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The Co-op Commitment to Affordable Power
March 4, 2009
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Each month you budget for your phone, electricity, house and car payments. Generally you know how much each bill will cost and plan your spending accordingly. But what if you couldn’t control your energy costs? What if, each month, they climbed beyond your reach?
At South Plains Electric Cooperative, we deliver affordable power to you every day. It’s why electric cooperatives were created, and it’s a commitment we plan to keep. But national energy legislation could force prices higher than many consumers can afford, effectively taking us back to the dawn of the twentieth century.
In the 1920s and early ’30s, central station electric service was a luxury that only 10 percent of rural residents nationwide enjoyed—and those who had power paid dearly for it. When Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Warm Springs, Ga., in 1924, he was dismayed to find electricity for his small cottage cost four times what it did at his estate in New York. After being elected president, he created the federal Rural Electrification Administration by Executive Order to make power affordable for all Americans. As a result, electric cooperatives were born.
Innovations in line building pioneered by cooperative engineers and the competitive pressure cooperatives placed on investor-owned utilities to serve rural areas slashed the cost of providing electric service in the countryside by 50 percent or more. In the decades since, cooperatives have established a proven track record of offering stable and affordable electric rates. Data from the U. S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in fact, shows that since 2000, cooperative rates have consistently run lower than the industry average. This is further proof that we’re committed to keeping electricity bills within your means.
But the struggle for affordable power that farmers and their neighbors fought three-quarters of a century ago has flared up again. When adjusted for inflation, EIA predicts the price of electricity for residential consumers will climb 14.6 percent by 2030—but federal energy and climate change policy will likely impact energy prices further. Electric cooperatives are needed once again to make sure affordable power will be available in 2030 and beyond. Our job, on your behalf, is to work closely with Congress to find the best solutions for addressing climate change while keeping the price of electricity within your means.
South Plains Electric Cooperative remains committed to providing you with safe, reliable and affordable power—but we need your help. Through the “Our Energy, Our Future”™ grassroots awareness campaign, cooperative members across the nation are speaking out about the importance of keeping electric bills affordable. New energy and climate change policies being debated in Congress could turn your monthly budget upside-down. Now is the time to ask our elected officials: Will you please work with electric cooperatives to be sure public policy meets my needs for affordable electricity?
Sources: The Next Greatest Thing, U.S. Energy Information Administration