Head of Nebraska Environmental Trust to take post with Trump Administration

LINCOLN — The executive director of the Nebraska Environmental Trust is resigning for a job offer with the Trump Administration in the nation’s capital.

Karl Elmshaeuser, who has served in the post for three years, tendered a letter of resignation to the Trust Board a week ago. His last day will be May 18.

He was out of the office Wednesday and unavailable for comment. A press release from the Trust said that he had been “offered” a job in Washington, D.C., and further information would be released later.

Lottery proceeds

The Trust awards about $20 million a year in grants from state lottery proceeds to local and state environmental groups for things like recycling programs, renovating silted-in lakes and restoring natural prairies and wildlife habitat.

The agency has come under fire in recent years for rejecting too many grants as “ineligible,” which has led to a decline in applications for funds and fewer grants. The preliminary state budget calls for diverting some of the Trust’s excess funds — $15 million — for state surface water, groundwater and soil conservation projects.

Elmshaeuser was the legislative liaison with the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy prior to taking the Trust job.

He had previously served as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program in Nebraska, and as a member of the Ogallala City Council. Elmshaeuser ran unsuccessfully for the Nebraska Legislature in 2016.

Time of turmoil

He took over the Trust at a time of turmoil, and led a “process improvement” effort spawned by two performance audits.

The Trust stirred controversy in February 2020 when the board voted to defund a handful of grants for conservation, habitat and wetland projects and instead give those funds to install ethanol blender pumps at service stations.

The swap prompted a lawsuit and the formation of a watchdog group called Friends of the Environmental Trust. Both efforts maintained that the Trust was straying from its original mission of helping projects that hadn’t previously found funding, and instead was financing work that should be paid for with state tax funds.

The request for the ethanol pump grant, which had drawn the support of Gov. Pete Ricketts, a staunch supporter of the corn-based fuel, was later withdrawn.

The Trust, in a press release, said that a national search will be conducted to replace Elmshaeuser, who was paid $120,852-a-year as of 2023.