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May 15, 2009 – “NRECA looks forward to reviewing the detailed legislative language released today by Chairman Waxman. Based on reports we have heard about what the revised draft contains, NRECA believes the bill has improved over the discussion draft released in late March. As I testified in April before the Energy and Commerce Committee, NRECA supports developing affordable, simple, and flexible climate change legislation. However, the bill does not yet meet that test.

“We greatly appreciate all members of the Energy and Commerce Committee who have worked hard to improve the legislation, and we look forward to continuing to work with members of the House and Senate to further improve the bill and make it a piece of legislation that electric cooperatives can support.

“The renewable energy provisions have been improved significantly in the bill as have the efficiency provisions. Including temporary free allowances in the bill is a step in the right direction to protecting electric cooperative consumers from unnecessarily increasing electricity bills, but the bill still leaves not-for-profit, consumer-owned cooperatives exposed to an auction of emission allowances. While the emission caps in the bill have been lowered somewhat, we believe they are still overly aggressive in the early years of the program and will need to be adjusted.”

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