Posts

2025

Powering Forward

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Electric co-op leaders meet to conduct business

Every fall the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, of which the Colorado Rural Electric Association and Colorado’s electric co-ops are members, hosts regional meetings for the purpose of considering member resolutions and conducting other business. The resolutions adopted by electric co-ops around the country guide the policy direction of our national trade group and reflect the bottom-up approach to governance.

This year’s Regions 7&9 Meeting (Colorado is in Region 7) was held in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. At this meeting, delegates representing states in these two regions heard presentations from a variety of different experts in the energy industry as well as updates from co-op leaders and other affiliated companies that support electric co-ops.

One of the main objectives of the meeting is to have the regional delegates consider proposed new resolutions and amendments to existing resolutions. This year, electric co-op leaders voted on two new resolutions. The first encourages NRECA to lobby for reliable postal service. As you may have experienced, postal service has been deteriorating in rural Colorado, in some cases impacting the delivery of this magazine and other communications from your co-op. Electric co-ops and their members depend on reliable postal service, and we will continue to let our members of Congress know that the recent problems are unacceptable.

The second new resolution encourages NRECA to support the development of artificial intelligence technology that could benefit electric co-ops. While co-ops, in many cases, are challenged to provide the power necessary to support AI data centers, there are also AI use cases that can improve the efficiency of co-ops.

Other resolutions that were considered at the regional meeting related to reducing the risk of wildfires, providing for voluntary membership in regional transmission organizations, and setting a reasonable time frame for the industry to incorporate more renewable energy.

When it comes to considering the new resolutions or amendments to existing resolutions, NRECA has a very thorough process that encourages member participation and input. I chaired the Region 7 resolutions committee as well as the vote that took place the next day to approve the resolutions. Every NRECA member who attended the regional meeting had the right and opportunity to suggest changes to any of the resolutions that govern NRECA’s lobbying activities.

At the regional meeting, I also counted votes for a director election to the board of directors of CFC, one of the banks that provides capital to electric co-ops. We checked and double-checked the votes to make sure we arrived at the same outcome each time.

Everyone associated with the electric co-op program takes voting and elections very seriously, and we do our best to make sure the results are accurate. You can rest assured that this responsibility is also fulfilled by your local electric co-op whenever there is an election for board members or other business.

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

Advocating in D.C. for Colorado Co-ops

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The Colorado Rural Electric Association spends many hours and resources representing the interests of its member co-ops before the Colorado General Assembly. Each year from January through May, CREA staff and contract lobbyists carefully follow all the legislative proposals considered by our state legislature to determine if they will have any impact on electric co-ops. This is a job that requires our attention 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make sure proposed new laws won’t have any negative impacts on electric co-op members.

In addition to our work at the state level, CREA also works with the national trade association — the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association — to promote and protect the interests of Colorado co-ops in Washington, D.C. While most of the policy action takes place in Colorado, there are many federal initiatives that are relevant to Colorado’s electric co-ops.

In 2021, the United States Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. One of the provisions of that law authorized electric co-ops to apply for grants and loans to help pay for distribution grid projects that will reduce the risk of wildfires and improve the resilience of electric co-op systems. In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a loan and grant program specifically for electric co-ops. The funds authorized by this law were made available to electric co-ops to help them acquire new generating resources and improve the reliability of their systems.

Colorado’s electric co-ops collectively spent thousands of hours working with the appropriate government agencies and filing applications for these grants and loans. Over the last year or so, CREA’s member co-ops have been extremely successful in being awarded grants and loans that will be administered by the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Homeland Security. These grants and loans provide a historic opportunity for Colorado’s electric co-ops to invest in infrastructure that will serve their members at the end of the line with affordable, reliable electricity for many years into the future.

I recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with a group of Colorado co-op CEOs to meet with our members of Congress to emphasize the critical importance of these loans and grants to Colorado’s electric co-op members. Co-ops serve about 70% of Colorado’s land mass, and any help we can get to keep rates affordable and service reliable is much appreciated.

The grants and loans that have been committed to Colorado’s electric co-ops will benefit thousands of Coloradans, and we urge all officials of the federal government to honor these commitments.

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.