05/09/05 Electric coops lobby D.C.

05/09/05 Electric coops lobby D.C.

Farm and Ranch May 9, 2005 More than 32-hundred leaders of the nation's rural electric cooperatives were on Capitol Hill last week to lobby their Congressional representatives, seeking support for consumer-friendly energy policies. Among the issues the members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association worked on was the rate hike proposal for Power Marketing Administrations, or PMAs. Sandy Flicker, executive director of the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association, says that since their power is supplied by the Bonneville Power Administration, the proposed PMA rate hike would have a serious negative effect on customers in their region. She says it would amount to a back door tax on rural electric customers. Flicker: "Specifically in the Northwest, it's been estimated that going to market based rates would cost 40-60,000 jobs in both Washington and Oregon in the next five years. That impact on jobs is huge to the economy and the increase in rates that we would suffer under this plan would definitely have an impact on the rural areas of our state." Rural electric cooperative members urged Congress to reject the proposed rate increase. Other major issues for rural electric cooperatives right now include supporting USDA's Rural Utility Service lending programs for electricity infrastructure, legislation to promote railroad competition, and renewable energy project funding for cooperatives. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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