RIO GRANDE — Because of the critical issues facing electric cooperative consumers and rural Americans, the recent Buckeye Rural Electric Coop’s 2009 annual meeting set a record for attendance.

Held at Lyne Center of the University of Rio Grande, the business session focused on the threat to affordable and reliable electricity posed by efforts to pass a far-reaching climate change bill in this session of Congress.

“Government needs to strike a balance between keeping electric rates affordable and doing what’s right for the environment,” said Tonda Meadows, BREC’s executive vice president and general manager in describing the possible effects of a cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program on the cost of generating power with coal.

She said BREC has implemented many cost control and efficiency measures at the local level in response to the economic recession, but what happens in Congress can only be influenced by the voices of co-op members.

Meadows appealed to BREC members to use the Our Energy, Our Future (www.ourenergy.coop) campaign as a platform for dialogue with Ohio senators and representatives.

In her financial report, Meadows said the co-op took steps to reduce operating expenditures by $800,000 in 2008 but still completed projects important to improving service reliability, including clearing rights of way along 164 miles of distribution lines and spraying 600 miles.

"We must continue our vegetation management program to ensure improved service, especially during periods of severe weather," she explained. New standards for conductors also make the lines better able to withstand ice buildup during winter storms.

Meadows pointed to the completion of Pine Ridge substation as an example of the BREC Board of Trustees’ commitment to power quality and service.

“The Pine Ridge substation was energized in May of 2008 and reduced load on the Beaver substation by half,” she said.

Ken Keylor, vice president of statewide services for Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (OREC), reviewed the economic and political challenges faced by electric cooperatives.

“Everybody in America, everybody in this room, has been changed,” by the troubled economy in the past year, Keylor said. “It is now in vogue to be thrifty,” he added.

Electric co-ops, including BREC, are responding by examining their expenses, re-testing budget plans, and seeking new operating efficiencies.

“Still, rates are inching up due to a continuing onslaught of environmental regulations and higher costs for fuel,” he said.

Even in a period of cost containment, the opportunity to ensure additional base load generation capacity must be acted on to keep rates stable in the long run. This is what happened when Buckeye Power, Inc., the generation-and-transmission (G&T) cooperative supplying BREC and the state’s 24 other member-owned co-ops, completed the purchase of 200 megawatts of additional base load capacity from Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC).

“What this means is that while the rest of the country will be scrambling for base load electric supply in the next few years, we will have already secured our requirements,” said Keylor.

He warned that the “900-lb. gorilla” for all electric cooperatives and their members is climate change legislation. The 1,200-page Waxman-Markey bill that narrowly passed the U.S. House “takes direct aim at coal,” which fuels 90 percent of electricity generation in Ohio, according to Keylor.

“Early estimates show the annual cost of electricity” under a bill such as Waxman-Markey to be $300-$500 more for Ohio cooperative members, he added.

“Ohio’s electric cooperatives have lobbied that whatever energy and environmental policy our government settles on, it must be fair, affordable, and achievable,” Keylor said, “and it must have a safety valve feature so consumers don’t get hammered with unanticipated price spikes.”

Rural America must stand up for itself as the Senate takes up climate change legislation this fall.

“Demand that Washington ensures that secure and affordable energy is a central theme in our nation’s policy,” Keylor urged.

No BREC trustee elections were held this year. The business meeting was followed by drawings for door prizes, including freezers filled with pork, electric appliances, gift certificates, and merchandise donated by local businesses and vendors with whom the co-op does business.

The registration gift for members was a cast-iron skillet with the BREC logo. Children received backpacks filled with school supplies.