Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, Nebraska. (Courtesy of NPPD)

Nearly a century ago, George Norris, a great United States senator, made the case for electrifying rural America.

“These young men and young women, America’s farmers of the future, observing all the wonders of the modern age of electricity, will not be content with the homes of earlier America,” Norris wrote in his autobiography. “Unless those homes in the countrysides are lighted electrically and equipped with the devices electricity provides — for comfort, convenience and efficiency — they will not be content. They will have been trained in the colleges and universities of this country for the most efficient agricultural methods, and electricity will be a part of their lives.”

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