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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, FEB. 16, 2009 – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) today honors
Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) with the Association’s Distinguished Service
Award for his efforts on behalf of rural cooperatives.
“Senator Kohl has long championed the cause of rural electric cooperatives,
fighting on several fronts to strengthen and protect this unique rural cooperative
program,” said Jack Wolfe, president of NRECA’s Board of Directors.
In the last Congress and in the current Congress, Senator Kohl has and is
leading the battle to eliminate the exemption of railroads from antitrust laws.
He is the primary author of S. 233 “The Railroad Antitrust Enforcement
Act of 2009.” This exemption, combined with consolidations that have
reduced the number of rail companies to four, has put shippers at the mercy
of the freight companies. Dairyland Power Cooperative, in La Crosse, Wis.,
for example, has testified that its freight bill jumped by $35 million in one
year, driving up costs to consumers by 20 percent. Senator Kohl has taken up
the flag for co-ops and their consumer members, fighting for equity.
In addition, Senator Kohl fought to keep Rural Utilities Service loan fund
levels at $6.6 billion and maintain the successful Rural Economic Development
Loan and Grants program, a program well-suited to address the current economic
crisis. In 2004-05, when the Office of Management and Budget promulgated rules
preventing the Cooperative Finance Corporation from using of rural development
funds, Senator Kohl aggressively – and successfully – sought to
get these rules changed.
On an issue likely to become increasingly important, Senator Kohl, understanding
the need for a national depository for spent nuclear fuel, supported the Yucca
Mountain waste facility in 2002.
In all these issues, Senator Kohl has shown both foresightedness and a commitment
to his rural constituents.
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