The Legislature is in a headlong rush to strip Lincoln of any elected representation on the governing board of the state’s largest public electric utility.

Whoa!

This drastic change in governance of the Nebraska Public Power District deserves more attention and a more informed discussion than has taken place so far, even though the measure swept to first-round approval on a 36-2 vote.

Half the Lincoln delegation seems to be asleep at the switch on the issue. Three Lincoln senators, Kathy Campbell, Colby Coash and Amanda McGill didn’t even vote.

In an odd and off-target comment on the bill, Sen. Tony Fulton even dissed his own constituents, contending that they don’t understand NPPD issues and don’t know for whom to vote.

Judging by that comment, Fulton feels more confident putting voters outside the Lincoln city limits in charge of NPPD, even though 30 percent of the electricity used in his home city is purchased at wholesale from NPPD. We hadn’t noticed that the voters in Lincoln were so noticeably substandard.

To be fair, there is a legitimate issue behind the proposal. Because Lincoln is growing, it might soon gain a third seat on the 11-member board.

To most fair-minded people that does seem skewed. Lincoln is NPPD’s second biggest wholesale customer, but NPPD has no retail customers in Lincoln.

But what’s the rush to such an extreme solution?

From all appearances, NPPD seems to be well-managed. Nebraska has the eighth-lowest retail electric rates in the county, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Energy Department.

That’s an enviable bottom line.

As the adage goes, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

NPPD is the state’s largest electric utility. Like all utilities in Nebraska, it is publicly owned. Its chartered territory currently includes 91 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.

That would be drastically altered by LB53, introduced by Sen. Deb Fischer of Valentine. The bill would limit NPPD’s chartered territory to its own retail service area and to wholesale customers that purchase more than 50 percent of their power from NPPD.

As the few legislative opponents of the bill have pointed out, decisions by the state’s largest utility on transmission lines, wind farms and construction of power plants have ramifications that affect all users of electricity in Nebraska. Newly elected Sen. Ken Haar of Lincoln pointed out that much of southeast Nebraska would be unrepresented on the board, even though Cooper Nuclear Station is in the area.

During first-round debate, senators rejected a compromise amendment to limit Lincoln to one seat on the NPPD board.

Mayor Chris Beutler, in a letter to the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee, noted that there has been little public discussion of the issue and suggested that the Legislature delay action this year and conduct an interim study on the bill.

The idea has merit. This blatant power grab deserves closer scrutiny.