Yes, there are politics in your electricity

Running our dairy farm took Dad's attention every day. I remember when a dairy price support proposal demonstrating an absolute lack of understanding of the business arrived from Washington D.C. He coined a phrase that I never forgot. They are "putting politics into my milk," he said. It sounded serious and, for us, it was.

As he did when an issue like this came up, Dad voiced his concerns to his elected representatives and in neighborly conversations. During our morning devotions, our family would get a sense of an issue's importance when he would lay it out and ask for wisdom for us and for our leaders. I learned that making one's voice heard was the best assurance that rules would be designed to help, rather than harm, our community and business.

Dena G. Stoner

Dad wanted to get action and hold those who write the rules accountable. There had been politics in Dad's milk for quite some time — just like there are politics in our water, roads, schools, environment, financial services and electricity. It never occurred to him that he was lobbying or doing anything so grand as participating in the American tradition of citizenship. In his mind on this particular occasion, he was just dealing with the politics in his milk.

Right now, the U.S. Congress and the Clinton Administration and many state governments are working to change the rules about how electricity is bought, sold and delivered. You have probably already heard code words and phrases such as "deregulating the electric industry," "electric competition" and "electric industry restructuring." Those are the names of the new politics that are going to be in our electricity. How the new rules are written will determine whether your electricity rates will go up, stay the same or go down.

Most of you know that Illinois has already passed electric utility restructuring legislation. Under Illinois' restructuring legislation, consumers of electric cooperatives will determine the terms and timetable under which they will enter the competitive marketplace. This will allow members of Illinois electric cooperatives to consider the impact of restructuring on sparsely-populated rural areas. Each electric cooperative will tailor its decision based on the particular needs of its member-owners. Your state now has a deregulation law that Illinois electric cooperative leaders think is fair for co-op members.

Co-op leaders also believe it is important to preserve the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) or to include comparable strong consumer protection provisions in any reform of PUHCA. Such consumer protections must be part of any deregulation law. This federal law has protected consumers from unfair business practices of multi-state utility holding companies for six decades. Recent mega-utility mergers highlight the need to preserve the consumer protection PUHCA provides.

Compared to such issues as medical care, Social Security or education, federal electricity policy is not at the top of most folks' topic list. So, I am concerned that changes will occur without people knowing what is happening. I am concerned that residential consumers everywhere and people in rural areas will get the short end of the stick.

Big special interests are spending millions of dollars to get the rules changed. There are dozens of proposals and arguments being made. Many are definitely not in your best interest.

To be blunt, some interest groups simply do not care how reliable your electric service is or how much you have to pay for it. Their goal is to cut their own costs and increase profits, even if that increases costs

Dena G. Stoner is the new Director of Government Relations for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. She previously worked for Smith Bucklin & Associates, the world's largest association management firm and was executive director of the Council for Educational Development and Research. Earlier in her career, Stoner worked as a legislative representative for NRECA and for the National School Boards Association and as a staff economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress.

4 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING MARCH 1999

for others. Those most vulnerable are residential users everywhere and those who live and do business in rural areas. The effects will be even more far-reaching than the deregulation of the airline, trucking, telephone and banking businesses during the past decade.

Unfortunately, this policy shift is occurring beyond the awareness of most citizens. Electricity is so much a part of our lives we take it for granted that it will be there. Like air. It is easy to forget that it is an unbelievably complex service to provide.

In this complexity it is often difficult to imagine what we can do. However, as a co-op member you can do something other utility customers can't. Your cooperative is member-owned and you have an elected board member representing you. He or she is a neighbor to whom you can talk. Let your board member know what you think about this issue.

At the national level we can ask policymakers to write rules that are fair to all electric cooperative consumers. We can speak up about rules and laws that will increase electricity bills or make service less reliable. The electric cooperative community is a mighty political force when lots of us talk to our policymakers.

Bring the issue up with your neighbors so they can help, too. Let your electric cooperative staff know that they can call on you to speak up about changes that could affect you, your family, your business and your electric cooperative.

It is time to start talking about the politics in your electricity.

6 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING • MARCH 1999