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NRECA CEO Glenn English delivering his report to members at the 2010 Annual Meeting.
Photo Credit: Luis Gomez |
Atlanta, Georgia, February 16, 2010 -- Directing a forceful charge to the nation’s co-op leaders at the opening session on February 15, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Glenn English told them they must demand that elected officials put affordability at the center of their energy policy discussions.
Speaking at the 2010 NRECA Annual Meeting, English said a unified, focused co-op position can help cut through the polarization and political stridency in the nation’s capital that has stalled efforts to produce constructive energy-related legislation.
“Electric cooperatives cannot afford a scorched earth politics. We cannot afford to participate in that kind of political debate. That divides co-ops,” English said.
In blunt language, leaders heard English explain how they can affect a range of public policy challenges that hold economic consequences for co-op members across the country. Foremost among them: the regulation of carbon emissions from stationary sources by the Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Clean Air Act.
English said the apparent failure of Congress to adopt comprehensive climate change legislation makes it more likely that EPA will fill the regulatory void, and he called co-ops leaders to back recently introduced bills that would effectively block the agency from proceeding.
Specifically, he asked co-op members to seek as many cosponsors as possible for a bipartisan measure sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and two bills in the House, one written by Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and a second authored by Reps. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo.
The details and scope of the bills differ, but all three essentially would inhibit EPA from enacting a greenhouse gas program from stationary sources as part of the Clean Air Act’s permitting process.
While all three bills face major uphill hurdles to become law, English said co-ops can send a message to President Obama by working to round up support for them as part the Our Energy, Our Future program, which encourages a dialogue between co-op members and their elected officials.
English also lashed out at Obama’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget, which would reduce the Rural Utilities Service electric loan program by $2.6 billion, yet leave untouched large tax breaks that amount to subsidies for the rest of the electric utility industry.
That proposal should spark outrage among co-op leaders, since, unlike tax subsidies for other utilities, the RUS program generates revenue for the federal government and creates jobs, he said.
“That’s discriminating against the not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives,” he said. “Not only is it not fair, it doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t pass basic arithmetic. We must oppose this discrimination against our members.”
On railroad reform, English called for support of a bill adopted by the Senate Commerce Committee that would overhaul federal regulation of the rail industry and ease the burden on shippers who have to pay excess rates because they lack access to competitive service. Co-ops also need to prod Congress to provide siting authority for transmission lines to accommodate a planned influx of renewable energy, English said.
English also pointed to a statewide energy efficiency initiative developed by co-ops in South Carolina that he said could provide greater certainty for co-ops as they plan for their energy future. Under the program, co-ops will help members and small businesses conduct efficiency evaluations with an eye toward finding ways to reduce consumption.
That represents a break with the recent culture of the energy industry, since utilities have stressed sales to deal with excess generation built in the late 1970s and early 1980s, English said. But with a looming shortage of generation, instead of a surplus, using efficiency to buy time until the energy landscape is more certain “makes a lot of sense,” English said.
More than 6,000 representatives from cooperative electric utilities across the nation are attending the NRECA Annual Meeting, February 15-18, at the Atlanta Convention Center, during which they will set NRECA’s legislative and organizational agenda for 2010. In addition to considering and acting upon policy resolutions, delegates receive reports from NRECA officials, hear addresses by key public figures and business experts, and attend panel sessions on major issues affecting electric cooperatives and their consumer owners.
For more information, read the story on ECT.coop.
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