Electric co-op leaders lobby for the rights of their members

Electric Cooperative Lobby Day took place April 10 in Springfield, where 80 cooperative leaders representing 29 Illinois distribution and generation and transmission cooperatives spoke with state senators and representatives at the State Capitol regarding proposed legislation that impacts rural Illinois residents.

"Electric cooperative leaders must engage with elected officials to advocate for co-op priorities, explain legislative impacts, and share our story," said Nick Reitz, vice president of government relations at the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives (AIEC), which coordinates the annual event. "Electric Cooperative Lobby Day is a key opportunity for co-op leaders to discuss the proposed legislation that threatens to eliminate local control of cooperative operations and raise rates, as well as force co-ops to implement unfair solar net-metering policies."

For example, House Bill 3779 and Senate Bill 2473 would take local control away from cooperatives, instead giving oversight authority of power generation resources to the Illinois Power Agency and rate-setting authority for distributed generation to the Illinois Commerce Commission. These bills would deny cooperatives the flexibility to plan for sustainability in the long-term future and ultimately increase consumer-members' rates.

Cooperative leaders also advocated for rural Illinois by opposing House Bill 3322, which forces electric cooperatives to implement one-size-fits-all solar net-metering policies, eliminating transparency, denying consumer-members a say and giving control to the Illinois Commerce Commission. Cooperatives and municipal utilities have put in place net-metering policies that ensure consumer-members who self-generate receive reasonable value for excess electricity, while at the same time keeping scales balanced for consumer-members who do not.

"Illinois electric co-ops serve more than 600,000 residents in the state," said Reitz. "As not-for-profit electric cooperatives, it's our duty to ensure fairness and maintain financial strength for co-op members across the state."