Plugging In Rural Power Customers

At the annual meeting of the Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative on Saturday in Live Oak, Florida, members of the community had a chance to win more than a hundred door prizes. Of the hundreds who attended, some lucky customers left with a grill, a gift card, or even a small flatscreen television. Everyone, though, left with a clear message from PACE: it’s time for customers to stand up for smart energy policy.

PACE Executive Director Lance Brown explained to the members of the cooperative that the direction of national energy policy is toward higher costs and diminished reliability, a direction that will have a particularly negative impact on rural America. This trajectory is due to myriad federal regulations, including EPA rules that have accelerated the closure of power plants, added new layers of cost to power production, and skewed the energy market toward favored generation resources. Some in the federal government have used regulatory tools to make energy policy, a job that should be reserved for our elected officials. We believe the direction is one that will make America less competitive and that will ultimately endanger the world’s most reliable power grid.

“PACE’s focus on affordability and reliability reflects what we hear from our customers every day,” said Mike McWaters, Executive Vice President and CEO of SVEC. “What happens in Washington, DC, and Tallahassee has real consequences for the people we serve, and it is important to have voices like PACE advocating for a smart way forward.”

The edicts of the EPA are particularly threatening to rural cooperatives, which tend to have small generation fleets that rely heavily on coal- and natural gas-fired generation. EPA regulations, especially the agency’s new carbon dioxide mandate, weigh particularly heavily on coal-fired power. And while Florida doesn’t rely on coal as much as some other states, no one truly knows how restricting carbon dioxide will affect rural cooperatives in the state or their many customers.

Brown also talked to the crowd about the need to keep solar power in the proper context. With intense debate upcoming in Florida about a solar ballot initiative, customers need to be able to cut though the rhetoric of the campaign and recognize the realities. States that have outpaced Florida in solar deployment have done so largely because of state mandates and subsidies. Wisely, in our view, Florida has avoided such mandates and allowed the market – not government – to create the conditions for growth. That has led to Florida ranking #13 nationally in solar production, with many customers choosing to invest in solar rooftops.

Involving customers in conversations about energy policy, both on the state and federal levels, is crucial to achieving outcomes that are fair to everyone. Speaking to customers like those of SVEC was just one small part of the solution. It is time to plug in everyone.