Congress Seeks Changes to Endangered Species Act
Posted on Feb 11, 2014 in Environmental, Legislative & Politics, Project Development | Comments Off on Congress Seeks Changes to Endangered Species Act
A congressional working group report that cites electric coops’ costly struggles to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) concludes the law is ripe for improvement. Specifically, some impediments of the ESA as described in the report include the ability of coops to site and maintain power lines. The report seeks to update and prioritize the ESA. For more information, click...
West Virginia Water Contamination Brings Company Safety Practices into Focus
Posted on Feb 6, 2014 in Environmental, Legislative & Politics, Litigation, Regulation & Policy, Reliability | Comments Off on West Virginia Water Contamination Brings Company Safety Practices into Focus
At least twenty putative class actions asserting claims of negligence, gross negligence and strict liability for ultra-hazardous activity have been filed naming Freedom Industries Inc., the company that owns the site responsible for leaking 7,500 gallons of coal-cleaning chemical into West Virginia’s Elk River. The region’s U.S. Attorney has also pledged to take action if federal...
Passage of New Farm Bill to Help Coops
Posted on Feb 6, 2014 in Legislative & Politics | Comments Off on Passage of New Farm Bill to Help Coops
Congress has recently approved the Agricultural Act of 2014 (Farm Bill), which President Obama is expected to sign into law. The $956 billion legislation is being hailed by electric cooperatives as a step forward for rural America. The Farm Bill includes several key beneficial items for rural electric cooperatives, including authorization of $75 million towards the Rural Energy...
Colorado Legislature Rejects Delay of Coop Renewables Mandate
Posted on Feb 3, 2014 in Environmental, Legislative & Politics, Rates, Regulation & Policy, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Colorado Legislature Rejects Delay of Coop Renewables Mandate
The Colorado legislature passed a bill in 2013 mandating that, by 2020, twenty percent of power generated by rural electric cooperatives come from renewable sources. Representative Kathleen Conti proposed a subsequent bill that would delay the mandate’s implementation until 2025, but Colorado’s House Transportation and Energy Committee voted 8-5 against Conti’s bill in January. Those...
Sioux City Looks to Settle Excessive Fee Claims
Posted on Feb 3, 2014 in Legislative & Politics, Litigation, Rates, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on Sioux City Looks to Settle Excessive Fee Claims
Residents in multiple Iowa cities have filed lawsuits claiming that franchise fees added to customers’ utility bills by those cities were excessive and amounted to an illegal tax. Despite the Iowa legislature’s subsequent passing of a law legalizing franchise taxes of up to 5 percent, many cities will be forced to settle the claims. Customers of Woodbury County Rural Electric...
Senate Passes Cooperative and Small Employer Charity Pension Flexibility Act
Posted on Jan 31, 2014 in Corporate Governance, Legislative & Politics, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on Senate Passes Cooperative and Small Employer Charity Pension Flexibility Act
The Cooperative and Small Employer Charity Pension Flexibility Act, which the U.S. Senate passed unanimously, exempts coops from regulation under the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The Act is now headed to the House of Representatives. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and interested coops have supported this legislation. See Electric Co-op Today for the full...
Coops Face Increased Costs with Stricter Haze Regulation
Posted on Jan 27, 2014 in Environmental, Legislative & Politics, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on Coops Face Increased Costs with Stricter Haze Regulation
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partially disapproved Wyoming’s plan to address haze pollution in the region, setting stricter limits on certain gases and particulate matter than the state plan had proposed. Participants in the Missouri Basin Power Project, including Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric), are grappling with the prospect of increased costs due to...
Mississippi Introduces Bill Requiring Payment of Revenues to Local Municipalities
Posted on Jan 22, 2014 in Legislative & Politics, Regulation & Policy, Reliability | Comments Off on Mississippi Introduces Bill Requiring Payment of Revenues to Local Municipalities
The Mississippi State Senate has introduced Senate Bill 2567, which would require electric cooperatives to pay a percentage of their gross revenues from sales to industrial customers to the municipality in which the customers are located. To read the text of this bill, click here.
Iowa Legislators Back Coops Revisiting Denial of FEMA Aid
Posted on Jan 14, 2014 in Legislative & Politics, Regulation & Policy, Reliability | Comments Off on Iowa Legislators Back Coops Revisiting Denial of FEMA Aid
After being denied aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following an April 2013 ice storm, several Iowa coops, as well as the State of Iowa itself, appealed the agency’s decision. The Iowa congressional delegation has asked that FEMA revisit the decision, which Chuck Grassley, U.S. Senator from Iowa, says resulted from an “abrupt change of policy.” Click here for...
Coop Sparks Ballot Fight Over Oregon RPS
Posted on Dec 26, 2013 in Legislative & Politics, Regulation & Policy, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Coop Sparks Ballot Fight Over Oregon RPS
Oregon’s Umatilla Electric Cooperative (Umatilla) is challenging the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS), hoping to revise the standards to allow hydropower to count towards meeting the requirements. Without this revision, the coop plans to add an initiative on the ballot that could gut the law. The challenge is raising debate about whether the coop is strong arming or...
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