates one of its largest data centers in the county, in Sarpy County near Papillion. The facility spans 4 million square feet across nine planned or completed buildings and went live in 2019. Sarpy is also home to a Google-owned data center.

Reacting to her appointment to the Nebraska data center task force, Burmeister said on social media: “Good decisions require details. Looking forward to hearing from the great group of individuals I get the opportunity to serve with on their insight in their areas of expertise.”

Meta’s data center in Sarpy County is not located Burmeister’s district, but rather in District 5.

12. Heath Mello – Greater Omaha Chamber

Heath Mello is president and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce—the main business organization for the state’s most populous city. He was named to the role in 2023 after previously serving as a state senator from 2009 to 2017.

The Greater Omaha Chamber and Mello have openly supported data center development in the area. In 2025, the chamber announced a partnership with Scott Data, a nonprofit data center on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus, to position the city as a leading AI hub in the Midwest. The initiative is intended to help local businesses adopt AI, attract technology-focused companies, and give small and midsize firms access to Scott Data’s infrastructure and services.

“This partnership is a bold step forward in making Omaha the premier destination in the Midwest and the country for AI innovation and adoption,” said Mello.

In an op-ed penned by Mello in July 2026, he argued that data center development in Nebraska should be viewed not just as a local land-use issue, but as part of the broader US-China race for artificial intelligence dominance. Mello wrote that Nebraska has major advantages for data centers but warns that local permitting fights and zoning delays could slow American AI growth while China accelerates.

13. Kevin Stocker – Nebraska Public Service Commission

Kevin Stocker serves as the District 5 commissioner on the Nebraska Public Service Commission. He was elected in November 2022.

As detailed in a recent report from the Energy and Policy Institute, Stocker is connected to the Regulators Roundtable—a subgroup of the Republican organization GOPAC—which functions as a “secretive” influence and policy network connecting utility commissioners with corporate industry “investors,” facilitation communications with the Trump administration, and advancing the interests of incumbent fossil generators and monopoly utilities.

The report also contains public record documents that show GOPAC affiliates drafting a pro-coal, anti-renewable op-ed for Stocker in April 2025. A nearly identical version was later published under Stocker’s name.

GOPAC launched the Regulators Roundtable in January 2025. Roundtable president and GOPAC board director Elizabeth Gianini described one of the roundtable’s objectives as countering “liberal organizations” that were “advocating against conservative commissioners.” A member newsletter said the group exists to equip conservative commissioners with the knowledge to “push back” on “liberal environmental groups pushing a 100% green energy agenda.”

Following the announcement of his appointment, Stocker said in a social media comment section that his goal on the force is to “gather factual information, ask tough questions, and ensure decisions are guided by reliable data—not speculation, fear, or political agendas.”

“As always, I will seek the opinions of my fellow Nebraskans. Your concerns, experiences, and perspectives deserve to be part of this important conversation,” Stocker said.

14. Ron Kaminski

Kaminski is vice chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and president of the Nebraska & Southwest Iowa Building & Construction Trades Council—the local affiliate of North America’s Building Trades Unions. The council represents organized construction workers across Nebraska and parts of southwest Iowa and works with signatory contractors in the building and construction industry.

In June, Kaminski spoke before the city council of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in opposition to a local moratorium on data center projects, saying projects of the like can create thousands of jobs in the region.

While the Cass County Board of Commissioners considered, and ultimately approved, a 12-month data center moratorium earlier this month, Kaminski offered neutral testimony saying “We can meet somewhere in the middle.”

Kaminski cited work with lawmakers, environmentalists and labor groups “to ensure we have disclosure in water and electrical usage, that burdens are not shifted to residents, that companies pay their fair share of taxes, that decommissioning plans are drafted, and that there is a process to enter into a community benefit agreement.”

In response to Pillen’s appointment announcement, Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, did not reference Kaminski directly but criticized the overall roster on social media.

“What a total disgrace,” Kleeb wrote.

“Pillen is trying to pretend he cares about the risks and concerns of data centers and then appoints NO ONE from a community group, environmental group or property rights group,” she said. “This is stacked with industry and corporations.”

15. John Winkler – Papio NRD

Winker serves as the general manager of the Papio Natural Resources District (NRD)—which covers six southeast Nebraska counties, including all of Douglas, Sarpy, Washington, and Dakota counties and portions of Burt and Thurston counties.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Winkler also works as an analyst for Catalyst Public Affairs, which lists several clients on its website, including Sarpy County, NextEra Energy Inc., and the Papio NRD.

Catalyst’s website says it “proudly” represents Koch Companies Public Sector LLC and Affiliates, an entity affiliated with Koch Inc., the multinational conglomerate linked to Charles Koch, a politically influential conservative billionaire whose companies have been tied to data center growth.

Winkler is also the registered agent for the public affairs consulting firm “The Win Group”—a lobbying organization that advocates for data center companies and projects.

Reacting to his appointment on the board, Winker posted on social media: “I look forward to working with such a talented and knowledgeable group of professionals to protect our natural resources, grow our economy, expand our tax base and ensure our national security for generations to come!!!!”

Below are screenshots from The Win Group Facebook page, which has since restricted who could view their page since this article was published.

16. David Eigenberg – Upper Big Blue NRD

Eigenberg serves as the general manager of the Upper Big Blue NRD —which covers nine counties in south-central and southeastern Nebraska: Adams, Butler, Clay, Fillmore, Hamilton, Polk, Saline, Seward, and York.

Eigenberg (misspelled “Eichenberg” in Pillen’s announcement) was appointed to the role in 2016. He announced this summer he will retire in December 2026.

17. Doug Whitfield – Metropolitan Utilities District

Whitfield serves as the vice president of water operations for the Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD)—a public utility providing drinking water and natural gas to over 600,000 people in the greater Omaha area. MUD is governed by an elected seven-member board of directors.

Before his current role, Whitfield worked as the director of MUD’s Platte South Water Treatment Plant. The utility operates three water treatment plants in total.

Speaking on data centers with the Midlands Business Journal in April, Whitfield emphasized that the utility is prepared to support future growth, saying its systems, facilities, and workforce has put the region in a strong position for development.