Qualifications

After a highly successful 40-year career in the electric power industry as an engineer and a senior executive,  I decided to start a second career as a professional photographer.  Things got off to a great start until the pandemic hit.  When my portrait business slowed down, I was fortunate to land a contract with History Nebraska to create 40 short (under 5-minute) videos documenting historical places and events across the state.  This forced me to learn how to edit using state-of-the-art software, like Adobe Premiere Pro.  Since then, I've created a half dozen or so documentary films that have screened at local and regional film festivals. I'm also pursuing an MFA in screenwriting at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  

My desire to make Broken Promises is very personal.  Because of my background, I was asked by an environmental organization to conduct an independent review of the risk assessment that OPPD used to justify the continued operation of the North Omaha Station coal units.  I quickly ascertained that the technical basis the OPPD staff used to justify the continued burning of coal was highly problematic. For example, the health risk assessment didn't accurately consider the primary contributors to asthma: ozone and fine particle pollution. North Omaha has one of the highest asthma rates in the entire country.  The OPPD staff was also trying to draw inferences about voltage fluctuations in a disingenuous way.  After spending the better part of two weeks briefing board members on my conclusions, I concluded that the board could benefit from someone with my experience as an engineer and senior executive in the electric power industry. Although I entered the race late and was substantially outspent by my opponents, I came relatively close to making it through the primaries.  The candidate who received the most votes in the primary wants to keep the coal plant open.   I hope that this film draws broader attention to this story of environmental injustice in Mid-America.