On Wednesday, CURE’s Minnesota Local Energy Project released the Rural Electric Co-op Report Card, details the shortcomings CURE found on the websites of Minnesota's 44 rural electric co-ops. Rural Electric Co-op website omissions make it difficult for co-op member-owners to govern their co-ops properly.
The Rural Electric Co-op Report Card is now available on the Minnesota Local Energy Project website.
In addition to the report card, the site includes an explainer about the project: Q&A: Duane Ninneman on the co-op report card project:
Duane Ninneman is Executive Director of CURE in Montevideo, Minnesota. He lives on a farm in Big Stone County.
Q: What sparked this review and report on co-op websites? Why did you do it?
Ninneman: It all stems from the premise that a co-op is an amazing model in the energy sector, because it’s nonprofit and community-owned — and because empowering communities to be involved in energy locally gives people such a great tool for their economies, as well as for their homes and farms and other businesses.
But if there’s a big gap between co-op leadership decision-making and most co-op members — if it’s not easy for members to understand co-op policies and participate — then that can be a real problem. For example, that could lead to a perception of leadership speaking for a community when in fact much of the community isn’t informed or engaged. Or it could lead to widely shared values – such as around locally produced clean energy – just not being well-represented at a leadership level.
So reviewing co-op websites is a starting point way to glimpse how co-ops are doing at this core idea of energy democracy, at helping people with easy access to information they need to have and exercise a say in the energy organizations they co-own.
Q: So what’s your overall takeaway from this project? What’s your message to Minnesotans?
Ninneman: Pretty simply, it’s that there is a huge need for improvement. The majority of Minnesota electric co-op websites don’t have information about topics like how member-owners can vote in co-op elections, or contact their board members, or attend a board meeting. Most don’t have basic explainers for people about how they’re charged on their bills or what sources of energy they’re bills are funding. This is pretty troubling. People need easy access to that kind basic information, to help ensure that a co-op really is the democracy it’s supposed to be.
Transparency and good communication is especially important at rural electric co-ops because they’re owned by the residents and businesses they serve. Co-op principles are all about democracy, accountability to members and helping members to participate. An electric co-op website isn’t the only way to communicate but it’s certainly a vital one in the digital age — the web is pretty much the first stop when you’re looking for any information. It’s a fundamental public-facing place to show commitment to transparency and engaging your community.
The fact that a handful of co-ops in the state are posting much of this basic information on their websites shows this is doable. The fact that the large majority aren’t posting most of this information shows the work to be done.
Read the rest of the interview on the site.
Why does this matter?
The project observes in its announcement of the project:
Rural Electric Co-ops (REC) were created as a part of the New Deal in the 1930s to bring electricity to rural communities across the country. In the beginning, all REC member-owners had a say in the operation and oversight of their electric utility and the information necessary to do so. This democratic control was central to how rural electric co-ops worked.
In recent years CURE has heard from many REC members-owners who have real concerns about how hard it is to be well-informed and connected to their co-ops. This difficulty in accessing important information and a perceived lack of transparency led the Minnesota Local Energy Project to look at what information co-op websites provide to their members. The result of this research is the Rural Electric Co-op Report Card.
One motivating change? A post on the website, State further restricts PUC oversight of electric co-ops, shares an excerpt fr a 2017 news item in the Star Tribune:
“The omnibus jobs and energy legislation signed by Gov. Mark Dayton will remove utility regulators’ authority to settle customer disputes with electric co-ops — a measure the governor earlier vetoed as a single-issue bill.
The new law will diminish the Minnesota Public Utility Commission’s oversight of the state’s 45 electric co-ops, which are mostly in rural areas. But it does allow the PUC to finish an inquiry into fees that the co-ops have been charging to customers with solar-panel arrays. The PUC is looking at whether the methodology behind the fees complies with state law….
Dayton had vetoed a similar measure in March after indicating he would quash bills that he perceived as weakening the PUC’s authority. The earlier stand-alone legislation had passed by large measures in both the House and Senate.”
The findings of the Rural Electric Co-op Report Card are important because without informed member-owners fully involved in decision-making, RECs don’t have the oversight of the community they serve. Also of interest on the new site's blog:Can co-op ideals thrive again? and What is “Energy Democracy?”
The press release announcing the report card notes:
Entrenched REC leadership have co-ops stuck in the old energy system reliant on dirty, expensive electricity—including being coerced into signing 60+ year coal-generated electricity contracts. Opportunities for energy efficiency, clean energy policy, and member-owned renewable energy are missed. This is especially troublesome in agricultural communities where farmers need ways to diversify income—and renewable energy production could be a solution.
However, in RECs around the country where member-owners have taken back governing power, these co-ops have shifted focus towards the future—clean energy, energy efficiency, local generation, member participation, and accessibility. Rural Electric Co-op member-owners know what’s best for their communities, and when empowered in their REC they can lead rural Minnesota into a promising future.
Here's hoping that the project reviews other communication tools used by the RECs, including newsletters.
CURE describes itself as
"a rural organization made up of people who care about the well-being of their neighbors, the health of the land and water, and the legacy we leave for future generations. As an organization long rooted in the movement for rural social justice CURE has expanded its work from only focusing on water to also include the areas of energy, climate, civic engagement, healthy rural communities, and rural democracy."
"The Minnesota Local Energy Project (MNLEP) of a project of CURE. MNLEP strives to transform the energy landscape across Minnesota by giving people the knowledge and power to advocate for their own energy future and to help build an equitable energy system that is clean, local, and democratic."
To learn more about all of CURE’s projects visit the organization's website.
Logo: Willie Wiredhands, electric co-ops' answer to Reddy Kilowatts, urging civic engagement by voting. Sadly, in most Minnesota electrical co-ops' own elections, a tiny percentage of members vote in a process that some researchers consider a bit less than democratic.
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