Dear Editor:
Our local electric cooperative, Sangre de Cristo Electric Association (SDCEA), is a member of the regional cooperative Tri-State Generation and Transmission. Cooperatives are meant to be governed by their members, and as such, their practices should be transparent.
House Bill HB21-1131: Cooperative Electric Associations Governance Requirements- Transparency and Democracy has been introduced in the current Colorado Legislative session. This bill will help ensure that Tri-State Generation and Transmission operates with transparency and accountability to their members.
A nondisclosure agreement between SDCEA and Tri-State prohibits SDCEA from disclosing any information about their cost agreements. This makes it difficult for SDCEA members to work with our cooperative (co-op) on renewable energy projects. For example, our BV Solar Share group couldn’t set parameters for a community solar project because we were prohibited from knowing any cost information about the project.
Also, according to the Center For The New Energy Economy, rural cooperative representatives to Tri-State meetings must currently vote in the best interests of Tri-State, even if those interests are counter to their rural cooperative members’ needs. https://cnee.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Powering-Cooperatives-CNEE-Report-on-Colorado-Cooperatives-and-TriState.pdf (Pg. 10)
Provisions of HB21-1131 include:
- Eliminates an exemption to current transparency laws for electric co-ops with fewer than 25,000 members (small cooperatives like SDCEA are not required to disclose to their members how their rates are set)
- Makes current electric co-op governance and transparency laws applicable to Generation and Transmission companies (like Tri-State).
- Requires electric co-ops to post information about their rates and net metering requirements to their websites, and to make financial audits available to members on request.
- Requires a co-op to adopt written policies concerning the compensation of board members and disclosures of conflicts of interest for board members.
- Ensures that rural cooperative board members (SDCEA) are not required to give priority loyalty to their regional Generation and Transmission company (Tri-State) above their duty to their cooperative.
- Provides for co-ops to allow members to vote by secure electronic means.
This law should help assure that Tri-State serves the needs of our local electric co-op instead of the other way around so that SDCEA can be freer to pursue renewable energy and clean energy technologies locally.
Please write our state representative Ron Hanks at Ron.Hanks.house@state.co.us and ask him to support this bill.
Susan Greiner, Buena Vista
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