Electric Co-op Today

Co-op officials are calling on directors, managers and members to step up efforts to influence the climate change debate on Capitol Hill as it moves forward in a key Senate committee.

NRECA CEO Glenn English said grassroots action is timely because the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is taking up a 923-page bill drafted by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the panel, and John Kerry, D-Mass.

Boxer, who introduced the bill Oct. 23, plans to bring it to a full committee vote after hearings in late October, but English said it needs an overhaul in several critical areas to protect consumers against adverse economic impacts.

“Attention in the Senate will be focused on this issue in the weeks to come, so there is no better time to make sure the voices of consumers are heard during this debate,” English said.

He urged co-op leaders to contact their senators, since the bill is likely to undergo revisions on the floor, if it passes committee muster.

Already, co-ops from around the country have sent more than 600,000 postcards to the Senate, stressing the need to keep consumers first in the climate change debate.

For instance, at St. Croix Electric Cooperative, Hammond, Wis., members arriving at an annual October open house were greeted by a 25-foot outdoor banner raising cost considerations.

To date, 15 percent of the co-op’s members have contacted Wisconsin Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold through phone calls, postcards, and NRECA’s Our Energy, Our Future Web site, according to spokesman Disa McClellan.

Like a bill passed by the House in June, the Boxer-Kerry measure relies on a formula developed by the Edison Electric Institute that allocates permits to emit carbon dioxide among local distribution companies, such as co-ops, based half on their historic emissions levels and half on their retail sales.

The allocation section of the Boxer-Kerry bill is complicated, with about 35 separate provisions related to the distribution of allowances.

Kirk Johnson, NRECA vice president of environmental policy, said co-op officials are studying the allocation scheme, which sets aside money from distributed allowances for programs as varied as public health and tropical deforestation.

“As drafted, the bill does not meet many of our threshold tests,” he said.

Tags: Cap and Trade, Climate Change Legislation, Glenn English, Kirk Johnson, Our Energy Our Future