Who are we?

"Co-op conversations" is a network of individuals and groups focused on helping consumer-owned electric co-ops live up to their founding principles of member control and meet the energy needs of co-op members at an affordable cost (through clean energy solutions). We research and highlight opportunities and 'best practices' in co-op governance and energy and serve as a resource for those interested in advocating for them in their own co-ops.

Participants include members of co-ops (and their home-grown advocacy organizations), past present and prospective co-op board members, leading experts in energy efficiency and clean energy solutions, experts in the (legal and) financial management of consumer-owned electric cooperatives, and lawmakers at the state and national level. Co-op Conversations is open to all cooperative members interested in the twin goals of assuring open governance and in meeting present and future power needs through cost-effective, less-polluting forms of energy.

Our (short) history

Co-op Conversations USA is a tool within a very well stocked tool box that is building a national movement to bring progressive reform to electric cooperatives across the USA. The history behind this movement is relatively short but sweet, and like a lot of citizen lead efforts the very first action may never be officially known, but when I tell the story, I start in Texas.

A few years back, members of one of the largest co-ops in the country started asking questions of their co-op, Pedernales Electric Cooperative. It kind of started with Ric Sternberg wanting to put up solar panels, he started asking easy questions but the answers just made him need to ask more questions. And the more questions he asked, the more it became obvious something was not quite right.

In early 2009 other co-op conversations broke out in some strategic coverage areas. In Georgia, at the Cobb EMC (electric membership corporation) where members had been pushing back for a few years, the authorities actually had to break into co-op board members homes to seize hidden evidence.http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/05/coal-powered-corruption-in-georgia.html

In Michigan, coal was at the root of a member led effort to get financial disclosure of what the new plant would actually cost and the effect on future rates. Co-opConversations.org was the organizing force that activated a wide ranging public education campaign and effort to pass resolutions at the Cherryland Electric Cooperative’s annual meeting in the spring.

It seemed as though the questionable rush to build new coal plants got many co-op members up in arms in 2008-09, but there were also issues like an herbicide spraying policy in Arkansas that led neighbors of Shawn Porter to start asking for more respect from their own Carrol Electric Cooperative.

Many individual actions were happening independently. The opportunity to seize this energetic momentum and create a national cooperative coalition was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. We planned the first national conference on publicly owned power company reform in Washington D.C. in late July 2009. Over 50 co-op member activists, co-op board members, industry representatives, and grassroots organizers spent three days charting out the need and the strategy for a new organization to lead both municipally owned and member owned utilities toward more progressive policies and sustainable energy decisions.

This is where Co-opConversationsUSA got its start, the rest is history, please come and be part of it here on MyEnergyCoop.