Annual Meeting, Trends, Reports & Analyses
Co-ops Urged to Lead on Energy
ORLANDO, Fla.—Nearly 70 years after her grandfather led the Allies to victory in Europe, Susan Eisenhower called on the electric co-op community to lead the charge in securing America’s energy future.
Energy expert Susan Eisenhower urged co-op leaders to do all they can in securing the nation’s energy future. (Photo By: Luis Gomez Photos)
“We have to take control over the conversation and be sure to ask the right questions. And quite frankly, and maybe most of all, we have to have the courage to tell the truth,” Eisenhower, an expert on energy matters, told the March 8 general session of the NRECA annual meeting.
“At the end of the day we have to understand that our regional interests are inextricably interwoven with our national interests, and if America fails to rise to the challenge each of us will suffer together.”
The granddaughter of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower cautioned co-op leaders to “guard against bumper sticker solutions and bumper sticker politics,” adding that both political parties have made “great overstatements” about what is achievable in the energy sector.
Eisenhower believes the recession has “lulled people into forgetting about the long-range growth in energy demand.” She said that eventually there could be “an impossible strain on our infrastructure without a solid plan for modernization,” both in power production and transmission.
Eisenhower, a member of Adams Electric Cooperative in Gettysburg, Pa., said consumer-members need to understand the issues involved.
“Public education is absolutely critical for explaining the risks and the benefits of this transition we are about to undertake,” she said. “Because at the end of the day, Americans, generally speaking, cannot conceive of the possibility there will be shortages, or that we will fail to transmit power immediately and on demand.”