North Dakota Senator Introduces Energy Plan that Contains Incentives for Coops that Use Clean Energy
Posted on Jun 17, 2011
Senator Kent Conrad recently introduced the “Fueling U.S. Energy Leadership Act” or FUEL Act as a broad plan to address energy independence and to provide a means to improve the economy. Among other things, the Fuel Act contains incentives for rural electric coops that make use of various clean energy technologies. See Senator Conrad’s press release for more.
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Price Gouging Allegations Brought Against Railroads
Posted on Jun 16, 2011
A coal mining company has sued two railroad companies alleging anticompetitive practices that result in unjustifiably high shipping costs for coal. Coops have made similar charges in the past and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association supports proposed legislation that seeks to end the railroads’ safe harbor from traditional court challenges. Read more.
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Wildlife and Health Concerns Continue for Vermont Wind Project
Posted on Jun 16, 2011
Co-developers of the Lowell Mountain wind-power project, Green Mountain Power Corp. and Vermont Electric Cooperative, face a continued backlash regarding the project’s possible impact on wildlife habitat and human health. The developers want to create new wildlife habitats before the project begins operations, but opponents say such habitats must be in place before the start of construction. Neighboring towns argue that heightened noise levels associated with the project pose a public health concern. The Burlington Free Press has the story.
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Renewable Energy Rebates Lowered in Arizona
Posted on Jun 16, 2011
In May, the Arizona Corporation Commission approved Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative’s (SSVEC) 2011 renewable energy program. The plan will lower rebates available for residential renewable energy installations due to lower costs associated with the units and their installation. SSVEC hopes the reduced incentives will provide SSVEC staff time to catch up on a backlog of rebate requests. Click here for details.
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Report Shows Significant Coop Investment in Solar Power
Posted on Jun 15, 2011
A new report by the Solar Electric Power Association shows that coops are making impressive investments in solar energy in the United States. In the aggregate, coops increased their solar capacities by almost 690% in 2010. Electric Co-op Today has more details, and a link to the full report is here.
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Partial Win For Oglethorpe Power in Georgia Nuisance Case
Posted on Jun 14, 2011
The Georgia Supreme Court has partially ruled in favor of both parties in a nuisance case in which local residents sued Oglethorpe Power Corporation over noise from the Polk County Sewell Creek Energy Facility. The Georgia Supreme Court held that the “continuing nuisance” began in 2004, which allows the Polk County residents within the statute of limitation to sue the power company. The court also ruled that, if the noise from the peaking plant is a nuisance at all, it would be considered a “continuing nuisance,” meaning that the residents are limited to one...
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Florida Coop Gives Millions in Student Grants
Posted on Jun 14, 2011
Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative has given out $5.3 million in scholarship money in the past 15 years. The scholarship program began in 1996, when the Florida legislature overturned a law that required unclaimed capital credits to be forfeited to the state. In 1997, the coop began using its unclaimed capital credits to fund the WREC Educational Foundation, a program that it hopes will catch on with other coops. Click here for the story.
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New Hampshire Senator Seeks to Use Coop’s Efficiency Model Nationwide
Posted on Jun 13, 2011
During a recent discussion regarding her new energy efficiency bill, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) highlighted the innovative cost-saving efficiency program used by the New Hampshire Electric Co-Op. Through the coop’s SmartSTART program, customers can pay for their energy efficiency improvements through their utility bills. The coop has found that program participants have cut their electricity bills by about one-third on average. Click here for more.
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Alaska Coop Makes Progress On Tapping Alternative Power Source
Posted on Jun 13, 2011
Naknek Electric Association, which serves the Bristol Bay area in Southwest Alaska, has received some positive news about its geothermic drilling project. GeothermEx has assessed the coop’s first well and concluded the utility is on its way toward a geothermal project that could prove to be economically sensible. The well can produce geothermal fluid at a temperature of 190 degrees, and possibly as high as 235 degrees. At the lower temperature, the well could potentially provide a net generation of roughly 325 kilowatts from each 1,000 gallons per minute of fluid produced. Petroleum News has...
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Dairyland Power To Remove Nuclear Waste To Dry Casks
Posted on Jun 13, 2011
Dairyland Power Cooperative, an electric provider based in Wisconsin, will begin removing spent fuel from its Genoa nuclear plant later this spring. Dairyland plans to encase the waste in steel and concrete casks. Although it appears that the federal government has no immediate plans to take possession of the nuclear waste, the move to store it on site should cut by two thirds the coop’s cost to staff the plant and speed up the decommissioning process, which is expected to take another seven years and bring decommissioning costs to an estimated $79 million. The Vernon County Broadcaster has...
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Electric Coops Leading the Way in Modernization of the Nation’s Electric Grid
Posted on Jun 13, 2011
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined Administration officials on Monday to announce several initiatives aimed at modernizing the nation’s electric grid. The USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) is providing funding for several projects, and rural electric cooperatives are heavily involved in smart grid deployments. Last year, RUS approved $7.1 billion in loans for a wide range of rural electric grid modernization, including $152 million in loans for smart meters. A full list of rural utilities that were selected to receive USDA funding is included in the USDA’s press...
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Georgia Supreme Court Rules on Amendments to Cobb EMC’s Bylaws
Posted on Jun 13, 2011
On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the president and directors of the Cobb Electric Membership Corporation violated a settlement agreement with coop members by amending its bylaws to allow voting by proxy in 2008. The Court concluded that the challenged bylaw amendment allowed the board to unilaterally change the method of voting on the issue of the method of selecting directors, which was a core issue addressed by the settlement agreement. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the full story and the full opinion of the Court can be found here.
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Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative Hires New Data Management Company
Posted on Jun 10, 2011
The coop announced that it has chosen DataFlux to set up a coop-wide data management initiative. The goal of the initiative is to organize data in a way that improves the accuracy of the coop’s forecasting models. See BusinessWire for more.
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City of Great Falls Wins Round One in Litigation with Coop
Posted on Jun 10, 2011
In March of this year, the City of Great Falls brought suit against Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative seeking to invalidate its wholesale power contract with the coop. On June 8, a judge decided not to stop Great Falls from reducing the number of its customers and denied the coop’s request for new, court-appointed leadership of Great Falls’ electric company. The Billings Gazette is covering this story.
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