Our friends at Clean Up the River Environment (CURE), a rural environmental group based in sunny Montevideo, Minnesota, along with the Center for Rural Affairs and We Own It, continue their excellent scrutiny of rural electrical co-ops.
The latest installment? As CURE's website notes:
Rural electric cooperatives’ loyalty to coal is holding rural America back.
That’s according to a new report authored by CURE, We Own It, and the Center for Rural Affairs.
During the 1970s, the country’s electric co-ops made significant investments to build coal-burning power plants; this was done in the interest of providing low-cost electricity to their member-owners. Co-ops took on massive amounts of debt, mostly from the Federal Government. One year a loan to Basin Electric for a coal plant took up almost the entire annual budget for loans from the Rural Utility Service (RUS), a department of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In 2019, the world of energy is very different.
Coal is now increasingly expensive as well as being a leading contributor to climate change. With this rise in the cost of coal and the simultaneous drop in the price of renewables, coal is an increasingly bad choice for utilities. Today most coal plants are considered to be uneconomic assets by utilities, and co-ops are identifying coal plants as stranded assets.
Rural Electric Co-ops are caught between the push for clean energy and their stranded assets leading many co-ops to double down on their bad investments and push a pro-coal agenda that approaches a dogmatic rejection of the potential prosperity of clean energy for rural communities. As co-ops reject the new reality of more affordable electricity generation and a more distributed, safe, and modern utility system, rural America is being left behind by clean energy prosperity while also having more expensive electricity and an unstable utility structure.
We need strong, forward-looking Rural Electric Co-ops that are ready to serve our rural communities for the next 100 years. We need our co-ops to deliver on their founding promise of member control and democratizing the rural economy. Relieving the burden of electric co-op coal debt is one way to make that happen
A Center for Rural Affairs press release states U.S. coal plants could be replaced by renewable energy, report finds:
“Rural Electrification 2.0: The Transition to a Clean Energy Economy” explores cost savings to the U.S. associated with moving away from coal-based power generation, while also exploring contracts and other factors which put electric cooperatives in significant debt. In addition, the report presents strategies for governments and cooperatives to restructure their debt and provides advice for those seeking to transition away from coal-based power generation.
“Rural communities will be better positioned to realize energy independence once current debt on existing coal plant infrastructure is eliminated,” said Erik Hatlestad, energy democracy program director at CURE. “This, in addition to investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, would help electric cooperatives plan for the future and serve their members more effectively.”
Highlighting leadership on renewable energy investment, the report recognizes electric cooperatives that have set ambitious renewable energy generation targets. For example, Central Iowa Power Cooperative announced a 100-megawatt solar project in December 2018 that would be largest in the state.
“Cooperatives commit to seven principles including democratic member control, concern for community, as well as values of equity, equality, solidarity, social responsibility, and more,” said Liz Veazey, network director at We Own It. “As we work to mitigate the impacts of climate change, adopting more renewable energy projects will provide new tax revenue and jobs for rural communities while reducing emissions.”
Here's the report:
Rural Electrification 2.0: The Transition to a Clean Energy Economy uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
Earlier on Bluestem: CURE, We Own It & Center for Rural Affairs: 67% of electric coops' energy derived from fossil fuels
Not so ready kilowatts? CURE's MN Local Energy Project releases Rural Electric Co-op Report Card
Photo: A coal-fired power plant's smokestack.
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