Dear Editor,
Our electric co-op, SDCEA {Sangre de Cristo Electric Association], must adjust its perspective to address the changing energy landscape or be left behind. But the rate restructure that SDCEA proposes is very similar to last year’s.
It still raises the fixed energy charge 45 percent, it still penalizes low energy users and renewable energy-generating members, and it still rewards those who use more energy. A new business model must be adopted that incentivizes energy conversation, treats local renewable energy generation as an asset instead of a liability, and lowers members’ rates. Other co-ops in our region are doing just that. SDCEA should follow their lead.
We need new leaders to make the changes necessary for SDCEA to negotiate the clean energy transition. Luckily, those leaders are ready and eager to join the SDCEA board. Jeff Fiedler, a Lake County Commissioner with 30 years of clean energy and climate policy experience, and Mark Boyle, a retired electrical engineer with 40 years of experience in the power generation industry and a local farmer, are forward thinkers with the background to help SDCEA move into the future.
Raising rates on low energy users and pitting rate classes against each other is still not the way to go, any more than it was last year. Please vote this May for Jeff Fiedler and Mark Boyle for the SDCEA board. They are the ones we need to help SDCEA embrace the future with resilient, reliable, clean electricity and lower electric rates.
Susan Greiner
Buena Vista
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