Coastal areas inundated by storms and flooding. Massive populations needing to be relocated. The loss of costly infrastructure. Closer to home, wilder swings from too much rain to drought and water shortages that will cost Midlands agriculture millions of dollars in productivity and food.

Williams said people should know that all three new OPPD board members will be realistic about how quickly they should move. The OPPD board re-evaluates its strategic directives each year, and SD-7 was just adopted.

“I think we’ll probably start looking at long-term planning and what it would take to move in that sort of direction,” he said last week. “I don’t think we would vote again right away. We are reasonable.”

If the new, more environmental wing of the OPPD board has a swing vote, it’s probably Mollhoff, who says her military background and bases of rural and suburban support will keep her from going too far too fast.

The people she talked to while campaigning focused more on reliability and affordability and, in a number of rural places, connectivity, than climate change. But she wants OPPD to pick up the pace on renewables, too.