"So far, the decade-long effort to create a workable, competitive market for electricity in the United States has been mostly a flop." That was the conclusion of the author of a recent article in a national publication.

As of the first of this month, Illinois residential consumers served by power companies have "choice" in their purchase of electric energy, meaning they are allowed to choose their electric energy supplier from competing providers. Consumer choice is an admirable concept, and competition is the cornerstone of other sectors of our economy, but I suspect May 1, 2002, may be for the electric industry in Illinois what January 1, 2000, (Y2k) was for the computer world — virtually a non-event.

Competitive supplier options for residential customers haven't materialized in the other deregulated states. More significantly, no new energy suppliers have shown any inclination whatsoever to compete for customers in rural areas served by electric cooperatives. In the early days of rural electrification in the 1930s, large power suppliers didn't believe they could make a profit by serving rural consumers. Today, it looks as though they haven't changed their minds.

The Illinois deregulation statute leaves the decision to enter the competitive market up to the individual electric cooperatives. So what are the electric cooperative leaders in Illinois doing? Well, they are doing precisely what we told members of the Illinois General Assembly in 1997 they would do. They are staying informed. They are monitoring and analyzing the situation. They are informing their fellow members at their annual meetings. They are working to assure that their cooperatives adapt to be ready for competition.

Some of the state's electric cooperatives have entered the competitive market. Others will follow. Some will continue to monitor the situation before making a decision.

This spring, several Illinois electric cooperatives held their annual meetings. At each of those meetings, the boards of directors and management reported to members on their studies of deregulation. Other cooperatives will conduct meetings in coming months. It is important that you attend, read your co-op's newsletters, and stay informed.

Cooperative leaders are committed to making decisions that are in the best interest of their members. They will not act in haste. Moving too quickly is one of the factors that contributed to the California deregulation fiasco. Illinois' legislators had the foresight to phase in deregulation, allowing electric providers to first open the market to commercial and industrial consumers. Members of the Illinois General Assembly also wisely understood that for cooperatives and municipal electric systems, decisions on deregulation should be made by locally elected leaders.

Deregulation will not change one critical fact. Reliable and affordable electricity will always be critical to the economic health and well-being of rural Illinois.

We all witnessed the news accounts of power shortages in California. My wife and I attended a meeting there last fall, and we stayed in a large hotel that had earlier been closed for seven weeks because of power shortages and sky-high electricity prices. Problems of this type haven't occurred in Illinois, and electric cooperatives are making every effort to make sure that they don't. Illinois co-ops are building new generating facilities, negotiating long-term power contracts, forming regional and national alliances with other cooperatives, adding peaking generation units, and exploring new alternatives such as fuel cells and microturbines.

Electric cooperatives follow seven basic principles all cooperatives follow: voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; members' economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community. That is the basis for a business plan that will stand the test of time.

I trust the directors of electric cooperatives. I know these men and women personally. They are cooperative members just like you, and they make decisions that are in the best interest of the members they serve.

Will deregulation be a flop in Illinois? Only time will tell. We should be grateful, however, that Illinois legislators enacted a deregulation law that is as reasonable, fair, and as forward thinking as any in the nation. They were right to trust local co-op leaders, who are local men and women, friends, neighbors — members just like you, people you can trust.

Earl Struck is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives.

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