The National Rural Electric Cooperatives have launched a national grassroots campaign, 
"Our Energy, Our Future: A Dialogue with America." 
It has one purpose:  to encourage open discussion between electric co-op consumers and their elected officials
about the challenge of keeping electricity affordable and reliable while addressing the issue of climate change.

More than 2 million messages have been sent to elected officials since February 2008 asking them to work with electric cooperatives to keep energy affordable.  Indiana currently ranks in 7th place nationally with over 132,000 messages on the issue of affordable electricity. 

With the U.S. Senate poised to begin debate on climate change legislation, Bruce Graham, CEO of Indiana Statewide Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (ISA), Rick Coons, President and CEO of Wabash Valley Power, Steve Smith, President and CEO of Hoosier Energy, and Maureen Ferguson, Director of Government Relations for ISA delivered nearly 11,000 postcards from electric cooperative consumer-members to Indiana’s Senators on Capitol Hill during the last week of September.

Joining representatives from 25 other statewide associations, Indiana’s electric cooperative representatives urged Senators Lugar and Bayh to work with cooperatives to ensure climate change legislation is fair, affordable and achievable. 

“We want to make sure our members’ voices get heard,” said Graham.  “The thousands of cards are tangible evidence that cooperative consumers are paying attention and have real concerns about this legislation.”

“The response from cooperative members has been overwhelming,” said Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.  “Boxes on top of boxes on top of boxes of signed post-cards – that is what a genuine grassroots campaign looks like.”

The postcard campaign is part of Our Energy, Our Future™, a national grassroots effort by rural electric cooperatives to engage consumer-members in a conversation with elected officials about how we meet climate change goals while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. 

More than 400,000 postcards from across the United States, the first wave in an ongoing postcard campaign, were delivered to Senate offices last week.

You can still help out.  If have not receives the postcards in the mail or picked one up at your local co-op office, please visit www.ourenergy.coop to send an electronic letter to Senators Bayh and Lugar.  Please tell them that climate change legislation must be done in a way that protects you.

The legislation creates new government policy for energy use and production.  It charges you for the greenhouse gases emitted when electricity is produced.

Our Senators need to fight for a bill that is FAIR, AFFORDABLE and ACHIEVABLE.

You can make a difference!

Q.  What is the current status of climate change legislation?

Known officially as the American Clean Energy & Security Act of 2009 (ACES), the U.S. House approved HR 2454 on June 26 by a vote of 219-212.  The U.S. Senate is expected to begin deliberation of climate change legislation in September with mark-up beginning in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.  Senate debate will likely take place on a companion bill, rather than on HR 2454.

A.  We hear a lot about cap-and-trade.  Can you explain how this will work?

The "cap" is the cornerstone of the policy.  The cap is a limit established on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, vehicles and factories – essentially impacting all sectors of the economy.   Over time, the amount of permitted emissions is reduced.

Setting a cap for carbon emissions and lowering it over time will reduce CO2.   The required reduction in carbon emissions alone will result in higher costs.  It will require a switch from coal to low or zero emitting generation such as renewables, nuclear or coal with carbon sequestration.  All of those options are more expensive than our current resources.

The ripple effect of higher energy rates for business and industry will also mean higher manufacturing and production costs and increased cost for consumer goods.   According to a Heritage Foundation Study, eight of Indiana’s Congressional Districts are in the top 25 in the nation rated as having vulnerable manufacturing and related jobs if rates increase as projected.

The “trade” in cap and trade is a system to enable emission credits to be swapped between entities that need them in order to comply with the law.

• If an entity reduces its emissions enough that it has more allowances than it needs, it can profit by selling the extra allowances. This gives them the incentive to reduce below what's mandated by the cap.
• If an entity finds it expensive to reduce its emissions, it can buy more allowances from those with extra ones. It can choose the cheapest way to comply with the limits.

One of our primary concerns with the current bill is that the government has assigned allowances to some entities that don’t emit carbon, including the federal government, and created an auction program for emission allowances.   This is nothing more than an attempt to raise revenue for the government.  To add insult to injury, the government is trusting Wall Street to manage the trading…the very same folks they vilified this time last year for driving gasoline prices over $4 a gallon. 

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Check out the Indiana Partnership for Fair & Affordable Energy at www.FairPowerNow.org.  The Partnership is a coalition of not-for-profit energy providers and other organizations working to encourage policies that result in low-cost, reliable and environmentally-responsible electricity.